Drawing with Children
by Mona Brookes
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mona BrookesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-06-04
ISBN: 0874778271
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Tarcher
Book Reviews of Drawing with Children
Book Review: "when you read you begin with A, B, C; when you draw you begin with dot, circle, straight line, curved line, angle line"
Summary: 4 Stars
Mona Brookes' "Drawing with Children" is one of three book which I purchased--the others being "Art for the Absolute Beginner" and "Art for the Utter and Absolute Beginner"--to get myself back into drawing, an activity which I enjoyed as a young person. Each book is different, and I have learned from each of them.
Brookes begin with the premise that art can be taught, even to very young kids (toddlers) by teaching them to observe and reproduce the "Five Elements of Shape": dot, circle, straight line, curved line, and angle line. By this she does NOT mean the five basic shapes--which I interpret to mean the shapes of whole objects--an orange is a sphere, my computer is a cube (sort of), and so on--but rather the direction your pencil must follow to outline the subject which you are drawing. For example, when I draw a bird (there's lots of birds in the book), I draw a dot for the eye, surrounded by a circle; then I draw a curved line for the head, an angle line for the beak, and so on. Oddly (to me) each and every drawing starts with the animal's eye, or the center of the object to be drawn.
This way of looking at drawing focuses on the outline of objects, rather than the basic forms which make up the object. She seems to have had much success with this method. My cat is asleep on the chair as I write this; he's curled up in a ball. Traditionally I would see him as a ball for his body and then a smaller ball representing his head, his long, tubular tail, and so on, sketching these general forms lightly on my paper. Then I would sketch some details of "sub-parts" that make up my cat, his oblong face, the curve of his haunches, the triangle of his ears, and so on, for guidelines. I would then move on to the details of his features: the shape of his mouth, the stripes in his fur, his whiskers; so that I can make an accurate rendering of him. I'd have to take into account such things as what direction the light is shining on him from, the shadows his body makes on the chair, the roundness of his form.
"Monart" would have me draw a "curved line" for his body, until I get to the ears, then an "angled line", more curved line, then a straight line for his leg sticking out, and so on. The first couple of lessons show photographs of subjects to draw as well as a simplified line drawing. The student is guided to follow the outline of the subject by seeing and drawing the "elements of drawing". I had good success reproducing the drawings--level one through three-except for the carousel horse, which was a miserable failure. I believe that, in cases like this, it is more effective to use the blocking method described above, where you first observe and sketch the general forms that make up the animal, using that as a guideline to fill in the details.
That said, I do like the results I have been having with this approach. I can easily draw several types of tropical birds, and follow the outlines of still life subjects. The drawings by children before and then after a few lesson are awesome, as are the color plates. The drawing preliminaries have helped me to relax and focus, so I feel more confident and ready. And I like how she gives lots of practice to drawing the elements, in increasing complexity, that guide even small children to build these skills that lead up to drawing. I've had fun with the coloring. Yeah, I know, I've got to get back to work with topics like perspective, light source, and other stuff. But for now I am "Drawing with Children".
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