So..........my child hates art. I find this difficult to understand, what with my art degree but she is so talented! I'm obviously biased as a mum (I've literally just cleared out boxes of Niamh's drawings because I declared her scribbles at the age of one to be utter masterpieces......sigh) but I do think she's got the raw talent, just not the focus.
I keep trying different mediums, different subject matter but her preteen interests are veering away from drawing - when Niamh was younger, we wouldn't leave the house without a little sketchbook and she created wonderful little drawings.
Now - my main aim with teaching any art lesson is to focus on the basics. This was a short drawing lesson, but reminders about tone, light and shade are super important. It's easy to just sketch and not really see what you're looking at, so the reminders really do help kids to focus and look. Pointing out interesting shapes helps too.
One thing I have done for Niamh throughout our home education journey is to shorten her 'classes' - one on one attention does mean that we can do a lesson in either 20/30 minutes and when boredom starts to set in, we stop and return the next day. Bored kids don't learn.
One thing I always remember a tutor from art college saying is that very few things are actually white so drawing any object I tend to start by asking Niamh to look at the paper colour when compared to the object. (It tends to work well in giving her an idea of what the end result should be).
Using charcoal and chalk is super fun, and it's really helpful to use a piece of tissue to blend to get that lovely tonal quality.
And even though I am well aware I'm biased - I do think she's done an incredible job with this. She gets a star!
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