Encouraging Your Little Budding Artist To Grow

Artists will grow with encouragement and affirmations.

Recognize your child's efforts and progress. Teach them to value the creative process over the art products that they produce. Remember the value for children is in the process of exploration, and self expression and not a focus on a specific result or product. Accept the sometimes experimental works that children make and realize that play is part of the process.

Show interest in your child's desire to create. Encourage individuality and allow them to express themselves in their own way. Children should be allowed to create their own imagery in their artworks and work in their preferred style. Compliment them, showcase their work, and support their choice to be an artist.

Help your child develop an “I can do it!” attitude. Encourage your child to believe in themselves and develop an attitude of success. Children can gear themselves into action by telling themselves inspiring things and affirming their actions. As parents we can praise our children but when they affirm themselves it reinforces the behavior and improves their self-esteem.

Get Growing!

How To Help Yourself Grow As An Artist

Develop Craft

Learn to use tools, materials and conventions of art. Learn how to care for art materials, tools and your art making space. When you are developing as an artist, you improve your art skills through practice.

Engage & Persist

Learn to embrace problems and develop focus regardless of the task. When you engage, you are focused on your work. When you persist, you stick with it and do not give up.

Envision

Learn to mentally picture what cannot be directly observed. Imagine what the next step would be. When you envision, you are picturing ideas in your mind.

Reflect

Learn to think and talk with others about your work. Learn to evaluate your own work, as well as the work of others. When you reflect, you are looking back at the work you have made.

Stretch & Explore

Learn to reach beyond what you think is possible. Learn to playfully explore and embrace mistakes along the way. When you stretch, you are trying things you think might be difficult. When you explore, you are discovering new ideas and ways of working.

Observe

Learn to look at things more closely, and thereby, see things that otherwise may not have been seen. When you observe, you take time to look at things more closely and notice details in your environment.

Express

Learn to create art works that convey an idea, a feeling, or a personal meaning. When you express yourself artistically, you are visually communicating your ideas, beliefs and feelings.

Understand Art Worlds

Learn to interact as an artist with other artists and within the boarder society. Learn about artists from the past and present. Learn the history of art to understand what other artists have created. Learn how to understand the roles of artists, galleries and museums.

Create An Art Studio

Give yourself a personal space for you to work on your art. A place that is just for you to set out your art materials and allows for freedom to get a little messy.

Research topics on your favorite people, places, animals and things. This will help you to develop your own choice of subject matter in your work. Allowing you to create art about what interests you personally.

Art Supplies

Experiment with new supplies and learn new art techniques.

Practice your art skills. Practicing leads to mastery. Mastery allows you to create artworks of quality and fine craftsmanship.

Use A Sketchbook

This is a book for collecting quickly drawn ideas and thoughts that can be elaborated and refined into works of art at a later point.

Take Art Classes

Learn from master artists so you can improve and grow as an artist. Learning from master artists has been a long standing tradition in the art community.