Make a World

 I recently came across this book while browsing around the web.  Apparently, although I'd never come across it before, it's something of a classic, and was first published in 1972.  It is one of a whole series of similar style books by the author Ed Emberley, all with different themes.  It seems that this book in particular was quite influential, and helped shaped the visual culture of an entire generation of artists and designers.

The book covers a vast amount of subject matter in its 32 pages, and 400 illustrations, and the completely visual instructions are well suited to children whose reading skills may not yet be that strong.  The whole style of the book I thought might appeal to my son, who sometimes gets frustrated at not being able to draw something to his satisfaction, (he's a terrible perfectionist) and the book absorbed him completely for some time - he was very pleased with the results which it enabled him to obtain, quite easily, and of course the idea is that you can put all these individual drawings together to make your own 'World'.

I am not always a fan of very prescriptive art books, which show you a particular 'how to' technique and nothing else, but I think books like this one can provide a good springboard or stepping stone for the developing young artist.  After all, it's often said that many children eventually abandon art because they get frustrated when they find themselves unable to draw what they want to, and if a book like this helps them get over that hurdle for a while, that can only be a good thing.  There is also plenty of potential for creativity in putting together the individual drawing elements to create individual scenes or stories, and I suspect as time went on, those individual elements would be adapted and personalised.

All in all, I can thoroughly recommend this book.  If you fancy trying it for yourself, you can get it here. Alternatively, you can get a taste of drawing the Ed Emberley way, by creating your own dinosaur/dragon following the instructions below:


To Create your own Dinosaur/Dragon:

Start with a dinosaur....

 To turn your dinosaur into a dragon.....

You may also be interested in visiting Ed Emberley's own website which has more art activities and resources related to his books.

Artful Kids Competition - win a unique piece of personalised artwork

I have just launched my first competition for Artful Kids, in association with Raring to Go magazine. To take part I am inviting readers of the magazine, and of Artful Adventures, to submit a photo of their children's artwork, which will be turned into a unique, and personalised piece of contemporary canvas wall-art measuring at least 30x30cms and worth a minimum of £85.

This is just one of the options I currently offer at Artful Kids, but it is the most creatively satisfying and challenging for me, as the child's artwork is transformed into something new, while retaining the distinctive feel and integrity of the original.  Every piece is unique, as the approach taken is very much dictated by what the original work inspires.  You can see a few 'before and after' photos here which give you some idea of the wide variety of styles this can result in.  A digital proof is always supplied before production goes ahead, to ensure that the customer is happy with the finished result.

To enter, you need to submit a photograph of your child's artwork, by posting it on your blog and adding your link below. Alternatively you can send your image as a Jpeg to: info@artful-kids.co.uk.  The closing date for all entries is 30th April, and the winning piece of artwork will be selected the following week.

Best of luck!

March Featured Artist

This month's Featured Artist has been contributed by Mollimoo, and is by her daughter, aged 3.  The intriguing title of this one is 'Me riding an Elephant Snake!' I think it's quite accomplished for a 3 year old.

The monthly Featured Artist is selected from images uploaded to the Artful Kids Flickr Group.
If anyone has any masterpieces (drawings and paintings) created by children under 12 that they would like to contribute to the group, your contributions would be very welcome.

Are you adding a note or a person?

What does your Child's Artwork reveal?

Children's drawings, doodles and sketches have been the subject of study now for over a hundred years, and new theories and ideas about what they mean, how they develop, and how they can be used both educationally and therapeutically, are arising all the time. This week, I'm going to look at whether children's drawings, especially younger children, can give any psychological insights into their character and thinking.  There is a school of thought that believes that children's scribbles and doodles are in fact deeply revealing of intelligence, personality and emotional state, in the same way graphologists believe that handwriting is for adults.  Analysts will look at how the drawing sits on the page, the character of the mark making (for example whether it is bold or light) the colours used, and whether or not it fills the page.

There are, perhaps unsurprisingly, perceived to be some differences between how and what girls and boys will draw.  For example, the theory is that over the age of about 4 or 5, rounded shapes will usually be doodled by girls (including flowers, hearts etc.) while angles, boxes, straighter lines etc. are more characteristic of boys, along with typical subject matter of methods of transport.  There is a tendency also in general terms for children to prefer to draw their own gender.  Apparently there is some evidence for girls' preferences for horizontal baselines and symmetrical compositions, and some researchers have reported that girls tend to use more colours per drawing than boys do, with a preference for warmer colours (i.e. pink) and that boys demonstrate a preference towards cooler colours (i.e. blue).

The choice of colour apparently can be significant.  Black and purple suggest dominance, (black in particular often being associated with negative feelings) and can be favoured by a child who is relatively demanding.  Blue is popular with children who have a caring nature and enjoy company.  Red is the colour of excitement, may be used especially by children to don't want to miss out on anything, and is one of the most popular colours for children to use. Pink shows a need for love and appreciation and is favoured by girls, and green is the colour of those who like to be different, like space, and are artistic and intelligent.  Yellow also demonstrates intelligence and a sunny nature.  Early research seemed to suggest that younger children preferred the warm colours, while older children preferred the cooler colours.

When it comes to how a drawing is positioned on the page, apparently the left side of the page is traditionally associated with the past and with nurturing.  It is also associated with mothers.  The right side relates to an interest in the future, and a need to communicate.  This side is associated with fathers.  A child who places a drawing of a good size, prominently on the page is considered to be well-balanced and secure, while in contrast, small figures drawn at or near the lower edge of the paper or in a corner, express feelings of inadequacy or insecurity.

Detailed, careful drawings may reveal a child who feels the needs to try very hard.  Bold strokes, especially if close together, can be a sign of stress, strong feelings, determination or anger, while softer marks suggest a gentler nature.  The quality of line can also be significant - a figure drawn with light, wavering, broken lines, reveals a hesitant, insecure child who appears to think as he goes along.  By contrast the bold, continual, freely drawn line is expressive of self-confidence, and a feeling of security,  This child is carying out what has already been clearly visualised.

When drawing figures, the size, and the relative size of the figures drawn is considered to be significant, with more important or dominant figures being drawn larger.  The absence of arms is sometimes interpreted as indicating timidity, a sign of non-agressive children, whereas exaggerating the size of the hands is seen as symbolic of aggressive tendencies if the figure is a self-portrait.  Likewise, tiny feet are seen as a sign of insecurity - literally an unstable foundation.

After having read all this, I have to say I was not too convinced. That's not to say that I don't believe that we can learn something about our children's mood and personality from their drawings, but it all sounded far too formulaic and simplistic.  As with most things, I suspected it was more complex than that.  So I decided to delve into the research a little deeper and I was astonished how much study there has been of children's drawing.  I learned that in fact the validity of drawing tests as psychological measures (rather like that of handwriting analysis) continues to be called into question, and is not really consistently backed up with reliable research.  Most experts condemn the evidence of children's drawings in isolation to identify specific character traits or problems.  The suggestion was that identifying what children draw, and the themes within them, may be more significant in understanding a child, rather than how they draw it, and that verbal input from the child is essential in understanding both the content of his or her drawing and the meaning he or she wishes to convey, especially if that content is unrecognisable to an adult.  The research generally suggested that analysing children's drawings  according to a specific drawing feature (e.g. size of figures), was fraught with difficulties, as too many factors can come into play to influence it, and besides, different researchers attributed different interpretations to the same features.  Also, one of the most difficult things about understanding the emotional content of children's drawings, is recognising that our own emotions as adults can get in the way without us even realising it.

All children have their own 'style' and their preferred subjects, and any individual child will produce artwork which is distinctively theirs, but when it comes to interpretation there seems to be broad agreement that a child's drawing will be more reflective of their mood at that particular moment, than of a wider personality trait.   As parents, I think we are generally well aware of our children's personality traits and do not really need drawings to inform us - what can be interesting is occasionally to see that reflected in their drawing, though I suppose if there was an issue in their life which we weren't aware of, which was manifesting itself in their artwork, it would be good to be able to recognise that!

Consideration also has to be given to the age of the child - children's  artwork is of course influenced by this.  Younger children have less motor control than older children, and it will of course affect the quality of line, shape and organisation that they use.  They have a relatively limited visual vocabulary.

When it comes to use of colour also, studies have shown that perhaps unsurprisingly there is a correlation between art education and culture in children's use of colour, which suggests some caution should be exercised in drawing conclusions about a child's personality and emotional state from their use of colour.  This too can also be influenced by age, and where detail is important to a child, colour may be subordinated.

I had thought when I first started researching this piece, that I would be able to present my readers with a fascinating, revealing and insightful piece on interpreting their child's artwork.  However I have learned that like most things in life, it is not so simple as that!

 If you want to investigate further, I found Google Books invaluable for allowing me to dip into the published work available on the subject.  Some of the more recent books are listed below:

Draw Me a Picture: The Meaning of Children's Drawings and Play from the Perspective of the Analytical Psychology

 

Children and Pictures: Drawing and Understanding (Understanding Childrens Worlds)

Making Sense of Children's Drawings






Other reading:
I was originally inspired to write this post after reading the following:
Download a Doodle 

You might also be interested in the following post which I wrote a month or two back:
Learning to Draw

February Featured Artist

 
February's Featured Artist has been contributed by Treaclezoo, and was drawn by her daugher Joy when she was 4 years old - it just goes to show that even those most ephemeral of drawings, created on a 'megasketcher' can be immortalized with a camera.  I can see why this one was recorded for posterity!

The monthly Featured Artist is selected from images uploaded to the Artful Kids Flickr Group.
If anyone has any masterpieces (drawings and paintings) created by children under 12 that they would like to contribute to the group, your contributions would be very welcome.

Display Ideas No. 4

Artwork Hanging System

And finally... For my last post of 2009 I'm sharing a display idea which I found over at the Madhouse. It's basically an improved version of the old 'washing-line' display, but I think looks much neater and smarter, as it uses metal tension wires and clips (the kind you can get for hanging curtains).  It's really simple and effective, and you can change the pictures so easily.

Display Ideas No.3

RIBBA Picture Ledge - IKEA

I came across this idea, or more accurately 2 ideas, at Ikea.  Again, they're really simple and effective, like all the best ideas, and they don't cost a great deal.  The first is the RIBBA picture ledge.  This is a narrow shelf (available in white or black and in a variety of lengths) which is specifically intended for pictures in frames to sit on, propped against the wall.  A small retaining edge on the shelf ensures that the frames don't slide off.  It's a very flexible way of displaying pictures, which can be changed really easily without having to knock nails or pins in the wall.  You can use just a single shelf as shown here, or several at different heights, and of course it's not just suitable for displaying kids artwork, but can be used for any framed picture. I really like this idea, and intend to use it myself, though I'm a bit concerned about my ability to put it up straight!

I was really pleased when I came across this photo, as it combined in one image the 2 ideas from Ikea that I wanted to share. The second idea uses the simple, cheap, colourful frames that Ikea produce, to create a colourful display of kids artwork.  The NYTTJA frames are available in a variety of sizes and bright colours, with plastic glazing which is much safer for kids rooms.  Used together, either on a picture ledge as shown here, or grouped together on a wall, I think they create a really striking display.

Display Ideas No.2

Frames Wallpaper

This product has been around for a couple of years, so you may have come across it before, but I think it's a lovely idea for use in a child's bedroom or playroom.  Kids can either colour in the frames directly, or alternatively you can stick paintings and drawings onto the frames.  It's available from Graham and Brown.  At £25 a roll, it's not especially cheap as  wallpaper goes, but then I think it's something you could use in just a small area, as it might be a bit overpowering to do a whole room with it. I've always rather liked the idea of giving kids permission to decorate their own environment by drawing or painting directly on the walls - though it worries me slightly for younger children, who may not recognise the difference between the specific areas where they are allowed to do it, and any other wall they might feel inclined to embellish!

Display Ideas No.1

Inflatable Masterpiece Frame

This week, on the run up to Christmas I thought I'd do a completely unseasonal series of mini-posts on display ideas for kids artwork. The first is an item I spotted while out and about last week. The 'Instant Masterpiece' is an inflatable gilt frame for displaying photos, paintings, whatever you want really.  It will display images of up to 10x8".  I haven't tried it out myself, but I thought for just £4.79, it was quite a fun idea for displaying kids artwork.  Anyway if anyone fancies it, it's available here from Amazon.

Party Season

It seems to be party season - every weekend at the moment I'm taking my elder son to birthday parties.  Over the last few weeks he's been to a Karting Party, a Tubing Party (i.e sledging - looked like great fun to me) an exotic animals party (where he got to handle snakes, tarantulas, giant frogs, etc) and a Football Party.  At least he would have gone to a football party, except silly mummy got the date wrong and turned up the day after.  My poor son was gutted, he'd been looking forward to it so much, and I felt so guilty.

Last weekend I took him to a party where they had introduced a very simple idea that I rather liked.  In some ways it is rather similar to the idea used at some weddings where a large sheet of paper is provided for the wedding guests to sign, write messages, draw pictures or whatever.  On this occasion it was a large sheet of paper stuck to the wall,  for the 5 & 6 year old guests to draw upon, with the crayons supplied.  I thought it made a lovely keepsake for the future, especially since so many people move now and children’s friends change so quickly.  Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera, or even my phone with me, so can’t show you what it looked like, but I’m sure you get the general idea!


New Artful Kids Flickr Group 

I'm in the process at the moment of trying to customise my blog, so you may see some changes taking place over the next few weeks.  I have lots of things I'd like to do, but it's still very much a learning process at the moment.  Anyway, as part of this whole process I have set up an Artful Kids group on Flickr for people to contribute photos of their children's artwork to.  I'm limiting it to paintings or drawings, by children under the age of 12, and I've set it up so that you have to 'apply' to join, simply so that I'm hopefully less likely to get photos of goodness knows what added to it that way.  The plan is to choose one to feature on Artful Adventures each week, or each month (depends really on how many people contribute to it).  So if your child has just produced a masterpiece, then why not 'exhibit' it by adding it to the group and sharing it with us all, and maybe I'll choose it to feature.  The address is:  
http://www.flickr.com/groups/artfulkids/

Hand and Footprint Poems

This week I thought I would share some poems to accompany children's hand and foot prints for gift and display purposes.  You may have come across them before - I first saw them when my son came home from his first term at school with one printed next to his handprint, which had then been laminated and had a calendar attached to the bottom.  I researched them further as I thought they looked perfect added to a child's photo and handprint, and it seems there are a whole lot of variations on a theme.  I've included a couple here, but many more can be found at the links given below: 

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

On furniture and walls.

But everyday I'm growing
I'll be grown up someday,
And all these little fingerprints

Will simply fade away

So here's a special handprint

Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked

When I was very small

Find more hand & footprint poems at:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/dad/mhandprintalt.html

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems28.html

Storing kids artwork - just where do you keep it all?

I can't believe it's a week since my last post - the time just goes so quickly! This week I have decided to look at a few products available for displaying and storing kids artwork - it's something which I will introduce from time to time as I see them, but given the relative rarity of such products, it probably won't be too frequent. It's amazing how many products are out there for kids arts and crafts - thousands of brilliant ideas which you could spend a fortune on, but it seems there's not quite so much out there for displaying and storing the finished product.


A4 Picture Pockets



This giant PVC picture holder has 9 pockets for 18 A4 -sized artworks, and is a simple way to display kids artwork and keep it clean. It is available for £15.00 from Aspace


Children's Art Portfolios





Not something that you see very often, Letterbox have a number of kids portfolios available which offer a special and attractive way of storing their artwork.

The simplest traditional style folios, at just £6.99 are illustrated with a choice of 3 different themes, and tied with ribbons. They can store artwork up to A3 in size.




They also have a more expensive filing system version which can be personalised with a photograph. With a carry handle and 9 expandable pockets, it will accomodate artwork up to A3 in size, and is available for £16.99.



However, if A3 is too small, and your child is producing larger masterpieces, then you may need to consider these heavy-duty polypropylene art folders which will accommodate artwork up to A2 in size. Available in pink or blue for £13.00 from the Great Little Trading Company.





Alternatively of course, you could always create your own art storage system for A4 work, by decorating and personalising your own ring binder with loose leaf plastic pocket inserts. In fact I might just go and do that!!


And Finally....

A late addition, which I have just seen, and which seems appropriate for here, is another storage idea for kids artwork which Vertbaudet have to offer. This Drawing Tidy offers 4 stacked compartments for storing and sorting drawings. It is fixed to the wall, and is 35 cms wide. It is currently available for £39.00.






Needless to say, if anyone else out there has come across any other products, or brilliant ideas for storing and displaying kids artwork, please feel free to share them!

Valuing & Using Children's Artwork

Today I was having a conversation with an acquaintance about children's artwork and the service that Artful Kids provides. Many people comment that the finished result makes a good gift idea for grandparents, and she announced on hearing this that she didn't think her parents would appreciate it because they have 'proper art' on their walls. I was genuinely shocked at this attitude, which may or may not have reflected the attitude of her parents, and thought that it was actually quite sad and insulting to children. Why is children's artwork not considered to be 'proper art'? Surely it is the way it is presented or regarded that determines how 'proper' it is. A tatty bit of paper on the fridge is admittedly not going to look too impressive stuck on the living-room wall, but properly presented it can look as good (and sometimes a lot better) than any adult's work.

Children have a directness and honesty about their work that adults can only aspire to. Many famous artists have consciously striven to achieve the same, knowing that in reality they are doomed to fail because of the years of knowledge and experience that interfere with what we see. Children also have a lack of self-consciousness in their artwork that adults tend to lose - they simply don't have the same inhibitions - an enviable state to be in.

The conversation made me think that I may have an uphill struggle to convince people that a child's artwork is no less worthy of consideration than that of an adult, or of presenting well. In fact the whole idea of taking a child's artwork and presenting it in different ways, seems to be an alien concept - on a number of occasions I've been met with confused looks when I have attempted to explain what I do. Still there's nothing like a challenge, and I shall continue with my missionary zeal!

Anyway I think it's time to step off my soap box now, and move onto something more creative as I promised in my last post. I said last week that this time I’d look at how to use some of the mountains of artwork that you sometimes acquire (at least I do, since I can never bear to throw any of it away!) to make cards, gift tags, bookmarks or nursery art. The idea is really simple but surprisingly effective, and involves treating the painting as if it were a piece of decorative paper, and then using it to cut out simple shapes. These can either be drawn freehand, or alternatively some of the kids stencils that are available can be used if you're not confident of your drawing skills.




The following is a list of ways you can use the technique, or enhance it:

• Simple squares and rectangles mounted onto a plain card can look really effective - especially if the name of the child is handwritten beneath to give a personal touch.
  

• The different effects you can achieve are endless, since the item can be further decorated with accents such as sequins, jewels, or glitter glue.
  

• The shapes themselves can be mounted onto simple painted backgrounds, or just plain white or coloured card.
  

• For Christmas cards, the paintings can be cut into small squares and rectangles, which can be used to look like gift-wrapped parcels with the addition of glitter glue for ribbon ties for example - a really simple way of creating personalised Christmas cards. I made cards using this technique 2 years ago with my then 3 year old son. I had to give him quite a bit of help, but he was able to choose the pieces of paper and stick them on and the finished cards were really effective. Unfortunately I didn't take any photographs at the time!
  

• The technique can also be used to create effective framed nursery art.

Over the coming weeks I will be adding lots more ideas for using and displaying kids artwork, but if you have any of your own, please feel free to share them, either here or on the Artful Kids Facebook page (see link adjacent). All ideas used will of course be acknowledged. Even better if you also have some photos of the finished product!