Drawing is a great tool to communicate ideas, share thoughts and explore interests. Children need support to develop the skills required to create representations understood by others. Forming lines, adding texture, and using shapes are the basics of creating a drawing. Choosing the content is the easy part for children, they know what they want to draw, 'I'm drawing a spaceship' 'I'm drawing the sun'. The drawing part can become very frustrating for some children especially if they are trying to create a mirror of another's work. This is where we as educators need to step in and encourage children to create their own representations of the things they are interested in, use artworks to teach children the small parts that make up a drawing.. slowly build up the child's ability to form lines, use shapes and add texture.
Here we can see Aiken, Samantha and I pulling apart this drawing of 'Lizard Man' a villain. The use of shading and texture adds to the effect in this picture. The small slit like eye's identify the creature as reptilian and the spikes, horns and teeth lend themselves to the features of a villain.
As we discuss each feature of the drawing we 'practice drawing' the feature. I demonstrate how to draw a spike and verbalize my actions "up, down, up, down". By voicing my internal speech Aiken and Samantha are able to use their speech to guide their drawing and can be heard saying: "up, down, up, down" as they draw a zig-zag for the spikes.
Aiken and Samantha are intently examining the features of the drawing and are communicating their understanding of the image through their own drawings, they clearly demonstrated an understanding of how to draw a 'slit like eye' 'spikes' 'teeth' and 'muscles'. Each of these elements combined make up the whole creature. Once the children practice drawing these features they will have these skills to draw on in the future when they need to recreate/create a villain/lizard/monster.
Samantha's drawing: The orange pencil is Sam's and the lead is mine. I would demonstrate for Sam first and she would copy my movements. This scaffolded Sam's ability and ensured she could participate in the experience.
Aiken's drawing: I did not draw on Aiken's picture all the drawing you see is his own work. Aiken was very determined to practice each feature and was focused on watching my demonstrations. His interest in this content 'villains' increased his attention and resilience in completing this experience.
Later we created a whole group drawing. Each child was asked to draw a feature on the board after we discussed and examined that feature. The children slowly watched their villain take shape and are developing an understanding of how to draw, spikes, muscles, eyes and teeth.
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