Describing animals through drawings

Describing animals through drawings

Since last week, I have been asking my students to pick their favorite animal and describe it in as much detail as possible. And my students have successfully completed their task.

In fact, it is not easy for young students to observe objects as closely as possible and draw pictures. However, by doing so, students can further develop their drawing skills.

If students are learning to draw and cannot draw the things they like as realistically as possible, they will feel frustrated. As a teacher of drawing, I tend to help students learn to express themselves as realistically as possible. I think it is more progressive to finish realistic descriptions first and then use creativity to draw the world they imagine. This is because there are many skills that must be learned first when drawing, and these cannot be ignored.

When most people start painting, they tend to just paint with simple and bold brush strokes, just like an impressionist painter, omitting many things. However, if this happens repeatedly, it is easy to miss the details that need to be learned. If you skip steps without learning the details, you will miss the opportunity to improve your painting skills.

In this sense, nature is a good teacher and model to learn how to draw. Just by drawing the small birds around you, there are many things you can learn, such as the direction of the feathers, the color, the reflection of the eyes, the pose, and the perspective. And if you master these, you will be able to capture the energy or feeling hidden in the bird. I know well the joy of using metaphors for objects to change them into your own feelings or to convey the message you want to convey. And I hope that students can reach this level. In this sense, drawing is a good medium to learn the joy of self-growth when you practice steadily and learn the details.