Friday, March 6, 2009

Andre's functional art

Lilian requested for posts on scribble games, but I couldn't find any. I think we dumped them when we'd finished playing. So instead, I dug around for some of the drawings my kids have done. This post is on Andre's work, I will post Lesley-Anne's tomorrow.

This is the earliest "drawing" I have of Andre's. It was done when he was three and it's supposed to be a picture of mummy and daddy.

I don't know which is supposed to be me (I hope it's not the long faced one!) I also don't know why we're not smiling. I think he could only manage circles and straight lines then, he found it hard to manipulate the pencil to draw more complex shapes. But one thing I noticed about Andre's drawings is that he tends to draw big pictures that fill up the paper. That's still his style now.

His drawings are also what I call functional, ie he zooms in on the important stuff. His people tend to be stick figures because he can't be bothered with filling in the details. His focus is on the story that the picture is telling, aesthetics are a mere accessory. Like this one where he had to draw his favourite Olympic sport. No prizes for guessing what sport he chose! (He spent more time drawing the court and the net than the people... hey, they're playing doubles!)

Below is a recent drawing he did. I don't know what is it about kids that they must have the mandatory sun, clouds and birds when creating an outdoor scene. Anyway, this is a city drawing with traffic, skyscrapers... and giant birds. Sorry it's so faint, if you can't see the words, there's "Beap!" "Move!" and "I am trying!" Looks like there's a traffic jam.

6 comments:

  1. Don't say kids lah, when I draw pictures of scenery, I still have birds and clouds and also a sun at one corner.

    His drawing when he was 3 seems pretty advanced. I wonder if the fact that he draws big pictures is related to his confidence, ie he is a confident and bold boy. I've read that those with bold, strong handwriting are also bold in life. Wondering if it's the same with drawings.

    Looking forward to Lesley-Anne's drawings tomorrow.

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  2. HEy Mon, I really like the badmnton game picture! He's got a good eye for details, and he takes full advantage of the whole paper.

    And the picture of Mom and Dad - there's the start of his shape play. All the eyes , ears and noses are circles. The mouths are straight lines cos he hadn't thought of semi-circles yet lah!

    I just love kids' drawings. It shows what the world looks like through their eyes. How endearing!

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  3. Sean too draws stick figures. Lately he's into drawing really tiny figures that tell a story. Some are quite funny.

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  4. Lilian: I was wondering too, what it meant that he draws big pictures. Lesley-Anne is the opposite - her drawings are small with lots of blank space (like mine when I was young).

    Ad: I love kids' drawings too! I have a friend who's an art therapist, maybe I shd go find out what the drawings mean :P

    Eunice: post some of Sean's pics! It's always fun to see kids' drawings, sometimes they're completely unexpected.

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  5. Hi Eunice, yeah, post some pics pls!! I haven't gone in to look at your blog (sorry, I'm assuming you have one). Would be great tot see the teeny figures!

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  6. You may need to fish out your magnifying glasses to see his pics. Monica, copied your idea and wrote a post on Sean's drawings.

    Aclovelet: Hi, my blog is www.sawasdeelah.blogspot.com All comments are welcomed!

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