Drawing tools

A thin or medium size felt tipped pen such as Overhead projector pens is a popular drawing tool, though any form of marker is good. Ballpoint pens are also good, particularly those with broader tips. Soft leaded pencils such as 2B/3B are good, as are charcoal pencils. The standard HB pencil is not very good for work that has to show through paper so it can be traced over. The HB pencil is best used for doing the test drawings, and then redone or traced over with a darker pen.

Children should also be encouraged to use paper efficiently. If they are doing a small drawing, then not to draw in the middle of the sheet then throw it away if done wrong. It is not just a case of wasting paper, but animation requires a lot of paper, so a room can quickly get piles of waste paper.

Again, children tend to draw on one side of the paper then throw it away rather than using both side. Using paper efficiently is a good habit to develop.

Link: Drawing tools

Planning a drawing

Children start to draw on the assumption that they will get it right the first time. If it is not right then they will rub it out or screw up the paper. After a couple of time they become frustrated and abandon the drawing. They may feel they have failed, and go onto something else. Most children give up drawing as they get older, and very few adults continue to draw in spite of it being a natural ability.

The approach to drawing is to prepare for it by having all the materials and equipment ready, and a plan on what is to be done. By using scrap paper to practice on, and not using clean paper till they are sure of what they want to draw, they learn how to work out the basic shapes in rough. These 'practice' drawings are not seen as failures, but as a way of getting the idea down first before the final picture.

This practice stage can be encouraged by getting children to draw 'roughs' of people, cars, boats, houses, trees, furniture, etc. (show) They should also be encouraged to use references from books, magazines, etc rather than trying to imagine what their picture looks like. It takes a while for a mental library of shapes to build up, and then they can use their imagination.

Trying to see all objects as the basic shapes of squares, circles, and triangles helps in composing pictures.

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Sketching Basic shapes