Merry Christmas Drawing For Kids
Drawing For Kids is a project for our last project of the autumn semester that incorporated some of the methods and abilities we had been honing in the previous weeks. It should include two class periods so that we have enough time to develop our pieces and take care to produce something unique and beautiful. I wanted it to have a holiday or seasonal theme.
There are numerous variations of the “Christmas automobile” concept on Pinterest. Imaginative watercolor drawings, striking acrylic paintings, kid-friendly artwork, and more. I concluded that, if appropriately planned, this assignment would review many of the abilities we acquired over the previous semester. I decided to use watercolor, colored pencils, and pens to work on this project with my children.
With our media, we would talk about value and shadowing, and we would be careful to draw carefully, paying close attention to function and detail. Students would also gain a new skill by learning to sketch gifts from one point of view, producing a 3-D stack of boxes. The final requirement was that students use their creativity as designers to determine how and where to insert a Christmas tree into their car.
Outlining our primary features: The bottom half of the page should be taken up by the car, and the top half should be filled with presents and a tree. Kids who understand this in simpler terms can better gauge the size and scale of their significant characteristics. Cars won’t fit if they’re drawn too small. We still had some problems with presents being drawn too small, so we told these students to make their drawings larger. We don’t want little gifts on huge cars or a tonne of blank space at the top of the paper.
Drawing:
Cars were rendered in pencil, paying close attention to shape and functionality. Then presents were piled up on top of the vehicle, some visible from both the front and the side.
I told the children that, in general, they should be placed from large to small. Gifts should be available in various sizes and forms for a pleasing and unique composition. I advise kids to avoid decorating every present with a bow or ribbon (they will try), as this quickly overpowers the eye. The young audience completely understood this concept and generally balanced their use of stripes.
Painting:
Students painted their cars and presented with sheer watercolor paints. Then, a slightly darker value was placed wherever a shadow would exist. With watercolor, the key is to transition from light washes of transparent color to progressively more vibrant colors! A tiny bit of brown was blended with the primary color of the packages to give them a 3D aspect. The side of their presence will be blue plus brown, for instance, if the front of it is blue. This changes the value and gives the box immediate depth.
If they hadn’t previously done so with a fine line marker, students outlined. Their car and presented in colored pencil once all the components were dry. The trick is to outline each feature in the shade comparable to but darker than it. Thus, if the automobile is red, we would summarize it in dark red. We outline the present in dark purple if it is purple (or dark blue – whatever is close but darker than the original color). This adds instant definition and focus without using too much contrast, which is a beautiful touch.
Wet-on-wet background painting was used to apply a faint wash of a color that “looked excellent” in our composition.
This project was completed successfully and with enjoyment by all of my children’s classes. There were several opportunities for personal expression and decision-making.