Raising Young Artists (continued)
Many teachers and artists recommend a different reaction from parents. Showing you like the piece with your smile and attentiveness is one thing. But our words need to focus on something else. Here are some suggestions:
-
“Tell me about this!” (This is so much nicer than “What is it?”)
-
“You used lots of purple on this page.”
-
“I see that you worked very hard on this.”
-
“Was this difficult to make?”
-
“What’s your favorite part?”
The bottom line is that parents need to remember the basic difference between arts and crafts. Art is spontaneous. Craft follows steps to produce a specific outcome. Art encourages creativity. Crafts are good ways to practice following directions.
So to encourage young artists in your house, gather the supplies, give no directions, let them create, and stand back to be amazed.
- 1
-
2
Take Action
- this article with friends and family.
- Have a question about Art? Ask it here.
- Publish your work on education.com.
Comments from readers
I put pencils in my children's hands at age 18 months and have a whole book of their drawings. We called it "the special book" - as I had literally made it in a bookbinding class in my youth with marbled paper on the cover. We discussed incidentally how to do marbling and did a couple. They felt it a privilege to draw in "the special book" and took great care to do what they believed was special (to them): my daughter her cat, observations of her Dad drinking beer next to the BBQ, pretty little girls. My son: basketball players, mostly Michael Jordan, "He-man", Ninja turtles, my son in particular was gifted very young with remarkable pencil shading skills (self-taught and prolific) with numerous portraits of his favorite basketball players. Where did his talent come from? His skill in observation far beyond most 6 year olds. He would just draw and draw, because in his mind's eye he visualised it all.
You don't even have to ask the child what it is, most of their drawings are so close to their heart, they will want to tell you spontaneously. I never gave my children instruction on how to draw even though am a graphic designer. It actually never even occurred to me to tell them how - and they never asked. They are both gifted artists, my son now in multi-media and my daughter has tertiary qualifications in Visual Art.