Kids Drawing Lessons Tips, Is copying pictures good?
By Spramani Elaun
In this blog post I want to share a common question I get asked regularly while training teachers and parents — Is copying pictures good to teach kids?
I’ll share my expert advice on this topic and give you tips how to approach this type of drawing lessons.
Yes, letting kids copy images is a good thing
I’ve taught thousands of children how to draw realistically and it’s a very slow process over childhood.
One of my techniques I use is to copy images or trace images to develop good fine-motor drawing practice.
In my book Nurturing Children in The Visual Arts Naturally, one of the key things I tell teachers and parents – is kids visual perception along with fine-motor development is connected to visual art learning.
These two developmental stages are also key to learning to draw.
For this reason I have taught kids to copy images and trace images to develop drawing muscles in their eyes, hands and memory.
Does copying images stifle creativity or imagination?
No, but you don’t want to develop all your art lessons by simply copying images.
You want to give kids a good balance of projects that use copy-mode and creative-mode drawing exercises.
Copy-mode and Creative-mode are two phrases I explain in my first book how kids need balanced art lessons to stay creative and have imagination flourish.
I have been drawing and illustrating professionally my whole life, and when I was a young girl I copied my favorite things like Snoopy the dog.
By doing this I got really good at drawing Snoopy.
I got lots of practice identifying how images came together by organic and geometric line shapes.
When I finally got to fine art school and my professional drawing classes, I had all the fine-motor practice to learn to draw creatively by all the copying I did.
Having lots of experiences copying and tracing gave me excellent fine-motor practice and gave me the esthetic eye I need to advance into an illustrator.
So I say yes it’s good to copy images.
I call this in my books guiding kids with art inspiration!
All kids need some creative spring-board of ideas to start drawing.
You should always give kids some point of reference to copy or an idea to design their own drawings.
It’s really hard to sit down and think of something off the top of your head if you have not had practice drawing.
So yes it s good for kids!
Can copying too much be a bad thing for creativity?
If you require kids to follow copy-mode step-by-step instructions, and not allow any personal creativity then it can stifle creativity or any love for art making.
Over the years I’ve worked with adults and teens that told me the number one reason they stop drawing was because of a bad teacher that insisted they follow directions and copy step-by step without freedom to personalize or draw their own ideas.
My advice is to give a good balance of drawing lessons in both copy-mode and creative-mode.
If you would like to know more about creative-mode vs. copy-mode, I recommend my drawing books, or my first book Nurturing Children in The Visual Arts Naturally.
Teaching Professional Tips!
In my drawing classes or workshops I take kids through a series of copying their favorite images, tracing basic geometric and symmetrical simple line drawings, then allow my students to color or paint the finished drawings however they want.
Then after some projects copying or tracing, I then give kids creative-mode lessons using the practice skills from copying and tracing with me.
Copy-mode art can just be practice for getting ready to work on creative type projects they can use their imagination.
All kids all ages!
Yes, this works for all kids in elementary and the teen ages.
Kids have to have practice drawing something first!
What can kids copy?
Drawings line form
Their favorite Animals
Their favorite objects
Their favorite characters
Fun objects you’re currently studying
Geometric Shapes
Fruits
In order to get good at drawing you have to do some practice copying and tracing!
More Teacher tips!
Give kids fun objects to trace.
Give kids a focal point to the lesson and ideas to copy, along with visual samples.
Give kids the freedom not to copy-step-by step.
Give kids the freedom to draw their own ideas that are related to the subject matter you’re teaching.
Start all drawing lessons with basic pencil and eraser, then complete with fun mediums.
You don’t need to know how to draw realistic drawings yourself to teach kids these basics drawing skills.
If you have questions reach out to me.
Now go have a fun drawing art lesson with kids!
xoxo Spramani
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