Learn How to Draw Children

Drawing Basics Guest Lectures

Wetcanvas Guest Lecture by Celia Partridge

Derwent drawing pencils and Prismacolor pencils on Stonehenge paper

Reference Photo

No need to worry about picking a subject………. All children are imminently wonderful art subjects…….. just don’t ask them to pose……… candid is much more interesting and fun……….

Drawing Process

I start with a very light sketch with a hard (#4H or higher) graphite pencil, using my reference photo to measure and mark important proportions and features………
An easy way to do this is to use a graphite stick on the back of a copy of your reference……. then, with a very sharp colored pencil (so you can see your marks), make lines, dots, or whatever will help you preserve the proportions, from your copy to your chosen paper or board………

You can see where I used the graphite on the back of the copy in the head and hands areas, because those were the important features whose likenesses I wanted to achieve………

I lightly sketched in the rest, using my reference photo as a model………. I then used a “tacky” eraser to take off all of the excess graphite, leaving only very faint guidelines…….. I didn’t want the colored pencil too “muddy” when layered over the graphite………

Click on any of the smaller images below to enlarge

I started layering color very lightly, starting with the skin color and the eyes………I always start with the eyes……… it’s spooky to me to draw a figure, human or animal without its eyes being at least strongly indicated…….. they are the most important part of a face, in my estimation…… There are many other ways of starting your drawing, such as using a grid, “eyeballing” the proportions, using a light box, and measuring, using eye widths as a gauge, for instance, drawing the mouth 1 ½ times as wide as the eye……… keeping angles and shapes true to the original reference…….. I find that for portraits, this marker method works best for me………

The photos below show various stages of adding color, or layering………

This is what is commonly referred to as the “ugly stage”……… At this point, I was losing the likeness, and the color was too stark……… I started layering some complementary color to give the drawing depth and form………

I don’t know why, but I usually experience this point where I feel I’m getting AWAY from the likeness, rather than closer……… remember, patience is a virtue……

You can go too far with the complementary color as well………. I also decided that I needed to crop this drawing to make the child more important than the trees………

Ahh, much better now………
I can now see the sunlight filtering through the leaves making light and shadowed areas on the child…….. and I cooled down the background, hoping to further bring the child to the forefront……

Some of the things to remember when drawing children are:

• Babies and toddlers are approximately 4 heads tall, making their heads seem disproportionately large.
• By about age 10, children become closer to adult proportions, standing about 7 heads tall.
• Small children’s faces are very different from adults, in that their eyes are lower than halfway between chin and top of head…….. In fact, the lower half of the head can be divided into fourths, with the eyebrows at the halfway point, or the top line, the bottom of the eyes at the next measurement down, the bottom of the nose at the next, and the bottom of the mouth at the last, making the child’s face quite compact compared to the size of his head………
• Children have pudgier feet and hands than adults, with relatively short fingers and toes.
• They often have slightly protruding stomachs and their forms in general are soft and round.
• When staging a drawing or painting of children, place them in the foreground, so that they will be the center of attention………

Celia grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah…….. She married right out of high school, had three children, then divorced……. Raised her children as a single Mom by taking a Civil Service job at the Post Office………. In 1967 she transferred to Air Traffic Control after scoring high on the tests and passing the interviews…….. she was the first female to check out at the Salt Lake City Air Traffic Control Center, working there for almost 28 years…….. One year she did a tour of duty at the New York Air Traffic Control Center on Long Island, New York…….. She was the first woman to check out in her specialty there also…….. Celia retired as an ATC Supervisor in 1994 along with her husband of two years, Mike……… They retired to Arizona, but still spend summers at their beloved cabin in the high mountains of Utah……
After retirement, Celia decided to try drawing again, since abandoning her art right after high school, marriage, and motherhood……….. She got some extremely helpful mentoring from an Artist friend who has a cabin 5 miles down the canyon, and hasn’t put a pencil down for very long at a time since…… She discovered WC in January of 2004 and soon thereafter launched her color phase as well as the graphite……. She is presently taking some colored pencil classes and is drawing up a storm……… She has sold a few drawings, commissioned a couple, and has been asked to hang her work, to sell, in the surgeon’s office who did some orthopedic surgery on her knee and shoulder……… The matting and framing is done…….. She just needs to price them and haul them to the office/gallery……… She is now doing some oil painting as well as the pencil art……… and loving every minute of it………

Article, Copyright Celia Partridge, 2005

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