Excerpt from It's Not a Bird Yet: The Drama of Drawing
by Ursula Kolbe

INTRODUCTION

Let me begin with a story.

Corey, barely three, has just drawn the fourth side of a vertical shape, narrow and roughly rectangular. Half turning to me, he says conversationally, ‘It’s not a bird yet.’

It’s the ‘yet’ that strikes me.

Minutes before, I had watched him excitedly discover he could transform a similar shape into a ‘bird’—simply by adding two dots as ‘eyes’, a short horizontal line as a ‘beak’ and two vertical lines at the base as ‘legs’. Now it seems he’s about to repeat this magical act. I understand the deliciousness of this moment, as far as an adult can empathise with a young child. There is a moment when lines and shapes are just that— and there is a moment when they mean something. Corey doesn’t need to say anything to me as I’m just watching silently, but perhaps he wants me to know he’s savouring this moment. Or could it be that he wants to make quite sure that I don’t make premature assumptions about this shape? In other words, is he thinking about what I am seeing and thinking? Something very interesting is going on here—although I can’t claim to understand even half of it.

This is a book of stories about young children and the transforming power of drawing. It is intended as a companion to my first book, Rapunzel’s Supermarket: All about Young Children and Their Art, and like that, is for all who live and learn with young children. Throughout the book my approach stems from my experience as a drawer, painter, and as an artist-teacher with young children.

Snippets from two conversations have helped shape the book. From a teacher: ‘I want to know how to extend children’s drawing. How do you “revisit” drawings with them?’ And from a parent: ‘I want to be encouraging, but I seem to end up taking over. I can’t seem to stop myself.’ It’s natural for us to want to extend children’s drawing. Yet we often forget that children also constantly seek ways to extend themselves. So how can we give them opportunities to do this? How can we offer them challenges and empower their sense of what is possible? These are questions I attempt to answer in the following pages.

I began with the idea of looking at how children use drawing. Why? Without an awareness of children’s different uses of drawing, I feel we really can’t begin extending their drawing. So I collected vignettes that show how children use drawings for many different purposes. Next I collected stories about children drawing in small groups, investigating topics that interested them with the guidance of an adult. I was fascinated to find how certain topics inspired them into extending their drawing—and thinking—in many ways. Lastly I collected vignettes that show how you can use visual means to fire the imagination and so also extend drawing. These, then, are the stories in this book.

CHANGING VIEWS

Views on the adult’s role in young children’s experiences are changing. So too are theories of child development and how children learn, and long-held views on children’s drawing.

The traditional approach saw children’s art as a form of self-expression, an outlet for feelings, unfolding in specific stages. It meant that rather than becoming involved or offering guidance, adults tended to stand back, seeing themselves as facilitators. This was understandable: after all, how can you take an active role if drawing is supposed to be about ‘self-expression’? While the approach was a great improvement on the formulaic ‘draw a cat in three steps’ type of instruction, it did have shortcomings: adults tended to miss seeing that children use drawing as a tool for thinking and serious meaning-making. And in observing the individual child, they also missed seeing how drawing develops within social contexts of sharing and exchanging ideas. With new understandings gained from research, as well as the philosophies and practice of the educators in the small northern Italian town of Reggio Emilia, more and more educators now see children’s drawing in a new light. There is a growing awareness that we have underestimated children’s abilities to draw. As an increasing number of centres and schools recognise, drawing can be central to children’s shared investigations. This approach asks more from the adult, but also gives us something remarkably inspiring: the opportunity to learn with and from children as co-explorers.

HOW THE BOOK IS ORGANISED

The book has four parts:

Part One Tuning into children’s drawing celebrates an explosion of graphic developments as we watch children use drawing for various representational purposes. In particular, we look at how drawing intertwines with play between friends, and focus on children’s interactions as they draw. Children continually absorb ideas from each other. Friends don’t hesitate to prompt or tutor each other. The chatter, the ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ of ideas, the everyday exchange as children draw alongside each other, is to my mind treasure. Treasure because, in countless ways, it supports and stretches children as they learn and draw. The closing section ‘What you can do: ways to encourage and support’ offers practical suggestions.

Part Two Investigating with children looks at children in small groups with an adult investigating topics that fascinate them over a period of time. Drawing enables children to build on each other’s ideas as they investigate ant life, and is central to children’s brainstorming as they search for possible answers to questions such as: How can we help stranded whales? How do we build a garbage machine? What is particularly interesting is how often children go beyond drawing what is to drawing what might be, could be and what if?

We also see drawings become jumping-off points for work with other media such as paint, clay and construction materials. Suggestions for guiding, provoking and challenging children are given in ‘What you can do: ways to deepen investigations.’

Part Three Enchanting the eye, expanding horizons again features children’s investigations, individually or in small groups, but here my focus is on how you can extend drawing by engaging the eye so that the mind entertains new possibilities. Part Three begins with observation drawing and the delights of ‘learning to see’. Next it looks at how children can transform drawings by making cut-outs or using technology. A section on drawings by contemporary artists shows contrasting approaches to drawing.

Part Four Other matters has two sections. The first suggests visual strategies you can use to assist children when they ask for help. The second has practical information on materials, tools, techniques and other resources.

In ‘Notes’ you will find details of references cited as well as additional points. While throughout the book I try to say more by writing less—allowing children’s voices and drawings to convey the most important messages—for readers who want more, these notes provide some supplementary background.

MORE THAN ONE BITE AT THE CHERRY

You will find topics in one section also surface in other sections, but in different contexts. In this way I hope a sort of kaleidoscopic vision of drawing emerges, one that is richer—and truer—than if I had pigeonholed topics more strictly. The arrangement also offers readers more than one bite at the cherry, as it were. Drawing may seem ordinary and everyday, yet something that involves, as it does, hand, head and heart, deserves to be looked at from more than one angle.

Certain themes resonate throughout the book. Themes close to my heart centre on how drawing sparks thoughts and makes thinking visible. For instance, how drawing gives wings to the imagination. How different materials ‘speak’ differently. How drawing encourages ‘learning to see’. And how drawing thrives as a means for inquiry and investigation, a visual language, particularly when children have company.

Drawing has always been important in early childhood programs and today enjoys a renewal of interest. Yet often it still seems a bit of a Cinderella, not getting the same attention as painting, its more glamorous sister. I hope this book will help to redress the situation. And at the same time I hope it shows drawing not as something separate but as a central part of children’s playful, curiosity-driven explorations of their world—wherever they happen to be.

ENCOUNTERS WITH OTHER IMAGINATIONS

As in my book Rapunzel’s Supermarket, I have included reproductions of works of art. Readers told me they found inspiration in them, and so I decided to offer our hungry eyes a few more provocations and treasures to mull over and feast on. More are on pages 96-99.

I did not so much choose Michael Snape’s sculpture as it chose me. Walking past it many times, I’ve always felt drawn to it.When I came to write this book, I found myself wondering what sorts of drawings the sculptor would make. I discovered that Snape makes drawing after drawing that plays with ideas both poetical and structural. Like many artists, Snape uses drawing to generate ideas. And in this, I believe, children and adult artists have something in common. While I am not suggesting that children approach drawing as adult artists do, nevertheless when children and adult artists engage in drawing as a form of serious play, I think they are on a common path.

(C) Ursula Kolbe - 2005

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