Drawings by children of 5 to 8 years old.We worked together to create the set up for this portrait drawing. First we choose an interesting corner of the studio with books, and bottles of paint on the background. Next the students set up the studio’s old arm chair and put and old trow over on it. Thirdly, children engaged on setting a small table next to the chair and used a piece of fabric to cover it. The final touch, was to place objects like a tea pot and a cup on the table to create an interesting setting. When the set up was finished, I sat with my dog Rosie, which children loved to draw.
Engaging children
This is a good way to engage the children on a creative activity as everybody can participate, working in small groups and taking different roles. It also gives the children the opportunity to make decisions, selecting and designing.
Before the children started drawing we talked about the focal point, the model. What was the model wearing, the colour of her hair and the style; the colour of the dog, what direction was the dog facing, what was behind the model, in the background: the bottles and the book shelves and what was on each side of the model, the table and more shelves.
The next step was to make the students familiar with the drawing techniques of charcoal sketching using light and thin lines to start drawing what they saw first, the model, then drawing the background, drawing the table on the side and the shelves on the other side.
The students drew on brown paper and used charcoal for line drawing/sketching and dry pastels in a limited number of colours such as brown, black, grey, white and red. When the drawings were finished I sprayed them with pastel fixative/hair spray.
This same procedure can be used for still life painting/drawing.
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Raquel Redmond
