Hello.

My 9-year-old son, LOVES to draw. He loves to draw very specific, military-related items such as tanks, planes, and ships. I feel he is relatively good as does his teachers. I have bought him some pencils and moldable erasers along with a couple of how-to books for Christmas. My biggest concern is I want to balance getting him stuff to draw with and helping him learn and pushing him to the point of not wanting to draw anymore. I can't help him, my stick figures suffer when I attempt them. Any suggestions on what to do and what not to do would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hope

My advice would be to just gently encourage him. Let him develop at his own pace



Sounds about right, to me. I think at that age it would be a mistake to do too much, likely to be counterproductive. Also, children get enthusiasms, which then fizzle out, but often get picked up again later on.


Dave

Having been raised in a home with no art and then watching a friend in my teen years who had some good ability be pressured buy family and ending up doing nothing in art, I applaud your efforts! Provide the tools for him, encourage him, praise his good works, gently point out his deficiencies and major mistakes in the not so good works and cross your fingers! I didn't find art until I was 40 years old. Even if he gets tired of it and moves on to something else, he will come back to it in later years if the experience was a good one!

Art is something that my 10-year-old and I can share. I don't try to tell her what to do (although I'll certainly give her tips when she asks), but we often sit and draw from the same reference. We've done a lot of the drawing challenges here together. It's nice to have that time.

Even if you can't draw now, you could learn by doing, you know!

I agree with the other posters here and would like to offer another suggestion.

I teach children drawing sometimes and if your son is interested, you might find a local art class for kids that he could enjoy taking part in. I agree that you can only provide the tools and the time for him to explore which he will do as and when he wants. But sometimes, a more structured class helps children learn among their peers and gives them a chance to use a wider variety of mediums.

Thank you so much for all of your insight and ideas. My artistic side comes out in other ways. Its just the drawn objects that I manage to mutilate, lol.

I will just continue along with the gentle encouragement and guidance and maybe talk to his art teacher at school and she if she has any ideas for some classes. I think he might enjoy that.

I will bookmark this site and maybe he and I can come back here together and learn about drawing together.

Have a great day all,
Hope

Great idea! I just found this site recently (note my post number!) and will personally testify to how much my artistic experience has been transformed. Being able to have some informed, interested, experienced, and sometimes scholarly conversations with so many other art enthusiasts will enhance anybody's experience! I have a few friends that are really into art, and can talk with them about it sometimes (when we're not talking about other things), but having a big community like this in which one can feel so welcomed in the art world is a great strength to me (I'm still relatively new to "serious" art).

But anyway, sorry for my rant on how nice the site is I do wish you and your son the best. Anyone who has art as a part of their life is, in my opinion, very blessed.

One thing that can be considered is the "creativity killers". From a web search I once did I found a list provided by someone who had schooled from Victor Lowenfeld and that led me to buying one of Victors books. Although he is gone now his knowledge is still there to be had. Much of art instruction has changed from the days he was publishing his books (40's into the 80's I believe) but when you get down to it the theories are still sound. Look into it and you won't be disappointed and you may find some answers to the questions you have.

At that age he won't need alot of "pushing". Just let him enjoy it. If he wants to get better at it he will, he just will. The more he draws the more he'll see things and start putting things together. Show him this website and just let him go. If you try to push it on him he'll find something else fun to do.

Hi there! I am perhaps one of the younger members of drawspace. I learned to draw from coying pictures of the stuff I was interested in. Why not give a picture of a robot(or dinosaur etc) and let him have some fun. There are also plenty of private drawing teachers, for when he's older and lots of fun extra classes he can do in the holiday. Why not post a picture of your son's work, so we can agree with you that he has potential.