By Spramani Elaun
For children entering elementary grades, it’s a good idea to start teaching them how to draw lines, shapes, and textures with simple copy drawing exercises without using this as your primary way of teaching children to draw. I want to explain how I use this method as a tool without basing my entire curriculum solely on it. Over my longitudinal studies as an art instructor, I discovered that children who are raised by copying images find it hard to think creatively and to come up with their own original ideas to draw. Eighty percent of my adult students revealed they could not express themselves without copying something; these same students struggled with originality.
However, copying pictures can benefit children, and I want to share how you can use this method to assist in drawing lessons. My technique for teaching drawing is to use a combination of copy-style exercises. I use three ways to teach drawing lessons:
Copy-mode drawing – I teach children how to copy the elements and principles of design, such as lines, shapes, and textures with simple one-to-two step exercises.
Trace drawing – I teach kids to trace images with artist-tracing paper that clearly shows lines, shapes, and textures to build muscle, memory, and dexterity.
Creative-mode drawing – I encourage students to draw fun, expressive drawings identifying the elements either by using still life prompts, static 2D images, or conjured up imagery.
By combining these types of lessons, I can help them develop their spatial memory, sensorimotor control, and imagination.
In my book Nurturing Children in the Visual Arts Naturally, one of the key things I explain is that children’s visual perception along with fine motor development is connected to visual art learning. These two developmental stages are key to learning to draw. For this reason, it’s vital to teach kids to copy and trace pictures to develop drawing muscles in their eyes, hands, and memory.
Can Copy Drawing 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 books on how children need balanced art lessons to stay creative. 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 became really good at drawing Snoopy. I got a lot of practice identifying how images come together through organic and geometric line shapes. When I finally got to a fine arts school and my professional drawing classes, I had all the fine motor practice I needed to learn to draw creatively thanks to all the copying I did. Having plenty of experiences copying and tracing gave me excellent fine motor practice as well as the aesthetic eye I needed to advance into an illustrator. It’s good to copy images sometimes, but this shouldn’t be the only practice. In my books, I call this guiding kids with art inspiration. All kids need some creative springboard 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 did not have practice drawing. So, yes, copying pictures is good for teaching children to draw.
If you require kids to follow copy-mode step-by-step instructions and not allow any personal creativity, then this can stifle creativity or any love for art-making. My advice is to give a good balance of drawing lessons in both copy-mode and creative-mode. In my drawing classes, I take kids through a series of copying their favorite images, tracing basic geometric and symmetrical, simple-line drawings. Then, I allow them to color or paint the finished drawings however they choose. After some copying or tracing projects, I give creative-mode lessons using the practice skills from copying and tracing.
Copy-mode art can be just practice for getting ready to work on creative-type projects where they can use their imagination. Yes, this works for all kids in their elementary and teenage years. Kids have to have practice drawing something first!
What can kids copy?
Draw lines
Draw shapes
Their favorite animals
Their favorite objects
Their favorite characters
Fun objects you’re currently studying
Geometric shapes
Organic shapes like fruits
Tracing 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 color mediums.
Now go have a fun drawing art lesson with kids!
Spramani Elaun – Art Teacher
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