Overall development

How to improve learning of art and design?

Art is one of the fundamental building blocks of human culture; every culture that has ever existed has its own unique art forms that they leave behind for future generations.

Art and design are vital skills for becoming visual communicators at home, at school, and at work. Both art and design share the same knowledge base to create artwork or design products. Art asks questions, while design answers them.

Anyone can learn to draw and paint! Drawing and painting is all about looking carefully at things and seeing the relationships between their lines, shapes, forms, colours, tones and texture.

Observing and drawing

Like anything worth learning, the skills of careful observation and eye-hand coordination improve with practice! It is imperative to help children understand that the more they look at the subject matter, the better they would be able to draw.

There is no such thing that one cannot draw, and just about anyone can learn drawing at any age. When children, or for that matter anyone, are taught to make proper observation-drawings, they develop drawing skills.

Copying or imitation is a powerful instinct in all children. It is a good instinct for many things, but it runs counter to creativity. Children also have other good instincts such as imagination and curiosity. We need to encourage less imitation, and instead work to nourish the instincts of imagination, curiosity.

However, copying and imitation has a place in learning art. For developing observation and drawing skills one has to learn to “see like an artist”. By copying a series of designs from the simple to the complex, children begin to notice visual details and relationships that they otherwise took for granted. In the process, they also learn to look more observantly at the world around them.

Very young children and art education

Children learn art and drawing by using thick crayons. First they learn to make outlines, then they slowly learn to fill their drawings with single colours, and then move on to shading and using multiple colours and other media. In the early years, it is best if children do not use pencils and erasers, as thin pencil leads encourage small drawings.

Using thick oil pastels and/or markers allows children to move quickly and make bigger/expansive drawings; commit to the drawing and forgive their “mistakes” (it cannot be rubbed off). The important part about art is to give in to the process and not worry about the details. Display of self-created art work builds pride and self-esteem in children.

Fostering creativity in art and design

Children are naturally inquisitive and have a great capacity for imagination, creativity, and fantasy – all integral elements of play. They are curious and innovative thinkers. Young children explore, ask questions and are unafraid of being judged by others. These qualities have to be nurtured to fruition at adulthood, regardless of the chosen profession.

Howard Gardner believes that each child, by the age of 7, develops a capital of creativity, upon which they subsequently draw throughout their adult lives, although this well of creativity can be topped up throughout life. The richer the initial capital, the more easily creativity flows.


Allow children to be creative in their art and design projects. Do not pull them down through adult perceptions and expectations. If the sun appears green in the art work, so be it. Roger Von Oech, an expert in creativity believes the roles of ‘explorer,’ ‘artist,’ ‘judge’ and ‘warrior’ are required in order to be creative. We as parents and educators need to allow each of these roles thrive within each child so that the child could find her own balance between the ‘explorer’, ‘artist, judge’ and ‘warrior’ roles. Creativity requires flexibility. Expect the unexpected.

‘Creativity is the process of developing ideas that are original and of value. Creative intelligence is dynamic, diverse and distinct.’

— Sir Ken Robinson

Homework in art and design

Visiting art galleries and exhibitions is visual education as well as an inspiration for children. As part of ‘homework’ do take children out to visit art exhibitions and galleries. Expose them to different artists and styles of paintings – surrealism, cubism etc., the ‘eastern’ styles such as Chinese and Japanese, and various Indian styles of painting (Madhubani, Tanjavore, Rajasthani, tribal etc.). Sculptures, interesting monuments, buildings, installations and anything to do with art and design could assist them to find their own interest.

Checking for progress in art and design

In order to evaluate progress, there must be an established reference point, for comparison. Save your child’s untutored drawings. An untutored drawing from memory (before receiving instruction) of a human, a house, a tree and a vehicle while in Class III, can serve the purpose of being a reference point. Most people carry the memory of impressions from kindergarten, if no one teaches them to think differently. Save drawings in a folder in order to keep a record of your child’s growth in art and drawing. Periodically, look back to check progress.

Point out and affirm progress to the child. Talking to children on their drawings and giving ‘feedback’ is a tricky issue and parents and teachers must be very measured and must appear very much friend-like and undertake child-like meandering talk to convey their point of view. What is important here is that the child must have his/her own definite story/logic/imagination/thinking/design behind whatever is drawn and no judgement should be made on the same. In fact, the thinking behind drawing should be the significant context of conversation on drawing and ‘newer techniques’ may just be shared without any expectation of use by the child.

Following is a list of outcomes one can expect amongt children in junior classes:

Some skills in drawing

  1. Drawing a straight horizontal line
  2. Drawing a straight vertical line
  3. Drawing a straight diagonal line
  4. Freehand wavy lines
  5. Drawing a free hand circle
  6. Copying simple to complex patterns and doing it faster and even faster and later without looking at it again
  7. Observing still-life objects and drawing it
  8. Basic understanding of line, shape and colour by studying leaves, petals, stones, etc. of different shapes and sizes
  9. A basic sense of balance in composition of art work

Design skill

  1. Design greeting cards for different occasions with appropriate motifs
  2. Making repeated patterns
  3. Use play dough to make simple 3-D objects like fruits, and animals
  4. Stringing beads to make designs and art objects. Making designs using shapes, numbers and alphabets
  5. Using different medium – clay, sand, chalk, soap, paper, papier- mâché, etc. to create artwork and objects
  6. Working on projects, such as designing a pencil holder based on a theme

Progress to expect by the time children reach Class 8

Skill in drawing and art

  1. A good understanding of line, shape, form, colour, tones and texture
  2. Drawing parallel lines (straight and wavy)
  3. Drawing up to ten concentric circles inside one 5 cm diameter circle
  4. Drawing a spiral
  5. Shading with a pencil using parallel lines (hatching), cross hatching, smudging, stippling
  1. Studying light, shadow and reflected light – converting circle into sphere, converting parallel lines into a cylinder
  2. Understanding perspectives and sizes
  1. Understanding perspectives and colour
  1. One point, two point and three point perspective study
  1. Drawing complex still life compositions with light and shadow effect so as to create depth
  2. Drawing and making art work after studying nature. Drawing outside is known as “Plein Air” drawing
  3. Drawing details that make up a tree, shrub or flower
  4. Drawings using grid

Design skills

  1. Making pattern
  2. Using repeated patterns
  3. Studying typography, and designing own fonts
  4. Studying calligraphy
  5. Studying colour wheel
  6. Understanding different harmonies and colour combinations
  7. Understand proportion – make a simple cartoon on different sizes of paper
  8. Studying simple icons used in web, creating their own icons
  9. Understanding the design process, and using it to design a poster
  10. Problem solving – making scribble picture using three colours (scribble a drawing and fill in the three colours in the spaces such that the same colour does not share a common ‘wall’)

Ninth grade onwards, tutoring should be professional, based on interests and abilities of the child.
Source:
Deconstructing Creativity: The 4 Roles You Need to Play to be Fully Creative
https://litemind.com/creativity-roles/
‘1, 2, & 3 Point LinearPerspective
‘http://www.watercolorpainting.com/perspective_1_2_3_point.htm
Kinderart.com http://www.kinderart.com/drawing/scribble.shtml

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *