How to teach a 6 years old how to draw better?

[DiegoPalacios]

Hi everyone!. It turns out my 6 years old nephew loves to draw. She asked me many times how to draw better, but i wasn`t able to give her more answers that advicing her to draw a lot. While i see she is improving a lot, she is in a stage she feels self-conscious about her current art level

(it was surprising to see someone reach an "art low" at such an early age). I want to encourage her, but she disagrees when i compliment her drawings and her improvement.

Any advice on how to give her advice on how to improve while keeping the fun of drawing for her? also, any advice you would give a kid who really wants to imrpove?

[dawgofdawgness]

Honestly I would just keep giving her encouragement and compliments. Most 6 year olds eat that stuff up, even if they deny it.
And give her little challenges/prompts too! Just remind her that drawing Is fun.

[DiegoPalacios]

surprisingly it didn`t work on her, unless she was secretly fishing for compliments....

i like the challenge idea and i will keep encouraging her

[Stardust-clearwater]

Maybe you could tell her to experiment too.

give her different drawing exercises. I once had a 7 year old girl draw crystals with some ink.

She learned about values and crystals if you use the ones with geometric shapes, look pretty damn cool for relatively low effort.

Other fun drawing exercises I can think of off the top of my head include.

-Drawing cats in weird poses.

-Drawing something that's totally ugly and horrible on purpose.

-Drawing eggs for creatures that don't exist.

-drawing with a completely different medium. like if she normally uses pencil have her use paint.

-Drawing with bob ross videos

-Drawing really really big.

-Drawing really really small

-gestures. (have fun doing the poses. this works with people and animals and it's super fast.)

-Scribble challenge! (Draw without stopping or picking up the pencil)

-throw some paint on to the paper. then drawing on top of the weird background.
-making blobs, then turning the blobs into faces.
Loose exercises for line and wrist warm ups.
* drawing large relaxed circles using the entire arm. You can move up to 9s,6s and 8s if you want variety in terms of difficulty.
* filling up pages with free handed straight lines. I don't mean fast ones either. I mean slow and very deliberate ones.
* put down a few dots and trying to connect them all in one smooth stroke (I used to do this on homework)
*drawing lots of looping spirals then converting them into tubes/donut shapes.

[beta1042]

draw what better? Maybe find out what her interests are in what to draw. I mean I know the best thing to learning is to draw a little bit of everything, but while she's in an "art low" it may be best to just draw things she likes.

Then maybe go to the library and check out some books on those things she wants to draw. At least my library has a bunch of different art books for different ages and different interests from drawing animals, people, dinosaurs, monsters, anime style, etc etc.

[fluffybonezz]

Find some kid oriented drawing books or Youtube videos that she might like and have her practice her skills with those.

Try teaching her some art skills that aren't just drawing, too. Have her try painting or sculpting with clay/play dough.

[mariusthered]

i use to teach this age cartooning.

first of all teach her to sketch lightly. my first lesson with kids is always how to sketch so light they can rub out the pencil and not see any impression in the paper.
then teach her how to see objects and how things are made up of connecting shapes.
then teach her about shading and making things 3d and not flat drawings.

if she really wants to develop iin to this and it's not just a fad, carrying a small sketchbook and learing how to sketch quickly will boost her skills.

last tip: help her understand criticism, telling kids everything they draw is great is not helping them. if something is bad get her to look at what can be improved and redraw it better.

hope this helps.

[Klaustasya]

If she's in an art low what about making her copy characters from their favorite cartoon/series? You can tell her that using reference is a way to improve in drawing! And as @Stardust-clearwater i would go for experimenting with other media too, watercolors are funny at her age
Still having an art-low this young, your nephew must be already pretty good!

[unknown_user]

(it was surprising to see someone reach an "art low" at such an early age). I want to encourage her, but she disagrees when i compliment her drawings and her improvement.

For me it's no surprise at all. For example, I myself clearly understood, that adults draw much better than me, when I went to junior classes in school already. Particularly, I remember how I tried to draw a postcard for my mom at drawing lesson, and was sad that I can't draw it so beautiful as postcards, which I saw in the shop.
Sometimes I asked older ppl, why adults draw better than kids. Too bad all their answers boiled down to "because they are older". Now, after seeing a lot of adults, who can't draw at all, I understand that it wasn't correct. More meaningful answer would be: "because they practiced and learned longer".

Any advice on how to give her advice on how to improve while keeping the fun of drawing for her? also, any advice you would give a kid who really wants to imrpove?

What about making out lessons from art books and educational videos for kids together? I.e. you could read or watch them together, then you would explain her more detailed, why something is worth learning and show on examples, how to implement new drawing technique. Kids in this age are not very plodding, but if you would do it with her, it could probably be more interesting and enthralling for her. Also you can understand and clarify to her any things, which she didn't understood from the lesson herself.

[punkarsenic]

• drawing things she sees? maybe take her to an art gallery or a zoo or somewhere with lots of interesting things to look at and draw things together, explaining that drawing what you see is how you improve your drawing instincts
• again w the art gallery thing, try and find an artist with her that she really likes, and work together to copy their work and see what she likes about it. this doesnt need to be, like, van gogh - it can be pokemon or steven universe, whatever they want to learn to do, itll all improve their skills.
• you could practice fundamentals with her - gesture drawing, drawing cubes and other 3d objects, shading
• you could also get her books on drawing or direct her to tutorials on youtube. im not sure of any that are appropriate for a 6 year old though

[kip]

I mean, she's 6.

You got great advice here but isn't she just looking for attention? She knows you draw, and wants you to see her doing it too, as someone who's better than her?

For now I'd just let her copy simple things. Characters from TV series she enjoys are great, objects from daily life, especially if you can simplify them for her first. It's much easier to copy something that's already been "translated" into art, so it'll give her the satisfaction of drawing something that's above her level (that way she won't get frustrated and quit), but still teach her about simplifying and a basic understanding of objects & anatomy.

[unknown_user]

I mean, she's 6.

You got great advice here but isn't she just looking for attention? She knows you draw, and wants you to see her doing it too, as someone who's better than her?

I don't think that this is the case, because:

She asked me many times how to draw better

So it seems like she is really seeking an improvement, at least, from DiegoPalacios's words.

Small kids know a little, can't make complicated reasoning, control their bodies in less degree and don't understand many things. But in the same time, they learn much faster, than adults, and some of them sincerely want to learn new things. So I think that it is great to begin learning something in such a small age, it may really lead to a huge progress quickly.

[kip]

From my experience with 6 year olds, her saying she wants to learn something multiple times doesnt mean she actually wants to learn it. It could mean she wants to be better at it, sure, but kids have very little mental stamina for things they don't enjoy (like practice) so it seems a lot more important to focus on getting her to enjoy art than to improve in it, which she can do honestly at any point in life.
Of course, it depends on the child.

[punkarsenic]

but kids have very little mental stamina for things they don't enjoy (like practice) so it seems a lot more important to focus on getting her to enjoy art than to improve in it, which she can do honestly at any point in life.

i mean, on the flip, its commonly believed that kids are better at learning musical instruments than adults, which is smth that takes a lot of practice. its true that kids are impatient and dont yet like, get things the way adults do, but with help they can exercise discipline and practice things they enjoy.

i agree with you that the most important thing is making sure she continues to enjoy art, but id say that at this early stage its very valuable to instil a joy in good art practice; drawing from life, gesture, master studies. you can make these things fun and enriching for children, and unlocking the joy in learning how to draw could save her a lot of frustration later, bc itll set up a good mindset.

so like, i think the way to go is to get her to practice, but dont make it look or feel like practice, just make it fun and find the ways to learn these skills that she genuinely enjoys and will take further.

[LT1986]

When I was 6 years old, I couldn't improve on things that people pointed out to me. I more easily understood certain things that I already needed to improve on.

Here's the point.

At the age of 6, I wish that instead of someone showing me what I need to improve on, they would ask me what I think I need help improving. Once I would tell them what I need help improving, it would make learning from them and myself easier.

[KRWright]

Well, if you want actual educational advice, here you go! This is going to sound complicated, but it really isn't that complicated when you break it down.

What you could do with her is try to get her to think metacognitively. You'll see tons of really complicated stuff on metacognition, but it basically goes like this: Planning, Monitoring, Reflection. It's dead simple.

1) She wants to draw. Ask her to sit down and decide what she wants to draw. Ask her what things she needs to draw what she wants to draw (pencil, paints, crayons, a reference image etc). This would be metacognitive planning i.e. she starts thinking about what she needs to succeed at what she wants to do. She doesn't start until she has everything she thinks she needs to succeed (also ups the chances of success). She might need help with this, so help her as her mentor.

2) Get her to start drawing. While she's drawing, get her to think about what she's struggling with. At 6, she's not necessarily going to be able to come up with ideas of how to improve her drawing by herself, but if she can identify the parts she finds hard, you can give her ideas on what to do to improve it. (For example: she's drawing a unicorn and having difficulty drawing the back legs - show her how you'd draw the back legs and allow her to trace it or copy it).

3) After she's finished drawing, heap on tons of praise on all the stuff she's done well, but also ask her first what she's most proud of in her drawing. Heap all the praise on that. You can then ask her what she found difficult and you can give her suggestions of what to do about that. Next time, when she's planning on drawing with you, bring those things up at the planning stage (eg. Remember last time we planned to use pencil but then you said you'd have found it easier in chalk? Let's try to use chalk this time etc.).

If she repeats this often enough, you'll 'train' her for self-improvement. It's the current 'in' educational theory, and the one that reportedly helps students improve 80% faster than any other techniques so perhaps it'll help? Just remember to keep it fun and simple and when she's drawing just for fun, let her draw just for fun.

[MK_Wizard]

Well, the best way to learn how to draw is to get him how-to books and there is so much online for free like videos, sites and so much more. It's how I taught myself and it helped me greatly.

[qwerty]

Lots of good advice here! I definitely agree the absolute #1 priority should just be to make sure she enjoys it and keeps doing it. As long as that's the case, she'll keep practicing naturally and will likely end up a really good artist a few years down the line on her own.

Advice to help her improve can be given slowly and in manageable pieces. She doesn't need to become the next Da Vinci overnight, but if she asks for critique / advice and you see one little thing here and one little thing there that she could practice and improve on, it will eventually add up.

If she uses the Internet, I maybe recommend Lavender Towne's Youtube channel She has a lot of tutorials that cover pretty fundamental aspects of drawing while also being easy to follow, fun, and simple.

Using references is IMO one of the most important things needed to improve at drawing. If possible, I would try to instill this idea: "if you don't know what something looks like, try to look at a real one or a photo".

Good luckkkk !

[punkarsenic]

At the age of 6, I wish that instead of someone showing me what I need to improve on, they would ask me what I think I need help improving. Once I would tell them what I need help improving, it would make learning from them and myself easier.

seconding this! the things she knows she wants to improve will be where shell put in the most effort and interest, bc shell see the point of what shes doing, as well as making it less likely that youll accidentally push her towards your own opinions on whats right or wrong

[Rodimus13]

Ok replying so I don't forget again, but hubby has an art book SOMEWHERE that was great for young kids to learn to draw from. He's out but I can find out later. (Pester me if I forget!!!)