I remember, as a child, I really disliked art classes at school. I’m not sure why, exactly, but it was a lesson I would do the bare minimum of to get through. In secondary school it was lumped together with Drama, Music and 3D (I still don’t know what 3D was!) and Art was the one I really disliked doing.
Now, as an adult looking back it surprises me that it wasn’t a subject I enjoyed. I have always been fairly crafty and creative, often making things or having a go at various crafts. I want the children to have a creative outlet and the older two have started music lessons which are proving popular!
They all enjoyed the recent bookmark making that we did and have enjoyed the bits and pieces we have done with hand sewing over the last year. E and H in particular like drawing so I thought I’d turn to YouTube for some inspiration.
Why YouTube?
There are plenty of ‘how to’ draw guides available but I have seen a couple of people sharing things on Instagram from YouTube so I thought it was worth a look. I found this one below and thought we would have a look at it together.
I chose YouTube as it’s easy to top and pause the video as we went along, as well as having plenty of choice. Watching another person draw as they explain seemed to be more beneficial than the children following a written instruction.
Materials
For this particular ‘lesson’ we had some A3 paper, wax crayons and watercolour paints. We laid them out on the table and followed the instructions in the video. I really liked this video as the instructions are really clear and the video itself is well made and well lit, meaning it’s pretty easy to see and follow along with.
As we were drawing four different animals, it was really easy to see a quick drawing – meaning it kept the children’s interest as we went along.
The children had a good go at this; H ended up just drawing the four boxes and painting them but the other two did a good job of following along.
They really enjoyed using wax crayon and watercolours to draw with and they were pleased with the end results. I’m definitely going to look out for a few more tutorials and incorporate some regular drawing work like this into our home education.
