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Supporting an artistic child
I've never really been much of an artist myself, but one of my kids (11m) really likes drawing, painting and making small animations on his ipad. I'd like to give him some gentle encouragement, if that's likely to help him enjoy creating artwork more, but I'm not sure what would be a good approach. Does anyone have some suggestions? He told me that he likes drawing objects and landscapes, but I think that's only because he's not confident in drawing live subjects.
Some ideas I had, but I'm not certain of:
- Sketchpad?
- Guide or drawing techniques book?
- Finding and recommending a good youtube channel?
If there's something that helped you at this time of life please let me know, thank you!
I loved writing as a kid but I didn't feel supported by my parents. I'd say the biggest thing isn't so much buying supplies and steering them towards experts, but more so supporting them with your time. Show an interest in what they're drawing. Sit with them when they draw. Talk to them about the process. Maybe try to draw some things yourself. Doesn't matter if you're good or not. Be there so they don't have to seek you out when they have questions. They'll probably let you know when they need upgraded gear.
You know this isn't something I had considered, so thanks for the advice. I do try to pay attention to what he shows me, but I'll see if I can show some more interest while he's in the process and try to join in a bit!
You say you're not much of an artist, but neither is my mom, and yet despite that, a major reason I got really into drawing as a kid was because she used to do Arts & Crafts with me and my sister. We also used to regularly play drawing games together like Pictionary. And one she made up herself was just drawing the alphabet, and then all of us taking turns having to turn them into something starting with the same letter (A into an Aadvark, B into a Boat, etc). Which is a game I now regularly play with my nephew whenever he comes over.
But as Mulligan said, IMO even just spending time with your kid while they draw, and showing interest in their work will likely make a huge difference.
p.s. Another suggestion, but one that will probably depend on the temperament of your kid: Being taken to various museums and art galleries was also a huge factor in why I became so interested in art (and history) at a young age. So if you have any in your area, you should see if your kid has any interest in going to them.
That's great, your mom sounds like a bit of a genius! I can be pretty terrible at coming up with creative ways to engage in this sort of thing, but I'll see if he likes some of these ideas. He likes playing gartic phone sometimes at least...I wonder if I can dig up pictonary from the games cupboard? I'm certain there must be some museums/galleries nearby too, I'll see what I can find.
Another thing to keep on your radar are art colleges. If there are any nearby. They can have all sorts of opportunities for you to visit.
All sorts of shows: undergraduate shows; MA shows; specific project shows; displays of material from their archives. Outreach programs to bring in people from the surrounding community or to go out to them. Short courses; night classes etc. Open house days. An awesome library that you may be able to request to visit, or visit during one of the shows.
The quality of work on display can be quite variable but it is mostly vibrant and youthful. So may have a good chance of inspiring your son.
Right, I'll have to see what's around, thanks for the tip. It might be a lot easier to get to than an art gallery or museum.
Most of the shows are around the end of the academic year. In the UK that's june /July. So there may not be much on for a while jist keep an eye on their news feed.
This is great advice. And the more care-takers in your child's life who can do this with them the more likely they are to develop these skills into something they use throughout their life. I have personally picked up one of those "adult" coloring books that they sell at stores like 5Below, so I can sit and passively color my book with the same colored pencils or crayons, and engage her with her own drawing or crafting. I have found that a lot of times if I draw the same thing as my kid, she will either start to follow along, or get distracted by the differences in our work, to the point where it can shut down fun of it for her. I do something slightly different to allow her more freedom to lead. It's also really meditative and great for stress relief.
I honestly wish I had practiced drawing more as a kid because I would be more likely to idly use it myself during my day to help me cope with anxiety.
I also enjoyed drawing as a kid; I think it's fine to mostly just let it be, he'll do his own thing :) Sometimes paying extra attention to a hobby can put pressure on it. If your son talks to you about his drawings that's great! If not, you can try asking and seeing if he's comfortable talking about it with you. (Try not to be offended if he isn't, it can happen esp. later on during the teen years, kids just need some privacy to explore their own ideas.)
You mentioned he likes objects and landscapes, do you know what kind? For example if he enjoys natural landscapes you can plan more family trips to parks or other places with nice landscapes, and no need to even mention that it's for him to draw. It'll just be nice to get real-life inspiration for subjects he's interested in.
P.S. You're already off to a great start by just wanting to support your kid's interests 🥹💕
Yeah - I don't want to put pressure on him, but you've got some good ideas there for subtle ways to give him some support/encouragement, if its something he's keen to keep pursuing.
I like that idea of visiting picturesque places! Australia is kind of the landscape equivalent of a rusty old truck, but there are still some places that can be amazing to see in person, I'll see if I can find any that are within daytrip distance.
I haven't been to Australia but I get the impression that it's very rich in biodiversity and full of amazing scenery!
Oh also, inspiration can come from very mundane things when you look a bit closer, for example:
Have fun! :)
I'm a creative person and my parents had... mixed reactions to my artistic interests. I do remember some of the things that worked and helped me feel supported:
Speaking respectfully and non-judgmentally about my art, even the things I felt were bad. They would say something like "well at least you practiced/learned something"
They never made me feel like I should be doing something other than art, (eg, asking "don't you want to go outside?"). Art was even ok to postpone dinner or homework over as long as those things happened eventually. It made the time spent feel valid and let me keep "the flow".
They encouraged me to try all sorts of creative and crafty mediums, and let me experience and experiment with other things aside from drawing.
Most importantly, they let me know what my options were for development or engagement. They would let me know if there was an art show or a class or a summer program available, describe it, and let me know it was something I could do if I wanted to. Then they let me choose whether to participate or not. They didn't pressure me, just expanded my horizons.
Then on the other hand they both heavily discouraged me from pursuing art professionally because neither of them thought it could be a "real job". After accumulating tens of thousands of dollars in unrelated schooling I did it anyway. So don't do that part.
Editing to add: if he likes landscapes, maybe consider watching Bob Ross with him and doing a "paint along", maybe even a party if he has a close friend or two who might be interested.
So, let's into that one a little bit. Frankly, I'm pretty much your parents, very supportive of growing the art while my child is young, but always telegraphing that this is a very tough and risky way to try to make a living professionally.
I'm fairly connected to several professional art communities, and it takes a rare combination of business-minded, networking, talented (sometimes), and just plain lucky for someone to make art into a living. For every one of those, there's at minimum 5-10 artists who aren't.
I encourage commission work, teach Photoshop, and praise/show interest in their art. But honestly, I don't know how to set my high schooler up for a long-term success in the future without discouraging them from making art into a living. Or, more realistically, settling for a different form of art that is more commercially viable than what they really want to do (e.g. advertising, marketing graphic design).
I'm four short years away from paying for college, and it feels like I would be out of my mind to let my kiddo specialize purely in art. I'm naturally drawn to say make it a double major so that you can get a real job when you can't get an art job.
Well, thank you for the compliment in that, as before I had some changes in my life I supported myself with my art as my sole income for ten years. I won't pretend I had money to spare but it paid the rent and put food in the pantry.
However, I don't think I'm all that special (even though it's nice to think so). I do understand what you're saying but there's a balance to be struck. It's one thing to make your child aware that the path they're headed down is a particularly challenging one, and another to hide it from view entirely and act like it's not even an option. There are many, many avenues available for creatives, but both my parents acted like it would be hopeless to try. I think they didn't put much thought into how many more ways there are to use aesthetic talents than just selling 2d representational artwork, though that certainly has its options too. Perhaps you start with painting or drawing but you can use that love of making things to do anything from UX design to fashion illustration to 3d modeling to wedding photography to interior design to custom jewelry to landscape planning to... you get the idea.
I think people get locked into this assumption that if someone draws or paints then that is the thing they will do for money, but a creative person wants to create. Sometimes drawing or painting is just the most convenient or accessible medium at that time. I would encourage any young person to try all sorts of ways to be creative, and make sure they had a flexible and open mind to the ways that can be expressed. There's a myriad of "real jobs" out there for people who specialize in art, and it isn't fair to artificially limit someone's options based on a narrow view of what that will look like.
You articulated this so well! When parents say discouraging things like "just do art as a hobby but get a real job", sometimes it's coming from a place of wanting to keep their children safe and they're just unable to communicate it more clearly, like:
"I see a lot of artists facing financial hardships. I'm worried that if you do art professionally you'll get into financial trouble at some point, and that may happen at a time when I'm no longer around or able to financially help you myself. I'd worry less about this if you picked a more conventionally stable profession such as being a doctor. I'm not against you making art, but I feel anxious about you relying on it for your livelihood."
As a full-time artist now, I've had my own ups and downs with my parents too while I was growing up and choosing this career path. And the above is just how I translate some of the things they've said :) I think I'm able to understand their feelings a bit more now because I've experienced that financial instability myself. That said, I honestly think that with the way the world is now (economy, politics, climate crisis...) even "conventionally stable" jobs might not be as stable anymore. So might as well pick a job that's personally satisfying in some way.
Thank you <3 I agree with what you said as well
This is probably the best way to put it. I won't pretend that most people will get rich through their art and it can be challenging. Also, I admit that there are some people who won't have the temperament to do art professionally, and that may be worth a different kind of conversation. If they're too afraid of criticism, can't keep up a regular pace of production or if depending on it for their livelihood takes the joy out of it, by all means keep it a hobby. Yet some people simply can't not make art, and a job that doesn't honor that or use that somehow can be torturous. It's good to recognize which camp you might be in before considering doing it for a career.
Exactly, though I suppose I'm old enough at this point that this didn't apply as much when I was young, it's something I would say now to anyone concerned about earning potential. If teachers and nurses are needing side hustles to pay the rent, there's no shame in an artist picking up some gigs on the side to get through slow points.
You used the expression "11m" to describe the age of your kid. Am I right to assume that means they're eleven months old? If so, how's it like raising a genius? :D
Haha, oops. In retrospect I'm not certain why I included the m (for male). In any case it probably should have been a capital. Oh well.
Lol, I had the same thought until I read the Ipad part. I think they mean 11 year old male, but I could be wrong.
As a new father I was genuinely questioning all my knowledge of infants since there's so much I am learning every single day, so why wouldn't 11 months draw landscapes on the iPad? :,P
to be fair 11 months is definitely old enough to want to use the iPad, my niece wants anything with a screen lol. Their art though... probably a bit more "abstract"
Are there any freehand or figure drawing classes at a community college or similar near you? I suppose it depends on the teacher/class, but you would be amazed at how much people can improve with some good guidance! It may even be worth talking to the art teacher at your kid's school. A good mentor can be a great thing for developing talent, especially in the long term.
Here are a few projects you can try to encourage their confidence in drawing figures:
Have them try drawing a portrait of someone, but upside down. When the image is upside down, you are forced to draw what you see rather that what you recognize (a face with features).
Similarly, you could take a portrait and divide it up into a grid and have them attempt re-drawing it on a large sheet of paper. They would just lightly draw the grid on the sheet with a soft pencil (6B) and use it as a guide. The idea is similar to #1: focusing on rendering what you see.
Lastly, you could show them abstract line-drawings of portraits and figures and have them attempt something similar. Matisse and Picasso have some famous ones. They are simple, but capture the form and gesture masterfully. Because they are just contour lines, you can "practice" figure drawing this way without dedicating yourself to a whole project. A bonus variation of this would be to draw figures with one continuous line...or scribbles!
I will caution that formal art classes are possibly going to be hit-and-miss, especially at this age. I loved to draw as a kid and constantly doodled up through middle school, but my school's art classes were extremely focused on realism and ironically did not leave a ton of room for creativity -- it was simple perspective exercises or attempting to draw a realistic portrait from a photograph. My doodles were childish, but there was a degree of unrealism that was deliberate even there -- I liked cartoon-y style with big eyes for a reason. I particularly remember chafing in the portrait drawing exercise, where the teacher insisted we draw the eyes in a certain proportional way that I did not think looked good (at least not at the level of skill I had at the time; I don't remember the details other than that I wanted to draw bigger eyes closer to the top of the face). While there's a place for learning technique in an art class, at this stage I absolutely hated both the process and the results. This absolutely KILLED my love for art class and that probably contributed a lot to me not drawing as much as I got older (I no longer really draw at all).
That is too bad! It sounds like you didn't have a very good teacher. I notice similar preoccupations in the art classes and academies where I live, and it is always puzzling to me. I think in general all education is hit-or-miss. I was quite fortunate to have great teachers (in public school in California), but my older brother, who is much more "naturally" talented than me, never had a good time. I always say that "learner discretion is advised" when it comes to schooling. Would things have been different for you if you were able to exercise some discretion and enjoy more autonomy in your schooling?
Hard to say for sure, but I do wager things would've been different if I'd had more autonomy.
These are some great ideas thank you!
He's in a weekly art class, which is fairly good - but it seems focused on introducing the students to lots of different types of art (e.g. pottery, splatter painting, clay sculpting etc). I don't think that's a bad thing, I just wish they also spent some time on deeper aspects I suppose.
I'll see if I can reach out to the art teacher at school too, they're pretty good at supporting the kids there so hopefully it'll be productive.
As a kid I was like this. I vividly remember visiting Greece one summer and spending a lot of time drawing different fortresses. I’d also take drawing stuff to the zoo and spent an hour at one single animal. It’s something that stands out in my memories of growing up.
What helped me, was having time to sit down and spent the time drawing without having the feeling I was holding anybody up. My grandparents would sit down next to me and open their own sketchpads and draw also. So if you manage to create opportunities to try out some outdoor drawing, I think your kid might appreciate it.
Material wise, get a simple small drawing book that’s easy to take with you. A pen, pencil or whatever, it doesn’t matter what’s around, anything is good enough to doodle and experiment with. I had a whole charcoal period which I enjoyed a lot, but that wouldn’t stop me from using all other types of material. Easy access is great to keep enjoying it.
Ooh, same situation here! Same age kid, been artistic since ... forever.
We enrolled them in an after school art class in the local community thing, costs a bit of money, but they spend 2-2.5 hours every week learning about new types of materials and techniques. I think this week's lesson is about clay pottery =)
Then we've always had a ton of crafting supplies, paints, watercolours etc. available at all times. No need to get the expensive stuff, just anything you can get from Ikea, Lidl, Aldi etc. "I'm bored" kinda went away and there's just an art factory pumping out all kinds of stuff if boredom hits.
The local PBS equivalent has a bunch of shows about crafting and arts, they've been really good. And of course the man, the legend: Bob Ross. Even if they can't understand the language, the technique is not that complicated and it teaches the way paintings are layered - you can and should paint on top of other things. Kids tend to draw stuff 2-dimensionally without any colour overlap.
Encourage any and all interests outside of drawing. Encourage journaling and visual journaling. Encourage weird experiments and reflection on thoughts and methods and the experiences that become the background of good work.
This is such great advice, honestly, for artists of all ages. Art needs "raw material" and that is none other than all the stuff that happens in life outside of art-making :) even "uneventful" days or "unremarkable" experiences can be great raw material when one pays closer attention.
That's not something I had considered, but you do need inspiration, and creativity, not just skill, I suppose.
Whatever you do, don't tell them they did something in a wrong or bad way. I loved to draw when I was a kid, but the adults in my life would straight up tell me they didn't like some of my favourite drawings. My mum had a very basic background in painting and she would criticise anything that wasn't a realistic drawing. At the time, I was reading manga and was drawing in a manga-ish style but wanted to develop a more realistic one, and these reactions were super discouraging.
What helped me when I was young:
What would also help me would be an offer of being enrolled into a drawing class or sent to a workshop for drawing.
Unfortunately, the criticism and general disinterest from my parents played a big role in why I stopped drawing in my late teens. I barely drew anything for the next 15 years and I'm only now getting back into it.
Lots of good advice thank you. I've seen a number of people warn against criticism, it wasn't something I was likely to do anyway but I'll keep it especially in mind.
You could offer to model for him while wearing silly clothes like a clown nose and wig.
Haha, I don't want to scare him away!
I had actually considered asking him to draw a portrait of me, but like I've said in other comments I don't want to put pressure on him in that way, I'd rather support what he wants to do, which at the moment isn't drawing people.
I'm not feeling like I have enough time to go into the usual depth that tildes deserves, but you did ask for channel recommendations, and I happen to follow Art for Kids Hub with my 6 year-old daughter. There's some great content on there for all skill levels, and there's often something that will intersect with a passion your child already has. This is guided by an artist who is much more skilled than I could ever hope to be, which is exactly what I want for my kid. It's also framed in a very positive light, with the professional leading an often less experienced kid who will do different things, so it helps us avoid the "perfectionism" and anxiety that my kid is personally prone to, without us having to disengage from art.
Don't be afraid to discuss something that you don't really like. Not just "I don't like that" but more "why did you do it this way and what would it be like to do it in a different way". Make it a way for him to articulate his process and not only will you learn about how his brain works, hell learn how to talk about his art. Or maybe ask him to make you another one with the changes you would like. You could also just ask him how you can support him. Whatever you do, thank you for being supportive.
Honestly, I have to disagree. Kids can be very self-conscious about things they made, and while I think it's great to discuss the process behind a drawing/creation, I wouldn't try to push them to make any changes. Once the kid is older, sure, but at 11, this is absolutely too early and more likely to put them off drawing.
I was super artistic as a kid! The best thing my mom ever did for me was being genuinely excited to see what I made. She didn't have to fake it (kids can tell). She loved all of my art and displayed it proudly.
On the supplies side of things, I coveted good pencils. Maybe look into some soft pastels and nice, thick sketching paper as well (I'd look for a spiral close sketchbook with tearable pages). As others suggested, a class could be really fun. Definitely let him take it as his own pace!
I am impressed by what he can do, so I hope that comes across when I say so!
Thanks for the materials advice, I'll see what I can find.
Please mark this as joke or noise. But I honestly clicked on the title because I thought you were looking for help to support and autistic child
Had to reread the title when I discovered that the responses were not about autism.
Haha, well the words aren't too far apart. I read recently that a lot of artists tend to be neurodiverse, which isn't what I expected! I'd expect most to be focused on science or tech or similar.
Yeah! I do art for a living but I felt like I couldn't contribute to the thread as my parents didn't really pay attention to me. So I was neither encouraged nor discouraged. I just did my own thing.
But in terms of plenty of artists being neurodiverse. That is interesting. A lot of people I know are neurodivergent. It makes sense since in order to get better at art skill wise, you kind of have to be very into it and spend a lot of hours alone just working on it.
It's not really the most social activity. It can be. But it's also great for people who can't socialise very well to find other ways to understand the world.