How Aanya's Art Changed Over Time...Part 2

In one of my earlier post (Link: Zero-Four: How Aanya's Art Changed Over Time), I posted some of Aanya's artwork from Age 0 to Age 4 and saw how both writing and art gradually changed over time and how it's becoming more controlled and complex as she's growing.

One thing I know, Each child is different and they all develop at different speeds and different ways. After all, it's not a competition. However, when it comes to Art, there are some clear stages that all kids pass through and it's quite exciting to follow those stages, like what I have been doing, and enjoy some wonderful artwork they create over the years.

So, continuing from where I left last, At age 4.5 years, Aanya uses her imagination to draw anything that is in her mind at that time of drawing. She makes pictures of things that are "known to her", rather than "as seen", so there is less perspective or scale involved.

That's 'Frozen' princesses in a spiky castle. 

That's Sea Gorilla

That's a boy holding a balloon

A Fox going to Bed

That's a happy butterfly flying near a happy flower

To encourage her thought process, I sometimes give her a theme like "Draw something that you saw at school today", "Draw something that you read about", "Draw an animal"....A recent example would be our Botanical Garden trip and I asked her to draw whatever she saw there. And this is what is drew...

Interesting, right? Now, in order to encourage her skills, besides doing all 4 that I mentioned in my last blog, I have added 3 more.

1. Me time: Being a single child, it's quite difficult to keep her entertained or busy all the time. So, after she comes back from school, I give a half an hour of Me time to her and to myself, where both of us do something on our own. Either read book or draw, in separate rooms.

2. Wall Artwork: One entire wall of her room is devoted to her artwork. Just a single wall, and not the entire house where she can glue pictures here and there. And only those pictures make up to the art wall that are good. And who will decide if the picture is good? Ofcourse Me. So she knows, she has to work hard in order for her work to be displayed.

3. Capacity Building: I believe in capacity building. From time to time, I teach her to draw things. Like how to draw a house, a bird, a butterfly, dog...

So, there we are. More on the artwork subject will come as she grows. But in the meantime, try looking out for some of the art and writing milestones your kids pass on the way and treasure them.

Please do share with us, how you encourage your child to creativity?