How to teach a child to draw
Most children do not stop drawing because they lack talent. They stop because the result does not match what they pictured.
Somewhere around six or seven, a child usually starts judging their own drawing. Before that, a lopsided horse is a horse. After that, a lopsided horse is a failure, and a lot of children quietly stop.
What rescues them is not encouragement. It is a method. If the child can see how the horse was built, the gap between what they imagined and what appeared on paper stops being a verdict on their ability and becomes a set of steps they have not learned yet.
A small number of steps is what makes this work. Too few and the jumps are too big to follow. Too many and the child loses the thread before the drawing appears. In our step by step book each drawing is broken into a handful of steps, more for the harder subjects, and they always go from whole shape to detail, never the reverse.
The last step matters as much as the first. The child should be able to hold the finished drawing next to the page and see that they got there. That comparison is the reward, and it is what brings them back to the next one.
What to look for
- Every drawing broken into a small number of steps
- Steps that go from whole shape to detail
- Subjects the child actually wants to draw
- Enough drawings that the method becomes a habit
- Space to draw next to the example
The book we would pick
111 subjects, each one broken into steps a child can follow alone.
How to Draw 111 Animals and Characters, Step by Step
Children draw it themselves, step by step, right in the book
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Questions parents ask
At what age can a child follow step by step drawing?
Usually from around five, once the child can copy a shape they are looking at. Before that, free drawing does more.
Does copying steps hold back creativity?
In practice it does the opposite. A child who can produce a recognizable animal has more to invent with, not less.
Read next
- Coloring books for kids ages 4 to 8The child now stays inside the line. The problem changes: boredom, not difficulty.
- How to choose a coloring book for your childThe age printed on the cover describes the book, not your child. Here is what to look at instead.
- Book gifts for kids ages 3 to 7Buying for someone else's child means guessing the level. Here is how to guess well.