I bought my 3.75 year old daughter a pantogragh today, and although she loves it, she hasn't got a clue how to use it properly.
It came with a few indented thin white plastic templates, and although the idea is that you trace round the ridges to produce a graphic on a piece of paper at the other end of the pantograph, she decided that it would be better to just colour them in with the pens provided.
I was in one room, painting the walls, and she was happily chatting to herself in the other. After fifteen minutes or so, she came to me with the fruits of her labour.
"Daddy, this one's for Joe, this one's for George, and this one's for Milly."
I'll gladly admit that I shed a tear. Mainly because of her warm-hearted, generous nature, but also because she'd diligently filled in all the grooves of the templates with different colours.
It struck me that compared to her usual artwork, this was an end product that was not only recognisable, but it also actually looked really good.
Although the tools she used are already baked and on the open market, I think that they could be marketed and used for a slightly different purpose.
Packs of templates could be sold with several different coloured pens, and the sole aim is to fill the grooves with colour. The ink is water soluble, so when a picture has been completed, it can simply be wiped clean for repeat use.-- jtp, Sep 12 2007 Doodleart http://www.doodleart.ca/main.htm [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 16 2007] You can already buy grooved templates for children to fill in with paint or food. They are called "computer keyboards". However, [+]-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 12 2007 Sorry. I was merely referring to the fact that my daughter coloured in all the grooves between the keys on my laptop with a glitter pen when she was three. Kids are so cute.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 12 2007 You should have told them to piss off. It's your art, you'll draw fat boundaries if you see fit.-- jtp, Sep 12 2007 //Because children (under a certain age) can't draw.// What do you mean by "drawing"?-- xenzag, Sep 12 2007 //So what ages do kids like drawing round things or within things, rather than setting their own boundaries ?//
Kids like drawing, period. This is just an alternative to the standard 'freestyle'.-- jtp, Sep 12 2007 //What do you mean by "drawing"? //
OK, I should have put 'create a recognisable replication of their intended artistic interpretation of an image in their mind.'
Not quite so catchy though, is it?-- jtp, Sep 12 2007 That's a very limited view of drawing. Drawing can be an unconscious response or process, with no reference to anything other than the pleasure of watching marks being made on a surface. You can for example, draw with a stick on the surface of a pond, and leave no impression... There is no "right way to draw". I just don't accept the notion that children below a certain age cannot draw. Oh well, rant, rant - get your daugher to draw this croissant. +-- xenzag, Sep 13 2007 templates are baked or they used to be anyway.
not a great way for a child to learn to draw though, although they just might inspire an inclination to learn I suppose.-- po, Sep 13 2007 Yes - I too am not a fan of templates or things to colour in. They have their uses but stifle imagination.-- hippo, Sep 13 2007 Ahrgh. I could swear I've seen this - coloring books with raised lines. The idea is that pictures "magically" appear. (I hate that. People shouldn't learn to expect something for nothing, least of all kids. Makes them gullible.)
You know how you can make rubbings off gravestones etc. by putting a sheet of paper on top of a stone? You could have not so much templates but different textures that kids can apply to areas they're drawing on by putting the paper on top of the template, then rubbing with a sideways crayon. Not good for learning to draw, but great preparation for using Photoshop. Hm.
I had a really, really great book as a kid that explained step-by-step how to draw stick figures and animals - simple shapes that a kid can really draw and modify, associated with real things and little stories that their imagination can run with. Wish I could remember the title!-- jutta, Sep 13 2007 [BrauBeaton] I see you were a member of the junior infantry too. Except my troop was allowed trousers.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 13 2007 [BrauBeaton] makes my sides hurt. = )
[jutta], i had a Barbie paperdoll coloring kit that included pants/skirt/dress/shirt outlines in hard plastic with different textures all for the purpose of rubbing a crayon across them. it got boring after a while.
as to this idea; sure why not. kids are still going to have the chance to color on a plain sheet of paper/doors/walls etc, without boundaries or guidelines, so why not something that kind of forms their scribbles into a cohesive whole once in a while? +-- k_sra, Sep 13 2007 If you made the grooves out of shallow magnetic strips (imagine those flat refrigerator magnets with little words, but longer and with contrasting dark grooves), you could manipulate them into a shape on a magnetic board, then lay the paper over it and color in the grooves. You could reuse strips and paper over and over.-- bungston, Sep 14 2007 I've changed the Summary for this idea, as I think it gave many people the wrong impression. It is *not* intended to stifle creativity in children, or to replace 'freestyle' drawing. It's simply another activity for children to enjoy. Ho hum...-- jtp, Sep 15 2007 I haven't read all of the annos, so excuse me if someone already mentioned this, but there are velvety posters that have white board, with raised velvet outlines that the kids just color in between. It's sort of what you are thinking. (or so I think)-- xandram, Sep 16 2007 That's the first thing that popped into my head to Xan.
[link]-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 16 2007 [xandram] - I was thinking more of the outlines being sunken, so that *only* the outlines get filled in, but it's basically the same principle.
[2 fries] - Wow! There's a blast from the past! God knows how many hours I spent filling in DoodleArt posters when I was a kid. Thanks for the nostalgia.-- jtp, Sep 16 2007 random, halfbakery