drawanyway.com

As you’ll know if you have read the About page on Draw Anyway, one of the biggest reasons I found myself not drawing any more was that I had become a parent. The constant attention that a child needs just doesn’t fit with the concentration needed for proper artwork. And so Draw Anyway was born, espousing the idea that if you can’t spend hours on a painting, you might as well make a virtue out of quick, unplanned artwork. After all, there’s plenty that’s beneficial about that approach, as I hope you’ll agree if you’ve been reading the past few months’ posts.

But there are other ways of fitting art into your life around a child, and of course one of the nicest of these is to draw with your child. I know it’s not rocket science, but when I realised that, it was a huge weight off my mind. Put it down to nappy brain.

Here’s a little game that can be adapted to different ages. The idea is that your child picks a letter of the alphabet, and then you think of words beginning with that letter, and draw them.

My daughter is only two, so she’d need a lot of guidance on this one; she knows her letters, but thinking of words? Beyond her. Kids of three and up, on the other hand, should be able to think of words and have a good go at drawing them as well.

But don’t let them do all the drawing. Part of the fun for the child is ordering up a picture, and seeing you draw it to their command. If they are particularly imaginative or mischievous, they’ll soon start demanding difficult concepts.

All the better - because what you get out of this game is a constant challenge to your drawing abilities. If you make a rule that you can’t say ‘no’ to any of the suggestions, you’ll be amazed at what you discover you can draw after all. After all, who’s watching? Only a child, not Brian Sewell.

If you’ve finished the game but your kids are still keen, you can get out your pens and pencils and colour them in. Or scan your drawings in to the computer and have all the fun of colouring them in with Photoshop.