For a non-artistic parent (or even an artistic one), the thought of teaching a child art can be very intimidating! Many people make art out to be a mystical sort of discipline that is difficult to impart to a student, and while many technical skills sometimes require a skilled teacher to teach, students can also learn on their own. For the natural artist, the lack of a teacher is no real impediment, as most art can be self-taught with enough focused effort and time put into learning it.
Pencil drawings are a simple way for an artist to start, but they can grow as elaborate and beautiful as the artist’s skill allows. Your student can learn the basics of form, shading, pencil tones and technique through sketching household members, pets, landscapes, and objects. It requires patience and time to learn how to properly draw, so don’t be surprised to see stick figures and wobbly shapes at first. If you aren’t good at critiquing art yourself, you can give your child instruction books or use them to assign projects and grade how well they have done.
Some children don’t like the graphite smudges and lines of drawing, but prefer painting. The same basic techniques must still be learned when painting, plus more skills, such as how to properly mix paint colors and other techniques depending on whether your child uses oil, acrylic or watercolor paints. These media are flexible, and your child might get a kick out of being able to decorate his or her own desk some weekend!
For those who don’t like the above types of art, a more precise and sometimes easier type of art to learn is how to create models or origami. Paper models of different objects will test your child’s geometry skills and patience, but they can look stunning once complete. The Japanese art of origami is similar, using simple paper folds to create fantastic figurines of all sorts. Buying your child an origami book and a pack of square paper can yield hours and hours of fun, and new household or fridge decorations, Christmas ornaments, and more.
Sculptures are another tactile form of art, and while sculpting is messier and requires more materials and a big working environment, plus a way to dry or harden the figurines, most kids enjoy it. If your child particularly enjoys it, he or she may consider doing handmade clay pottery or creating artistic sculptures from clay, paper mache, or all sorts of materials that can be found around the house.
Even if your child isn’t artistic at all, he or she may still enjoy learning about art history. Famous paintings and works of art are worth being familiar with, if only so that they can make conversation at the cocktail party when they’re a famous doctor or lawyer!
The common saying is that a skill takes ten thousand hours of focused effort to master. You can begin helping your child towards that number with art lessons and projects, and if he or she is interested, you may end up the parent of a famous artist someday.