Drawing Fairies

I haven't written about an art project in a while, so here is something my daughter and I did recently  . . . 

Fairies are just plain fun to draw.  Whether you are a five-year-old like my daughter or at the age where you stop counting the birthdays like me, they are hard to resist. So when I suggested to my daughter that we do a spontaneous drawing lesson on fairies, I didn't have to twist her arm. 

While on vacation in the Czech Republic last year, I saw this adorable book and just had to buy it.  The title translates to "Insidious Plants" and weaves a practical lesson for young children about poisonous garden plants around a story about fairies. It is an ingenious idea and I wish that we had it in English.  The illustrations are gorgeous (the illustrator, Eva Chupikova, is apparently also a fashion illustrator in Prague) and my daughter loves to look at it and often has me translate passages into English for her.   Because I love to use graphics to train the eye, this book was perfect for our lesson.

My daughter picked out a fairy in the book to use as inspiration for her drawing. Using the principles in Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes, we dissected her into the shape families. Here are the steps that we used int he picture below: 1) I had her draw a semicircle for the face. 2) Then she added two thin lines for the neck. 3) Next, she drew an egg shape for the torso. 4) Then, two large curves for the dress and long thin curves for the arms. 

The subsequent steps: 6) She made long, thin oval shapes for the wings. 7) I instructed her to make large eyes and a small mouth and nose. 8) She added a small oval and curved line for a tiara. 

Next she worked on the background adding a horizon line. I had her add whatever she wanted and she chose trees, a butterfly, a dragonfly and flowers. 

She then took a purple chalk pastel and colored the sky.

Then, my daughter did what many children do and cause their parents to freak out.  (And had I no experience with children and art, I would do the same.) She began to tell a story of a storm coming in and colored over the drawing first with gray and then a green marker.  With young children, it's about the process and experience and not the final result! She also got tired before everything was colored and quit before the butterflies were finished. Again, it's about the process and not about the final result.: )

And this is my picture that I drew just for fun:

Yep, you never get too old to draw fairies!

Linked to The Magic Onions