Challenge Your Kids (And Yourself) With 'Drawing Workshop for Kids'

Samara Caughey is the proud owner of Purple Twig, an art studio for children and families. The studio teaches techniques in ceramics, drawing, sculpture, collage, and printmaking, all the while allowing children to have their own voice. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Drawing Workshop for Kids. Process Art Experiences for Building Creativity and Confidence by Samara Caughey

This book was made, partly, in lockdown. It is a great testimony for the resilience and creativity that is behind each artist interested in sharing their knowledge with kids.

One of the most challenging subjects to teach is developing the confidence to draw.

Confidence must be earned.

You can have a great idea for a project, or an activity, because you have seen it on Pinterest or Instagram somewhere and feel the urge to snap a photo of the result. And once you set up to achieve it, you are, sometimes, disappointed, because the result is not so great. Therefore, your kids feel your disappointment. Ever been there? That is the exact moment when children lose confidence and say, empathically: I can’t draw. I blame it on our striving for perfectionism.

This book has a host of ideas to put down pencil on paper, smudge ink on paper, and leave marks on paper. The ideas are meant and taught to boost many things: from pencil grip, to strong marksmanship, to noticing shadows… to more abstract matters as composition, detail, contour, and perspective.

Observation, mark making, are vital for this. Patience and the ability to discard the result and be able to enjoy the process is key.

As Samara Caughey says:

Warm-ups are used to help children relax and settle in their new surroundings without any pressure. By creating a comfortable atmosphere, children are encouraged to try new things.

Warm ups can help boost children’s confidence and inspire new ways of working. By working quickly, children discard the need for perfection.

I’ve had children say: “I’m not good at drawing,” when sitting down for a drawing session, and by the end of the warm up declare: “I didn’t know I knew how to draw.”