A Silly Creative Exercise

Recently, Spoonflower hosted a contest for fabrics designed by children. My 4 year old niece Rowan entered a fabric design of her own. She drew it using a Wacom tablet.

It is called "Cats, Bugs & More." I just love the little swirls and strange creatures.

This got me thinking about the drawing style of a young person. Have you ever deliberately tried to draw like a small child? It is actually quite difficult to capture the uninhibited abandon they place in their lines and forms. I took a few minutes today to actually try it.

My first attempt was these three faces. I used a Sharpie marker on heavy paper. I held the pen in my wrong hand (my right) and I drew with my eyes closed. The misplacement of features came out semi-authentic to a small child’s drawing, but the lines are much too deliberate—the curves too smooth because I was imagining the shapes I wanted rather than just drawing what I felt...

My second attempt is a little better—here I created three animals—I will let you guess what those animals are. ;] This time, I held the pen by the very end tip so that my lines lacked the typical leverage of a firm grip. I was very afraid I might take the pen off the paper while my eyes were closed and end up writing on my desk or my computer—I guess that is also authentic to a small child ;].

This exercise was a good break from my typical art making sessions and I highly recommend it if you need a little 'time out.'

In Summary, here is how to draw like a small child

• Clear your mind
• Close your eyes
• Hold the pen or marker in your wrong hand
• Hold the pen by the very end tip so your lines are shaky
• Keep the cap off the marker for long periods of time so the lines become irregular due to drying out—little kids seldom remember such trivial things as marker caps ;p
• Don’t perform this exercise near any furniture you care about ;]

If you do this--I would love to see your results!