When a small child is born it has little motor control over its limbs and head.  Over a period of months, the child starts to gain momentum and control in the movements. It usually starts with their hands. First, they will look at the hand and move the fingers slowly. Once this process starts, it gets better and better with time. Each child had their opportunity to attempt many eye pokes and pull wads of hair.

So how does this help us to draw? Hand-eye co-ordination is conducive to drawing. If you see it, but your hand does do what you want it to do, the movement has no value.

WE Can learn hand-eye co-ordination.

When my daughter started scribbling at one year old I noticed it was unique. She did not scribble. she carefully and slowly created small circular shapes. Hand-eye co-ordination at such an early year was there. I went home to see what I had done when I was younger. My mother kept all our school projects but finally removed them 6 months before I arrived. So I monitored the next child and It was not the same. But when my daughters first born was nearly 1 I noticed the same style. Today both my daughter and the 7-year-old,  have great art skills.

There is a number of things that can help develop skill hand-eye co-ordination in small children.

1. Cutting detail shapes with scissors.
2. Tracing pictures accurately.
3. Making models…etc.
4. Taking time to examine things closely. [ I will post later ]

Anything that requires precision with your hands and eyes.

2. Drawing exercises that were encouraged every day for my daily journal at school were to draw the outline of an object without looking at your paper. It does not look pretty but it helps you to develop a better control of the pencil.

 

The other was to draw straight lines and circles by hand. This was a weekly assignment. Our Art teachers theory was if Aztecs could draw a straight line without a ruler why can’t we. Mind you, our first couple of months the lines were somewhat squiggly in most parts.  and our circles were interesting. but near the end of the year, you could produce this.

I came across a site by Marina Fridman is a Canadian multi-media artist and drawing teacher. She has dedicated this website to help people to learn how to draw. Her step by step approach is elegant and simply put together.

She touches everything that I have been showing others over the last 30 yrs. I highly recommend checking out her website. It would take me years to compose these type of lessons. You will not regret it

http://www.thedrawingsource.com/

 

What are the Basic Elements of Drawing?

This is a good question. Here is a small section of my notes taken in my college Art class. For many years I was already drawing what I thought I saw for years. But this series of points help me to see more into what I was drawing or painting. I keep this list in my mind when I review the painting or drawing.

 Line  [Line is the most familiar and versatile way to express a drawing] it describes surfaces, it separates one form from another

Form  [It defines shape] 

Value  [ A scale of shades from light to dark]

Space [ negative and positive ]

Contrast [ light and darks ] 

Colour [ the light particles that bounce back to your eye from the source ][Tones and value]

Shadow and reflection [ such as the reflection in an eye or the shadow to create depth]

Perspective [ viewpoint or vantage point]

Exercise.

Pick a point in the list above and look around the room. Pick out an object. Can you see all these points above in the object you are looking at?  Practice this exercise for a number of days and see how it changes your view of what you see.

 

 

    Line                                                   

   Form          

Negative and positive space         

 

Value            

 

Colour                   

 

 Reflection   and Shadow      

 

 

 

I would like to introduce this Video by a gracious Children’s book Illustrator, Martin Wright.  He created this video in a simple, straight to the point, directions on how to set up and create your children’s book. Thanks to this video I now am able to set up my paintings and drawings for my book in the fashion that will achieve what I want.

18 things you need to know to illustrate a children’s book

Simply click on the link above in bold

Last Month I started illustrating some of my children’s stories. It has been kind of exciting and long overdue. This is a rough sketch of one of the pages. 

I have had some nice suggestions and was able to do a watercolor. that will come later.

This afternoon I went through some old art pieces in  my bedroom and I happen to find some of the first photography pieces that I had done in the dark room. One was on composition and the other one  was on  black-and-white portraiture with composition. I was working on contrast and composition.

I really loved doing this at the college because we had a a press to help mount our photos. one of them is photo mounted on foam board and the other one is not and you’ll notice that the second one did not show as well. Looking back at the photos I never realized until now, being more experienced in photography and editing, that in the dark room, I could have manipulated the Overexposed part of the photo by using less exposure on the photo paper in that particular corner.

The upper part of the stairs is also very exposed and I could have changed that in the dark room. Well, of course, that was 33 years ago and I  was not very experienced. These old photos to bring back a lot of memories.

last week was my mom and dads 56th wedding anniversary. So  I started to jot down all the things that I appreciated about my parents and their marriage and how it contributed to helping me enjoy life in my married life. list of things.
Mom and dad always showed open affection to each other. As children we always knew that they loved each other. Mom was very supportive and always looked after us kids. She taught me how to paint walls she’s a good listener and always was straight forward to with her advice. She was my first art teacher. I remember when I was very little she used to draw me a man.  You know, to this day I still remember that drawing whenever I sit down and think about it.
….I had the privilege of helping my dad in the shop for 12 years and spending time with him while he was working on vehicle’s. He was always generous and helpful and spontaneously …always got up and helped others when they needed a hand. When I was 12, my sister and I climbed into the attic and we found a box. In there was a bunch of trinkets from a long time ago. We found a cherry blossom box and it never had been opened so, we asked my mom what was the cherry blossom box doing up in in the box upstairs in the Attic. She explained. “Well I was pregnant for you and we were in Toronto and I was having a craving for cherry blossom.. so your father got up in the middle of the night and he went to the store and it was closed, went to another store and he spent the whole night looking for cherry blossom. By the time he came home late in the morning I was already fast asleep and she never did eat that cherry blossom. ” I sure love that story. And they’re still living happily ever after. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.
Love Jacqueline…