Anyone Have A Child Who Can Not...

[CamColt]

...Draw to save their life?

I am not an artist in the least, but DS has no artistic ability at all. He has an assignment to enter a contest by drawing a picture of a Dr Suess character. I couldnt even deal with him doing it. I did the rest of his homework with him and left this for DH to help him with. Now I can hear DH is ready to lose it while they are working on it. He is getting nothing that remotely resembles the picture he is trying to draw.

So does anyone else have this problem with thier kids and how do you deal with it? DS is only in 1st grade so Im guessing we have a long road ahead of us.

 

[DoeWDW]

My DS 16 cannot draw - no artistic ability. His sister DD 14 got ALL the artistic ability. He has great ideas, though, so when he has an assignment that calls for art work, he tells her his idea and then she draws it for him. I have no problem with this since I think it is unfair for him to get a lower grade just because he cannot draw.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I am one who has NO artistic ablility. My Mom seems to think I could if I tried harder since there are artists in the family. My drawings were pretty much stick figures. I don't think I would worry too much over a drawing, but that is JMO.

 

[Schmeck]

My youngest (age 10) has a palsy in one eye, and doesn't have a great sense of depth perception. She's also farsighted, and wears reading glasses. Her elementary school art teacher actually grades their art work on a scale of 1 to 4!?!

My daughter was so discouraged for such a long time about her scores of 2, with one 3 at the end of last year. She now hates art (even though we've had a lot of good discussions about the situation) which is such a shame, since her paternal grandparents are artists.

I've discussed the issue with her teachers, but have yet to approach the principal - he's next on my list

Schmeck

 

[msteddom]

I have no artisic ability at all, and it has been a source of frustration for me my whole life. My mother, a great artist, always helped me with my art based assignments in school.


Melissa

 

[Snowysmom]

I can relate since I have absolutely no artistic talent. In elementary school the art teacher would come around to see what everyone was drawing and she would just pass me by. Both DS's are good at biological drawings but not so great at art work. They are talented in other areas so we encourage that.

 

[cgcw]

My older DS is just like me....can't draw at all. Even our stick people look pretty sad.

I have an idea. Would it help to try and trace a picture. Sometimes if you find a picture which is thinner, putting a light behind it/under it, might just provide a reflection which he can trace.

Good luck. I can relate to the frustration.

 

[Growin'upDisney]

I cannot draw worth a darn but in high school we had to take an art class. The assignment was to take a picture and we then marked off 1 inch squares by drawing lines with a ruler right accross the picture. (Think tic-Tac-Toe in one inch squares) Then square by square draw/shade onto a large piece of paper that had say 2 or 3 inch blocks marked off in pencil.. It turned out great and I got the only A I even received in art. So maybe you can try this. One block at a time. It's less like drawing the whole picture.

 

[chager]

Honestly I would just let him draw the picture to the best of his ability. I'm sure there will be other drawings that will not be remotely close to the subject too. I've seen 1st graders drawings and even though they all were to draw the same thing, they were all very different. If I remember right they were drawing a mountain scene by looking at a postcard. The idea was to copy the picture from the card. Well a few did fairly well. They drew the mountains with the snow at the top and some green at the bottom just like the picture. Then there was one with a spaceship added to it and another one that was basically a bunch of scribbling. There were one that had purple snow and blue grass. I always tell the kids that the most important thing is they do their best. (Of course I am great at stick people not much else )

 

[CamColt]

Thanks for all the advice! Those are good techniques for next time.
I finally went and searched for Dr Suess' books, to find an easier one to draw. He ended up doing the fish from 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. It was much easier than the Cat In The Hat or the Grinch. Dr Suess characters are pretty funny looking anyway

Heres a funny story for the other artistically challenged people. DS isnt really good at coloring either. He never liked to do it, even as a toddler. HIs classroom teacher always comments on his papers to color neatly, dont scribble, etc... We recently went to a parent/teacher meeting and she was telling us that the art teacher had given every kid an S+, including him! She saw this and changed it to an S. I cant imagine what I would have done if I opened his report card and saw an S+ in art!

 

[mickeyboat]

DD3 and DD4 entered a coloring contest at our local Staples store. They were in the ages 1-6 category. DD4 colored her cat and pumpkin all one color - purple. She did a good job staying in the lines. DD3 colored her picture brown and red - scribbling the whole thing in about 30 seconds. I was embarassed when we dropped them off at the store and saw the other entries - meticulous and beautiful - and orange and black like pumpkins and cats are supposed to be.

The people at Staples must have felt sorry for my kids' poor artistic ability - because we got a call several days later saying they had won! I could hardly believe it.

Denae

 

[browneyes]

My mom's youngest child can't draw. My kids draw much better than I ever could. I don't have the patience to draw stuff.

 

[Cindy B]

Honestly, I would let him do his homework himself. These contests are usually graded by age level, so judges will know what is developmentally appropriate for that age group.

As an almost teacher working in a school setting, I have learned quickly how to tell if a report/homework is done by a family member (ie reports, etc, typing of said reports, research, drawings) and not by the student.

Its more appropriate to let him do it on his own, andbe happy with the result. I know at my childrens school, they grade mostly on effort, and interpretation instead of "perfect" drawing. At the middle school where I work, it is the same concept.

 

[Lisa F]

I have moderate artistic abilities (better than someone who can't draw at all but can't hold a candle to people I consider to be truly talented), but learned to draw the "proper" way from an architect who swears she has no natural artistic abilities at all. In fact, she took a beginning drawing class in college 3 times before she could get a passing grade. She was a leftie growing up in a time when lefties were discouraged from being lefties. Now she draws like an angel and she swears that it's just practice. I would be inclined to agree with her since I know when I have been drawing for a while, my drawings are about 100x better than when I haven't drawn in a while.

There are a couple of other things that you can do to help with learning to draw. The first thing is, do exercises that help you draw what you see and not what you THINK you see. A LOT of people make this mistake and unless you are very well practiced or naturally very talented, drawing what you think you see always comes out weird. One way to give up the preconceived notions of what things look like is to draw them upside down, this way you are forced to look at the lines and draw what you see there line for line. If it is right side up it can be tricky to convince yourself to not draw what you think it should look like. The "gridding" method is another way, because you break down the image you are drawing into little pieces that you can see as lines rather than just trying to draw the whole image.

With practice and a few pointers on technique as well as some of the drills that are taught in drawing classes (i mean classes that teach drawing, not just a generic art class) pretty much anyone can draw reasonably well. DH, who still writes like an 8 year old and who claims he can't even draw a straight line was proven WRONG when the person I mentioned above showed him the "right way" to draw a straight line. Basically the trick is to
put the pencil down on the paper and focus on where you are
going, not on the line that you are drawing. You'd be amazed
how straight (probably not perfectly, but not bad) the line is when you do that vs. following the pencil point with your eyes.

Whether you actually care enough to put the time into it is another thing! But, like most things, it comes really easy for some and is very difficult for others, but there are tricks and techniques that can help if you're not one of the naturally gifted. I suspect for a first grader the difficulty might be compounded by the fact that eye hand coordination is still developing.

 

[snoopy]

Well I happen to know quite a bit about this subject, having taught art to young children for a couple of years.

Its very important, regardless of whether your child is naturally artistically inclined or not, to let them "free" draw. By that I mean you should allow them to draw and paint any way they'd like. You want to be very careful not to undermine his confidence, but also be careful to be honest with your praise. Encourage him to examine his subject thoroughly, and discuss its particular characteristics.

There are several good books out there on learning to draw. My oldest is naturally artistic, but my younger one is not. He enjoys learning to draw action figures so we got him Learn to Draw Yu-Gi-Oh, which he loves. You also might want to read How to Draw What You See, and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Both are excellent for people wanting to learn to draw.

 

[doxdogy]

I have no artistic abilities. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. Now my brother and sister both have artistic ability.

 

[CamColt]

Some more great advice, thanks again!

Originally posted by Cindy B
Honestly, I would let him do his homework himself. These contests are usually graded by age level, so judges will know what is developmentally appropriate for that age group.

As an almost teacher working in a school setting, I have learned quickly how to tell if a report/homework is done by a family member (ie reports, etc, typing of said reports, research, drawings) and not by the student.

He definitely does his homework by himself. I would never write or draw anything on a paper to be passed in or give him the answers. If he has trouble with something I will try to lead him in the right direction(ie finding pictures of different characters for him to try to draw). However in our school parents are strongly encouraged to help as much as possible with homework, correct it, and be sure that it is presentable.
And trust me...his first pictures were not at all appropriate for his age.

 

[dturner]

Originally posted by snoopy
Well I happen to know quite a bit about this subject, having taught art to young children for a couple of years.

Its very important, regardless of whether your child is naturally artistically inclined or not, to let them "free" draw. By that I mean you should allow them to draw and paint any way they'd like. You want to be very careful not to undermine his confidence, but also be careful to be honest with your praise. Encourage him to examine his subject thoroughly, and discuss its particular characteristics.

There are several good books out there on learning to draw. My oldest is naturally artistic, but my younger one is not. He enjoys learning to draw action figures so we got him Learn to Draw Yu-Gi-Oh, which he loves. You also might want to read How to Draw What You See, and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Both are excellent for people wanting to learn to draw.

I get the Learn to Draw books for my DS (7) who just loves to draw, his artistic ability is not too good (I can't draw anything including a stick figure) but I encourage him all the time because he loves to draw. He makes comic books, draws all the Star Wars people (I can only recognize the light sabers but hey, he's only 7 and he's TRYING.)

 

[sandramaac]

My kids cannot draw at all---my solution after some careful thought

I purchased a small light table from the craft store, and now when they need to draw something, I simply print out clip art, they put it on the light table and trace over it

 

[J. Galt]

Maybe your kid is actually an artistic genius. Look at modern art... usually looks nothing like the subject intended. I bet Picasso got a few F's in art class

Who wants all orange and black pumpkins in the world. Its the red scribbly ones that make life interesting.

I like Snoopy's advice the best.