In working with children in trying to teach them some rudimentary drawing or-pre-drawing activities, you may think that negative space is too difficult for little kids to grasp.

For those of you who are not sure what negative space is I will discuss it a bit.

When you see a tree with its branches splayed out across a blue sky the branches,  the leaves, and the tree trunk is the positive space and that is the way most of us attempt to draw. (and why so many of us fail because we think the only way to draw is by drawing the positive space)

Betty Edwards the author of Drawing on The Right Side of  the Brain spends lots of time talking about negative space. The negative space is what you see between those branches. The problem is we are not used to seeing that way and we need to spend a good deal of time looking at the  object until the negative spaces jump into focus as shapes themselves.

In her book Ms. Edwards discusses the phenomenon of how when adults learn to SEE negative space and draw a picture concentrating on those shapes that they see as negative space then their drawing skills take a monumental leap.

In researching for this drawing series I came cross a really simple activity in one of Mary Ann F. Kohl’s wonderful books on art for children, to   to help young children understand what negative space  is

This activity may make some children a bit queasy as they may not  like  painting on a whole paper with holes, but it will start teaching even young children the concept of negative space.

Basically all that you do is take a piece of newsprint or any paper that your child was going to paint on. Either you or the child depending on their age) can cut a hole or any shape  in the paper and have them paint on the paper USING the hole as part of the picture.

This does take a bit of imagination and creativity and if you use the words negative space when discussing their picture, they will really start to understand it as part of the painting or drawing process.

This activity should not be done until the children have had enough time painting on whole sheets of paper before painting on a paper with a hole.

This is really just an initial first experience with negative space and we will be doing more activities with it in the future.

Art therapy is often used for seniors in nursing homes. At least that’s how some people I know think of it.

That may be true but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

I recently came across an interview done an another blog that has a wonderful interview from an art therapist that has opened up art classes for young children in the Washington D.C. area.

By reading this interview  art therapy from an art therapists perspective,you will have a really  nice, clear understanding of what art therapy is all about and how it applies to young children.

Children do not have to have serious psychological problems to benefit from art therapy.

Wassily Kandinsky was a very well known abstract artist yet, he did not even start out as an artist.  He actually was a lawyer and first and did not begin studying art until he was about 30years old. ( Proof that you CAN teach old dogs new tricks.)

Kandinsky started painting  after the impressionists and was the first artist to actually move away from any form of realism in his pictures.

He painted pure design, concentrating on color and design, which he felt had meaning in themselves.

He was a musician as well as an artist and thought of complex paintings as symphonies.

Children can start following some of Kandinsky’s style fo course by first vewing some of his work.

A great first activity would be to listen to music and paint to the music itself using bright watercolors, or bright tempra if that is what you have.

Choose  a piece of music that is not boring and let the children lie  quietly and listen to it without moving. Then play it  a second time.

The third time give the children paintbrushes and paint and let them paint to the music You can pick a piece of music that has very different sounds in it. Make sure it is not a long piece as the children will have no patience to listen to anything too long.

After the children are done you should discuss with them how the music made them feel and how that translated into the movements they made on their papers.

The truth is I have seen this activity done with other drawing materials as well. The thing that would make it Kandinsky like here would be to use watercolors  or pure bright colors ( which was  something common in  Kandinsky’s work) and to just let the children create design with no end idea in mind.

I found some other activities on another art blog that are great additions to creating some more of Kandinsky type art work for children.

If you have never seen any of Kandinsky’s work you can easily find more about him online but just check out some of Kandinskys work to get an idea of what you can expect from the children.

I happen to love Kandinsky because aside from the fact that I love his colors and designs, for children it is great as his work is in museums, sells for high prices and yet any child can feel that they could easily do what he does.

What a confidence builder.

(I don’t know how he himself would feel about that though.)

Claude Monet  is a great artist to start with introducing art education to kids.

Monet was was a french painter who was considered one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement. The Impressionists painted what they saw and felt as opposed to the exact replica of what there actually was. (Sounds like our toddlers doesn’t it?)

You can get  a condensed picture of Monets life for children.

Monet’s style was such, that he used short brushstrokes and dabs of paint. He used splashes of beautiful colors and painted many flowe and pond scenes in the sunlight.

He wold try to catch the light and reflection in his paintings.

Monet for kids is actually a great starter to bringing culture and art into a child life for a few reasons.

1. He was often not happy with his work and ripped things up and started over and over again. Children need models of artists that are not perfect. When they hear that a famous artist was often not happy with his paintings, it will make them feel like they can also make mistakes and start over.
2. He didn’t paint much realism. I happen to be  firm believer in not giving children  realistic artist to learn from as there is alot more room for error for them. They don’t have to know when they are very young that most of these very successful non realistic artists were in actuality very proficient realists. They just chose to express themselves differently.
3. His style is loose and easy and his techniques are quite easy to follow.

You can view more of Monets paintings at this site and many others to get an idea if you are not familiar with his work.

Below is an activity that the children can do that will help them emulate Monet’s style as they are learning about him at the same time.

Gather some postcards or books from the library that have some of Monet’s images so the children get an idea of what techniques they are trying to emulate. Show them how it looks when the brush is smushed down on the paper as opposed to drawing

Let the children experiment with a  paintbrush on a paper by dabbing and smushing the brush down. Then wet the paper and have them do the same.

Compare the results.

See if you can set up some flowers or have them paint outside in a sunny area.

Let the children decide if they want to paint on the dry paper or the wet paper whichever will give them more of Monet’s feel.

Once they decide, let them look around at either the outdoor surrounding or a flowery setup that you have created for them and them paint using the dabbing and short strokes of Monet.

Art Education is a large field. there are hundreds of books, videos, classes and websites that teach art education.

Art Education is different for early childhood education as is most education for preschool, kindergarten and early elementary school age children.

Basically in order for young children to learn anything, lessons need to be as hands on as possible. Therefor art education can be handled in a few different ways.

One way is to actually teach about artists and their art. Take children to museums to experience the art of various artists. Have many books in the classrooms and invite other artists in to discuss these famous artists.

But the best way to really teach children about the different artist and their techniques is actually have the children USE  many of the techniques these artist used. When learning about Van Gogh, try to imitate his style, when learning about Seraut, try to imitate his etc.

At the same time the children can be viewing lots of these artists works to get a feel of how they painted.

For very young children I am of the firm belief that we must start with more abstract artist. This way children do not get intimidated by seeing so many realistic pictures that they know they cannot emulate.

Mondrian, Kandinsky and Pollack are just some of the artist that children can be exposed to. This way they will feel like they also can be artists.

As they start with their first attempts and are shown what real bona fide artisst have done that hang in museums they will feel that they can empathize and do as well as them.

Mary Ann F Kohl has wonderful book called Discovering Great Artists.

I will be using alot of her  materials along with other materials I have found to help you give your children and students wonderful art experiences to help them along in their own art education at the same time.

I will try to give you a little bit of background about the artist along with what techniques they used with some links so that you will be able to view their work if you are not familiar with it.

I will start with the first artist in the next post in this series.