Children - Lesson 2: why do children draw? - solo drawing

Child

Hi. In this lesson, let’s learn about why you draw. Is it just to have fun, or is there more to it? Make some drawings that tell stories. At the end of the lesson, we asked some professional artists what they remember from drawing as children.

Adult/Teacher

Hello. This lesson is the first of a series of three that explores the circumstances around children’s drawings. First is solo drawing, and it provides some tips to help you help a child communicate more easily in their creative works.

Drawing and childhood are indivisible. Is there anything that captures the essence of your early life more evocatively than a drawing that has been loving safeguarded over many years by a parent? When you look at it decades after, you can almost recall what you were thinking, what it meant to you to make it. In this lesson, let’s approach the act of drawing as a developmental need rather than a merely diverting activity. Why do children draw?

Consider this statement by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “Childhood—what actually was it? What was it, this childhood? Is there any other way of asking about it except with this helpless question—what was it?: that burning, that being amazed, that incessant not-being-able-to-help-oneself, that sweet, that profound, that beaming feeling-of-tears-welling-up? What was it? . . . Art is childhood.” [1]

Still, the realities of art making for children today calls into question our current approach to children’s identities as creative individuals. In his 2012 book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer cites the responses of school children to this question, “Do you think you’re creative?” When asked, 95% of second graders respond, “Yes.” By fifth grade, the same question finds only 50% who say they are creative. And by the time a senior in high school graduates, how many self-identify as “creative”? Only 5%. It is the statistical realization of something Pablo Picasso is reported to have said, “Every child is born an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.” 

There are many ways to be creative, but all very young children draw. Why do so many stop as they age? Further, as the act of drawing serves a developmental purpose, how can adults nurture it more fully as their little ones get bigger?

The three worlds of children’s drawings

Why do children draw? Children draw to know their worlds. That is a profound concept. These worlds include: the world they see around them; the inner world of their feelings, memories, ideas, and desires; the world of values—good/bad, right/wrong, rules of society; and the world of their future. [2]

This processing and exploring and wondering and imagining are necessary, developmentally. That is certainly true of very young children who can draw before they can speak or write. And what about school-age children? Do they stop drawing because they come to fully understand the world and have no further need for the activity, or does a frustration with technical ability cause them to feel like they can’t draw anymore? If it is the latter, adults can help.

In their book, Teaching Children to Draw, Marjorie Wilson and Brent Wilson describe three reasons and places that children draw. They call them “drawing sites,” and they occur: 1) when children decide to draw on their own; 2) when children are given an assignment to draw in a group setting; and 3) when a child and an adult draw together as peers. Each of these three settings brings with it unique goals and ways of interacting. 

In this lesson and the two that follow, we focus on each of the three settings for children’s drawings. For this first lesson, we will study children deciding to draw on their own.

Drawing on their own doesn’t mean they draw in solitary, without adult support; rather that they are motivated by themselves to do it instead of having a teacher assign it in the classroom, to name one example. Adult involvement is crucial in early drawing development, and it remains important as children grow up. School-age children need encouragement and engagement. Praise their drawings. Ask questions about them. Work with them and prompt them to add complexity to their efforts. Listen to them explain what’s going on their drawings and applaud them. After gaining a level of confidence—not mastery, confidence—the next step for many children will be to add more narrative. Here are some ideas to help children tell stories with drawings.

• Paneled drawings. Very commonly, children’s drawings tell stories. They read storybooks and watch video stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Make believe, itself, is a narrative activity. But how can a story arc be captured in a single drawing? That’s a sophisticated challenge. Many children find that this frustration can be addressed by a series of drawings on a page using multiple panels. Like comic books, this provides a youngster a logical way to express the answer to this question, “What happens next?” Take a sheet of paper and divide it by folding or by drawing section windows. Then, simply say, “Tell me a story.” You might find that your child who has had a difficult time focusing on a drawing for very long discovers that in paneled drawings something can be accomplished over a period of hours and days, returning to it again and again to add to the emerging tale.

• Drawing challenges and games. An adult prompting a child to draw might say, “Let’s make a drawing,” but for a child, the next question is often, “What should I draw?” Make a game of it. Using questions—you are prompting, not assigning—spark a desire to draw rather than make an assignment to draw. For example, ask, “How many different kind of people can you draw?” Or ask, “Have you ever drawn a picture of something that couldn’t happen?” Perhaps something like these will get the child’s ideas going: “What if one of your toys came to life?” “What is your happiest memory?” “What would life be like on another planet?” “Can you draw a super hero?” “What is your favorite animal?” “Have you ever made a flip book?” “Can you invent a shape that doesn’t exist?” Whatever you choose to use as a prompt, follow it with questions and encouragement throughout the process of the child’s thinking, making, and showing.

• Manga, cartoons, comics, and pop culture. School-age children draw from their imaginations sometimes, but more often, it is connected to something they have seen: the drawings of their friends and siblings, book and comics they’ve read, a cartoon or a video they’ve watched, advertisements, and so on. Very frequently, source material for drawings is another visual work. You might think that giving a child a manga book might stifle creativity, but often the opposite happens. The child may take those characters and stories, recreate them, or add to them. Seeing the works might provide solutions to storytelling and pictorial issues that have frustrated your child. Furthermore, it is a kind of benchmarking to see an image and engage with it. And regarding technical modeling, using existing images can be a springboard toward a desire to draw better. Share a wide range of visual materials with the child and see what catches her attention. Particularly as they grow a little older, drawing something that their peers see as cool can motivate children to continue drawing.

[1]Rainer Maria Rilke, The Poet’s Guide to Life, edited by Ulrich Baer, Modern Library Edition, 2005, p. 67

[2] For Hans and Shulamith Kreitler’s theories on the four realities, see chapter 15, “Cognitive Orientation and Art,” in Psychology of the Arts, (Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1972, pp. 325-58) cited in Teaching Children to Drawby Marjorie Wilson and Brent Wilson.

Below is a gallery of drawings by brothers Hudson and Sawyer, who live in New York City.

What do you remember about drawing as a child? 

We asked some professional artists what they remembered about drawing as children. Here are their responses.

“I loved drawing as a child because it felt like my own world on a piece of paper where anything could happen. I remember drawing scribbled lines and turning them into characters. I remember drawing animals walking off the paper and venturing somewhere new. With just a pencil and a paper I could entertain myself for hours and felt like I held the world in my hands. — Caitlin Connolly, Provo, Utah, United States

“When I was three, my mom gave me a black lined journal with red triangles on the corners. At Family Home Evening, she would invite me to draw a picture and then she would ask me, ‘What is happening in this picture?” which she would write on the top of the page. I only did it a handful of times, but it gave me a sense that I could 'talk' in a new language that excited me. I could communicate more fully the feelings of my heart, things I couldn't put into words. It was then that I knew I was an artist.” — Annie Poon, New York, New York, United States

“Having a crayon in my hand and drawing with it has always brought me a great deal of joy.  That has been true as far back as I can remember (about age 5) and even before that, according to my mother. I have no idea why, except that I would get a lot of praise and encouragement for my efforts. For some mysterious reason, making a representation on paper of the world I saw around me has always been important to me, and it still is.“ — Walter Rane, New York, New York, United States

“My mother and father gave me the world when they handed me my first sketch book—pages full of bright, limitless possibility. As a young boy, I illustrated my imagination and documented my world. I realize now though that I was also developing a voice and exploring my identity in a safe, creative space.” — Colby Sanford, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

“I spent a large portion of my adolescent years growing up in the South Pacific. My father worked for a bank and he would bring ‘continuous form paper’ home for his children to draw on. The paper was roughly 11 x15 inches with perforated edges. The front sides of the paper were blank-white while the backsides had preprinted green bars. During the day my siblings and I would climb through the jungles and swim along the reef. At night we would take out our pens and pencils and confine ourselves to the continuous form office paper. It was a special time for me...because this was where I learned to draw. My older brothers, Terauno and Tion, were amazing draftsmen. Terauno, could sketch and gesture draw extremely fast. Tion, on the other hand was detail oriented, smooth, and methodical. As most kids their age, they learned to draw from cartoons, comic books, role-playing games, and movie posters...and I learned by watching them. After completing a drawing, we would proudly raise our paper from the table for approval. Our juvenile critiques would move from laughter to bewilderment, and high fives to fist fights. In time my brothers grew further apart from the drawings we did as kids. And although I carry on the drawing tradition I still regard them as my mentors.” — Fidalis Bueller, Mapleton, Utah, United States

“I was an artist growing up. I loved dinosaurs as a kid. I loved art. I thought I was going to be an artist. At the same time I also had early interactions with technology. And it defines in the end where I ended up. I was trying to think back how I got into animation, where I started. I found my first animation that I ever did, and it happened to be in the Book of Mormon [given to me when I was baptized]. I think I was about 8 or 9 when I did that” [created flipbook drawings in the margins]. — Emron Grover, Emeryville, California, United States 

“When I was in the grocery store with my mother, and very young, I begged her for a coloring book! My mother kindly refused. Instead she did something better. Every birthday I would get fresh white paper or oil pastels or pencils, or maybe a new watercolor set. They were gorgeous; like candy. When I turned 11 it was a red letter year… I got my first oil paints. I was blessed with a mother who let me learn and discover from a very young age.” — Linda Etherington, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States 

“My earliest memories of drawing are from second grade. I had a friend who also loved to draw and we would work as hard as we could to finish our classwork so we could go to the back of the classroom where our teacher would give us free reign of the art supplies. I was incredibly shy, and art gave me a way to communicate and build confidence. As I went through the remaining years of school and struggled with science and math, I would always find self-worth in the fact that I could create.” — Justin Wheatley, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States