representational drawing and painting classes for children

As I said, in my posting "children and folk art" children under age 7 usually do not show the need  to represent things in perspective and volume (illusion of volume with shadows) but they have many others artistic topics and skills to explore and develop before reaching this new step.

I know that some parents have the desire that their child learns as fast as possible basics of a more realistic way of representing things in art and wonder why I don't teach how to draw shadows, representation and space and proportions to their 6 years old. They have to know that, for instance drawing shadows and learning the technic of shading off is a tough job (ask my adult students!) and perspective and representation of space are perceptions which demand a certain maturity and a lot of work to be understood and developed in art, in other words representation demands a lot of discipline and time.
Figurative art is more complex than a list of tips and recipes.

I don't want to put my youngest students off doing art or learning drawing and painting by imposing them too big visual and technical efforts, when it is obviously too early for them.

That is why  I gradually include some more complex exercises (drawing geometric shapes, drawing light and dark, collages with elements that are close to us (big) and far from us (small) in order to develop the perception of space).

When they reach the age of 7 (the "magic" age when children start to have the desire to draw more representational things) and when I feel that a child is ready for more instructions, I put them in front of a still life with an easel and a palette or in front of a wood mannequin with a pencil and  a sketch book.
And then they start to analyze what they see, and draw what they see, with instructions about proportions, spaces, shadows, colors... a new and exciting adventure!

Below, the young artist (age 12) had to represent her bedroom in perspective after the famous painting of the bedroom of Vincent Van Gogh which I use to teach basics of perspective.

working after the masters

When I was a student in the École des beaux-arts de Paris, I have often sketched or painted after many masterpieces in the musée du Louvre. I am sure it helped me to develop my skills and to understand what painting was about. Also, I always have been curious about history of art and artists and I am a avid reader of art books. I sometimes show some of my art books to my students and propose them to create a project after an artist. It is not about copying but about developing creativity, technics, imagination  and artistic sensibility through the discovery of great masters and their works.

Below  some works of children (age 4 to 7) after seeing the beautiful paintings of women wearing richly ornamented dresses by Gustav Klimt and reading a children book called "Klimt and his cat":

Some cubist collages and paintings after Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque:

and the famous Van Gogh's sunflowers or how to learn how to display elements (flowers) in a composition.

Children and Folk Arts

Art is not only what we are generally taught and used to see and consider as art... Art is often defined by the technics developped in our western civilization since the Renaissance...I have seen  parents coming to my studio with the expectation that their five years old child is going to learn about perspective, shadows, some basic rules to develop their representational skills as early as possible... and this is not exactly what I propose for them at this age. I will explain in another posting why I don't start to teach figurative drawing and more "academic" technics before age 7. What I can tell you now is, that children under this age have this ability to see the world and express it in a very unique way and I just want to help them to do that the best they can. The way the perceive the world and choose to express it in an art project is often very close to folk arts, primitive arts, "Art brut", or the art of ancient or existing cultures which are inspired by their own beliefs...very different from the productions of our "rational" and intellectual civilization. African masks, pre columbian patterns, cave arts,  native american Kachinas puppets, street arts, folk arts are Art too... just like a painting of MichelAngelo. And young children usually like these forms of arts, they feel close to them and they have a lot to learn from them. That is why we sometimes create puppets, masks, or assemblages of repurposed materials and why I let the youngest children draw people or nature as they see it, just helping them to elaborate, ornamente their work, and develop new technics ...inside their own self-expression.

Animals

For the youngest ones, working on projects about animals is always fun and inspiring! A good way to develop a sense of colors and shapes. Caterpillars, parrots, snails, farm animals. It is also the opportunity for them to develop different skills (cutting, gluing,  holding a brush and decorating animals with dots, lines).
It ...