Pencil or pen?
A reasonably soft pencil can be a valuable drawing tool on occasions. (Somewhere around 2B to 4B, I would say, for children. The ubiquitous classroom HB is definitely not very suitable for drawing.)
However, for KS2 children to draw with, my instrument of choice is always black pen. It needs to be a free-flowing ink pen with a reasonably fine point. Despite its slightly misleading name, something like a Berol ‘handwriting’ pen is best. Certainly not a rolling ball pen or a felt-tip and never a Biro/ballpoint. Blue will do but black is better. On white paper, black is the most aesthetically pleasing for artwork. These black pens are not drastically expensive and I always made sure the annual requisition included a good supply for each class, to be kept exclusively for art lessons.
Why pen?
The black pen is good because it produces a clear strong line, that does not fade. As long as the paper provided is of reasonable quality (see the Commentary Page, ‘Drawing: The paper thing’), it has a satisfying surface feel, fluid but with a little helpful resistance, and is relatively easy for children to control.
However, the biggest advantage of pen, when working with children, is that it doesn’t rub out. It may surprise some teachers, as well as their classes, that this is positively a good thing. When using pencil many children will spend an amazing amount of time rubbing our and doing things over. This actually does not help their confidence in their own drawing at all, and only reinforces the unproductive idea that their drawing is ‘wrong. What we need to develop are confident drawers, who keep moving forward with the activity rather than continually doing things over. Believe me it works, with the right encouragement.
Make a start and keep going
Rather than starting by sketching out rough shapes and areas, we found it works much better for children of this age to pick a particular starting point on what they are looking at, start drawing from there and then just keep on adding the ‘next bit’ from where they are. This approach can end up with some of their observed object not fitting onto the paper, but I don’t worry about that and try to get them not to worry either. Their drawing, is their own special drawing, and it can’t be ‘wrong’. (If they really insist they are not happy with one little bit, then they can just draw over the top and change it. Artists do that all the time. But if you can get them to keep moving forward instead, that is even better.) Again, I can only say that it works with this age group of children, as I hope the examples in the blog posts show.
What the teacher said
I just continually remind them to keep looking carefully and to draw what they see. It is the teacher’s role to convince the children that what they are doing in worthwhile. It can sometimes take a while, but with enough positive experience, they will start to believe it themselves.
I have even been known to show a child a picture (e.g. Picasso) and say something like, “Look at the way be drew. And he’s a famous artist. Artists all draw in their own way. You can draw in your own way. However you draw is fine. In fact it’s great. Just keep looking carefully and draw what you see. You can draw it in your way. It’s not wrong at all. That’s your way of drawing it. That’s what makes you an artist.”
As with so many aspects of teaching children, encouragement is absolutely key, valuing outcomes, supporting individuality and building success. (See also Commentary Page, ‘Art is what walls are for’)
If the drawings are in pen, it also works well to add a little colour with watercolour paints. But I will come to that in a future post.
