Drawing with Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too

Mona Brookes was hired by Gertrude Dietz, the director of a preschool, to teach realistic drawing to 100 four- and five-year-olds. When she sought curricula, she found none. About her experience she said, "Thank goodness Gertrude and I were ignorant of the prevailing philosophy that said you shouldn't give young children any guided instruction in the field of drawing. We assumed it was acceptable to give basic instruction in drawing, since this was true for music, dance, and all the other artistic subjects."

With her composer neighbor, Elliot Day, she broke down the basic components of vision as one would break down a musical composition. This led to devising an "alphabet of shape" that consisted of five basic elements. Any object that a student wants to draw can be simply analyzed in terms of how these five elements of shape are combined. The result is that every child can achieve realistic representation of subjects to be drawn.

Buy Drawing with Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too and contribute to the taking back of the arts from the godless. This book teaches the "grammar of art" and is useful for any age level but particularly kindergarten through sixth grade.