How To Teach Drawing To Kids

Many parents are eager to teach their kids how to draw as soon as they see them forming recognizable shapes with pencil and paper. If you want to learn how to teach a child to draw, there are a few things to consider. The first thing to consider is their own level of fine motor skills. You may have a child who happens to have a knack for drawing artistically but their threshold for physically using a pencil or crayon or marker may be quite smaller than you might think. Oftentimes your kids’ level of drawing will coincide with their ability to physically use a pencil without their hand cramping up and without their attention span working against them.

If you’re looking for ways to teach your child how to draw it’s probably because you have a kid who is showing some artistic talent and interest. It’s normal for parents to want to encourage their kids when we see them showing a particular talent.

If your kid does not show any interest in drawing and that concerns you, don’t worry. Kids will unveil their many talents over the years of their growing and development. You may have a child who completely hates drawing when they’re eight, but as a high school student might completely flourish in that new skill.

Using guides like these draw-a-scene backgrounds helps kids get started with drawing something from their imagination. They give them a starting point so that they’re not just staring at a blank piece of paper. If you’re looking for a printable drawing guide for how to teach kids to draw, a background like any of these three that I’ve just made can help your kids get started. You’ll be amazed to see where their imagination takes them.

Inspire your kids daily with fun drawing tools and games to teach your kids to draw.

How Do You Teach A Child To Draw?

Once your kids are old enough to draw for at least 5 minutes at a time and you’re seeing them show some artistic talent, it’s the perfect time to teach them how to draw. So how do you teach your child how to draw? Well, there are a few ways to get started.

The first most important part of teaching your child how to draw is to give them a starting point and then let their imagination take over.

For example, give them a shape to draw and then challenge them to turn that shape into something else. For example, have them draw an oval on their page and then turn it into a drawing of a pig.

There are few ways you can teach your child to draw by starting with a blank piece of paper. However, if your child is younger it’s better to start with some parameters that they can begin with and then springboard from.

Give them a type of scene and a type of animal or character, and then something that’s happening in the scene. It can be something simple like a frog in a forest jumping.

A great way to get started with this is to do a drawing challenge with a child. Each of you sits with a blank piece of paper and a pencil and some crayons. Then challenge each other to draw things taking turns. If your child has a low threshold for drawing for an extended period of time, an activity like this with you will help them feel comfortable and give them breaks as well. They will feed off of your own energy and interest, so model having fun!

How To Help Your Child Start Drawing

• Use a variety of drawing tools, like short triangle pencils, peanut crayons, and glitter pens.
• Play drawing games with them.
• Try some simple tracing activities.
• Draw on things other than paper, like a tray of sand or rice, shaving cream, white board markers on a sliding glass door, etc.

Starting with a blank piece of paper can work to teach your kids to draw, but give them some ideas and challenges to help them get started.

How To Help Your Child Who Loves To Draw

If you have a young child who really loves drawing and is excelling at it, I’m sure you’re looking for ways to help and encourage them. Spend the time looking at different drawing books and find some that are right at your kids’ level.

Advanced tracing pages can really help, too. Not sure how to get started with this? Try a DIY light table and some tracing paper. Print out some pictures from the internet of things your child loves and will challenge their drawing skills. Then let them try to trace the picture. This is a great way to learn to draw perspectives and foreground vs background vs middle ground.

Kids who love to draw usually love having their own sketchbooks and special sets of pencils. Make it special for them in any way you can – a fancy lettered name on the sketchbook, a quality pouch to keep their drawing tools in.

“Teaching drawing to your youngest kids is all about giving them the freedom to create and encouraging them. You don’t need an official art curriculum, just a focus on the fun!” -pk1kids

How To Draw For Kids

There are many great books and video tutorials that will help your kids learn how to draw. Try to find something simple and model side-by-side with your child how to draw a simple image. Then work on adding some complexity to the drawing.

One of the best ways to teach younger kids how to draw is to begin with simple shapes and then add components to make them into objects, animals, characters etc. Another way to get started in this type of thinking is to begin with a shape cut out of construction paper.

This is a great activity for even toddlers and younger preschoolers. Have kids then add decorations and lines to their cut out construction paper shape to turn it into something that they recognize.

When your kids are ready for it, you can begin discussing background, middle ground and foreground with them. Have them draw a background such as in ocean and sky, then add a kid playing on the beach and a sandcastle in the foreground. Teaching kids to draw this way can help unlock a different way of seeing and drawing.

Giving kids a background like this helps unlock their creativity so they can begin drawing. Even preschoolers can learn to draw this way.

Ideas To Teach Your Kids How To Draw

Here are some ideas to help you teach your kids how to draw

1. Use an level appropriate drawing book
2. Use a light table and begin tracing simple drawings.
3. Start with different shapes, then turn them into drawings
4. Challenge them to draw characters and scenes from their favorite shows
5. Look in story books for simple characters they want to try to draw, then help them copy it.
6. Frame their artwork, or put in on the fridge to share with the family at dinner time.

“To inspire your young ones to draw and create art, let them draw, color, or paint daily. Just keep putting crayons and paint brushes in their hands and see what happens!” -pk1kids

Teach Drawing To Preschool & Kindergarten Kids

It can be incredibly exciting when your child starts drawing things that you actually recognize. I still have pictures saved from when my kids were toddlers and they began drawing blobs with stick arms and eyeballs and smiles. Those are some of the best memories my husband and I have from when our kids were super little.

If you’re interested in teaching your preschooler or kindergartener how to draw, remember to always focus on the fun and prioritize the enjoyment of drawing. You don’t need a special curriculum or super organized plan.

The best thing you can do to teach a preschooler or kindergartener how to draw is to simply keep placing pencils and crayons and markers into their hands and putting papers in front of them.

Again, using backgrounds like the ones in this post can be a huge tool you can use to inspire your young kids to draw. You could even make your own version of these from different ideas that you have. You can even turn this into a game and just have a fun time together.

Drawing games are really fun especially if you have a large family and everyone’s at a different level. Even your youngest kids can play. As long as they can hold a crayon, they can get in on the fun and try drawing whatever you say.

This is a great thing to do at the breakfast table or at lunch or just as a way to break up a crazy day that’s not going well for you. Have all your kids sit around the table with paper or even these draw-a-scene backgrounds and together come up with things to draw. Try saying something like who can draw the biggest dinosaur or who can draw the cutest little pig.

Sometimes we really want to teach our kids how to draw, but we don’t know where to start. Using a background like this can really help! Draw some dinosaurs, a lizard, a sparkling pool of water – whatever your kiddo would love to see in the desert!

How Do You Teach Drawing To Preschoolers?

Preschoolers in particular are still often still in the scribbling stage. But that’s okay too! After all, scribbling is drawing. It might not look much to you but to them they often know exactly what they drew. Other kids aren’t even trying to draw anything in particular but they just like the feel of a crayon sliding against the paper. Even though it doesn’t look like much there’s a lot of things going on developmentally here. Their brain is training their hands to move in a way that they’re directing it too. They’re working on trying to grasp an object and move it across another object and this is also kinesthetic development. Now they’re getting into fine motor skills.

When your little ones begin to see what they’re drawing and attempt to change and make something that they want to make on the page – that’s when their artistic abilities creativity is beginning to come out. So even if your child is making a complete mess of their paper, be encouraged that something wonderful is happening there.

How Do You Teach Drawing To Kindergarteners?

Once your child is getting into kindergarten you’ll begin to see some more interesting and fun drawings come out of them. At this point your kids can start trying to draw things that they see in their mind or start drawing things in response to a prompt or a game.

If you’re trying to figure out how to teach your kindergartener to draw make sure you keep it fun from the start. There are few books on Amazon you can get that make drawing for kindergarteners easy. Even when your kid is in kindergarten they still might be having some difficulty making the pen and pencil go the way that they want it to. Make sure to keep your drawing assignments and activities short and simple. Take your cues from your child and follow whatever is fun for them when they begin drawing. If you start seeing the frustration build and the tears welling in their eyes, it’s time to switch gears. Just remember that they’re going to follow you and your attitude and emotional response. Keep things light and fun and make drawing a relaxing, creative time.

Best Free How To Draw Videos On YouTube

Following along with a how to draw video on YouTube is a great idea for kids that can handle more complicated drawing tasks. The great thing about using YouTube videos is that they can be paused,started over, and even watched i a slower speed.

Our favorite YouTube channels for younger kids learning to draw are:

Art For Kids Hub

HooplaKidz Doodle – Learn How To Draw

ART and LEARN

OKIDOKIDS_Drawing for Kids

Drawing Supplies For Preschool, Kindergarten & 1st Grade

If your kiddo is really into drawing, you might be tempted to buy them lots of high quality drawing tools. You will be better off saving those big purchases for when they’re older. For now, invest in lots of different types of writing implements, sketchbooks, and art supplies so they can explore their creativity.

Providing a variety of crayons, markers, and special pencils will help your kids learn to draw because they’ll be excited about it!

Best Drawing Supplies For Kids

Make sure you invest in lots of different types of drawing of pencils and drawing supplies. When your kids are young you don’t necessarily need to invest in the highest quality materials. Instead, invest in different types of materials. Of course you’ll have your pencils and paper, but try different types of pencils like triangle pencils and shorter, fatter pencils for small hands. Even some comfortable grips will be helpful.

We really like using the erasable colored pencils from Crayola because they allow kids to draw and color but they can still erase what they perceive to be a mistake. This is a huge help when your kids are wanting to draw because it could be frustrating when you make a mistake if you can’t erase it and start over.

Markers are super fun, too. We absolutely love the big scented markers.

When it comes to buying crayons I say always go for the big giant box. I personally feel that choosing the big box of crayons that has the multiple shades can help spark creativity in your kids’ drawing. But there are also a lot of different types of crayons that your kids can use. There are peanut shaped crayons and fingertip crayons and even egg-shaped crayons that all make coloring and drawing fun.

So instead of investing in really expensive drawing tools that your kid may or may not enjoy, I suggest investing in multiple types of supplies so that your child can try different types of medium.

There are even some pastels that are better for kids, glitter pens, gel pens and gel pens that work on really dark paper. The more types of things you can give your kids to try out, the more you’ll spark their imagination and boost their creativity.

Mermaids, sunken treasure, and a variety of sea creatures can be drawn on this background! Teach your child to draw a simple fish by drawing an oval and adding some fins 🙂

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