Drawing skills usually improve with practice (years of practice!). When children are introduced to art at an early age and are encouraged to draw often, their skills improve much faster than someone who doesn't draw as often. Many things that are thought of as fun, childhood play-activities actually help children develop good fine-motor skills and good hand-eye coordination. Things like coloring books, tracing paper, dot-to-dots, etc... all help improve drawing skills, and are important for a good foundation for future learning. Tracing paper and even cutting out paper dolls (lots of them) can help improve hand-eye coordination and precise hand fine-motor skills. Children who have not spent hours and hours and hours with coloring books may still need to develop basic skills like "staying in the lines" at older age levels.

Duo Drawings Create a drawing or Painting with your Child/Parent. Have one person start, and fill a small portion of the paper or canvas, then pass it to the other person and vice versa. Each person adds a little and builds onto what the other person has done. Don't discuss what you are going to add to the drawing. Let it be a surprise! The result may end up like a collage, or perhaps a very surreal scene. Either way, it's lots of fun! This can be done with more than two people, and can be fun at parties, too.

If a child becomes frustrated by their drawing skills or by what someone tells them about their artwork, they may begin to lose interest in drawing. They may feel discouraged and afraid to try to draw or afraid to show their artwork to enyone.

Nature Drawings! Get some paper and colored pencils, pastels, crayons, or paint- and go outside to draw. Draw the trees, flowers, birds, sky, houses. Try this in your own backyard, or at the park! You can draw everything you see, or just draw a close up of one flower.

Drawing is a lifelong skill- it will stay with you your entire life (like riding a bike) and you can continue to improve your drawing skills your entire life as well. Drawing skills usually also take many years to develop. Developing these skills in childhood can give a person sort of a "head start."

Going on vacation this summer? Bring along some art materials! Watercolor paper is available in postcard sized tablets at most local art or craft stores. Carefully draw the scenes from your trip and paint them in using watercolor paint or colored pencils. Your family and friends will treasure these handmade souvenirs.