Your Child is an Artist #5

On Criticism

When we critique our children's artwork, Zaidenberg suggests we consider:

1)How interested was my child in the object and the problem?

2)How much ingenuity and imagination did my child bring to the drawing?

3)How closely did my child emulate the appearance of the object?*

*Least important

I love this quote from page 76: 

"[T]he exact simulation of an object is far less important than is a unique viewpoint and imagination and intensity of observation."

Regarding Number 1, to get a child interested in an object, we have to present the object - like an apple - so we "awaken in him a purposeful approach. If you want him to draw an apple, accompany the request that he draw it with a preamble which will make the apple an object of importance and even romance."

Zaidenberg suggests telling the story of William Tell, or Newton and the apple.

(Reading that made me think of how one could tell the myth of Persephone and then have students draw a pomegranate, or the fable "The Fox and the Grapes" and then have students draw a cluster of grapes.)

"Seeking constructive critical points"

To offer our children constructive criticism, Zaidenberg says we can examine their drawings for the following:

1)Sureness and quality of his lines

2)General proportions

3)An understanding of elements of perspective

4)A feeling for composition

5)Color quality

6)An understanding of light, its source and shadows and their cause

7)Subject matter and mood

If you'd like to read the other posts in this series, here they are:

#1

#2

#3

#4