My 9yo boy still draws stick figures!

[Grace]

I have a bright 9 year old son who hates hates hates to write, draw, color, etc. I don't think it is a fine motor skill issue because he loves electronics and lego's and can manipulate tiny pieces that I can barely see!

 

We had a cub scout meeting yesterday with mostly all PS boys and they were making posters about citizenship. I was shocked to see his little stick figure people! I have the Draw Write now books and a few Mark Kistler books but he is not interested at all. We are using Story of the World and he will not color the coloring pages or review cards.

 

I know art is not his gift but should I expect a little more than a stick person in 4th grade? I can't do much better so obviously he got his art abilities from me!! But I sure would like to see a little something more than a stick man.

 

When he was in art class last year at co-op he drew "verbs". He would create a scribble-like drawing and when I asked him about it, he said "this is the space shuttle blasting off and this is the steam from the Solid Rocket Boosters with the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen from the external fuel tanks." How do you respond to that!!

 

Any suggestions to encourage him beyond stick people?

 

Thanks,

Grace

[Ummto4]

You described my son to a T. Only he's 8.5. :tongue_smilie:

[Tutu]

I wonder if it would work if you were to model his art lessons for him? I did this with my children at the very beginning. While the books we used (Mark Kistler and the Drawing Textbook) contained step-by-step instructions, it would still help my children when I broke the lessons down further into smaller steps (i.e. basic lines and shapes). This involved having me at their elbow, demonstrating every step for them.

 

FTR, my 10ds's handwriting can at times be illegible and painfully slow because he still hasn't mastered proper letter spacing and sizing, yet when he uses lined and mid-way dotted paper, his handwriting is beautiful. He needs the proper ruling to write legibly. This particular child also hates to color or draw when asked to (I've given up expecting him to make illustrations for history, but oddly enough, he doesn't mind drawing for science), but will sometimes draw when the urge strikes him outside of our schooling.

 

Patty

[VaKim]

I like his creativity (drawing verbs, very elaborate ones at that).:)

I detest drawing, and if I had to for some reason, it would be stick figures for sure!

[stephanier.1765]

I have thought about this a lot. I too have a child that still draws stick figures and he's 14! Trust me when I say I've tried to remedy this. My theory is it is related to motivation and peer pressure. When children are in school, the ones that aren't naturally gifted at drawing are exposed to those who are. They see the projects they turn in, their notebook doodles and even those pieces the kids are especially proud of. How many times have you seen a boy with wonderful drawings of super heroes? I think this helps to motivate children to do better in their own drawing because they don't want to be embarrassed when their own school projects are hung on the classroom wall. My son has no such motivation. The only person that sees his work is me. I can push, I can encourage and I can even make him redo it but he still doesn't have that drive that comes from being embarrassed in front of his peers. As for a solution, I still have no clue. It's make me crazy.

[MissKNG]

I'm 32 and stick figures are about the extent of my artistic ability!:lol:

[NanceXToo]

When he was in art class last year at co-op he drew "verbs". He would create a scribble-like drawing and when I asked him about it, he said "this is the space shuttle blasting off and this is the steam from the Solid Rocket Boosters with the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen from the external fuel tanks." How do you respond to that!!

 

Well, I'd respond by being pretty darn impressed! LOL.

 

He doesn't like to draw. To me, it's just not a big deal. I wouldn't force the issue. Maybe when he gets a little older he'll develop an interest in trying to draw more elaborate pictures. Maybe he won't. Either way it's just not the end of the world to me, he's smart, obviously- I'd let him focus more on his interests, and if drawing isn't one of them, that's okay.

 

In the meanwhile if you want to leave things available to him to pick up and use should the mood ever occur (like the draw-write-now books, or maybe you can google WordToonz, those are pretty cool and my daughter enjoys them), go for it. But it's just not something I'd worry about or an issue I'd see the need to force.

[pooh bear]

I'm 32 and stick figures are about the extent of my artistic ability!:lol:

 

Same here, except I'm 33.

 

My talents lie in other areas.

[Firefly]

This is exactly like my son, except he is soon to turn 13. Though I know, and try to accept, that it is just not his thing, I really wanted him to develop his right brain a bit! Not just for balance but also to get him a little out of his comfort zone. So, I enrolled him in an art class for a while (he did it for two years). He was pretty ambivalent about it but not miserable and I was happy to see some improvement. I know he's never going to like or excel at art, but I think it was good for him to exercise that "muscle" for a while. Last year he decided not to continue with the classes. I was fine with that, since I really felt he'd given it the ol' college try!

[AudreyTN]

We have a friend who's son is in Public School and he's super intelligent. He's 11 or 12. Anyway, he will only draw stick figures (when he's forced to draw) because he says anything artistic is a waste of time. :confused:

[Guest TheBugsMom]

My son was the same way...stick figures and they were never proportional.

 

My method to break this was to show him he could draw a non stick person. I had him follow my lead in drawing a person. First the head which he then mimicked, then the rest of the body each part I talked about. As we drew I told him we needed to take notice of how clothes fit on the body. By the time we finished he had a very nice, clothed man. I then told him to keep the drawing in his desk, anytime he needed to draw a person, refer to the picture that he drew. He has never given me stick figures again.

[Bayt ul-Hikmah]

My method to break this was to show him he could draw a non stick person. I had him follow my lead in drawing a person. First the head which he then mimicked, then the rest of the body each part I talked about. As we drew I told him we needed to take notice of how clothes fit on the body. By the time we finished he had a very nice, clothed man. I then told him to keep the drawing in his desk, anytime he needed to draw a person, refer to the picture that he drew. He has never given me stick figures again.

 

Will you please teach me, too? :blushing:

[Farrar]

Just a thought... stick figures are kind of "in" right now. They're used in a lot of cartoons and comics - especially a couple of popular online ones I can think of. Even the Wimpy Kid looks little stick figure-ish (though not quite in that case, but you get the idea). I'm thinking this might be an influence on the kids.

 

I can actually draw okay and have taken real art classes and I still sort of enjoy the stick figure. It can be embellished and be very versatile. For me, my emphasis when the kids needed to do art wouldn't be on stick figure vs. realistic representation, but more on other things - the level of detail included, using appropriate scale, using color, making use of white space... you know, good design stuff. I feel like those are things that kids who "can't draw" can understand and make use of for presentations or projects - by using collage, simple drawings, computer drawings, etc.

[m0mmaBuck]

I'm 38 and still use stick figures most of the time. My professors in Physical Therapy school would laugh because if I had to illustrate a muscle I would just draw it on a stick figure. The same thing went for an exercise program. I figured it was faster and people still knew what I was drawing. Maybe your son just doesn't see the point of getting more detailed when a simple stick figure will do the trick.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Any suggestions to encourage him beyond stick people?

 

Maybe explain to him that sometimes a spot-on realistic drawing is helpful? Do you do any kind of nature study? I find that the kids and I want to represent things as close to realistic as possible.

 

I'm so surprised no one has mentioned Drawing with Children. The introductory exercises are ingenious. She also has a book for older children and teens (although I think a 9 year old would still be better off starting with the exercises in the first book). I was embarrassed by my own drawings before starting this book with the kids and I have to say that I am pretty darn impressed by my nature notebook these days. In fact, the first time I drew a bird and showed it to DH (because I was so ridiculously, cartoon proud of it! :lol:), he actually took one look at it and said, "No, really. Who drew that. Seriously? You drew that? Wow." And I did draw it! It's a fine looking bird. :D

[Daisy]

As someone else mentioned, the Wimpy series illustrator seems to be making money just fine with his stick figures. LOL. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Heather in VA]

I'm 32 and stick figures are about the extent of my artistic ability!:lol:

 

Me too (although I'm 41). And I can tell you that ever person who told me that everyone should be able to do art and if I just tried I could draw and would love it etc just made me want to do it less.

 

Heather

[Pippen]

I'm 32 and stick figures are about the extent of my artistic ability!:lol:

 

Me too. When I was teaching high school my stick figure adventures of Joe Physics and his dog Satellite were the talk of the class.;)

 

I'm good at a number of things. Drawing isn't one of them.

[Grace]

I guess my guy is in good company with all you stick-figurers!! Thanks for the reassurance and the suggestions.

 

I also forgot I have an Introduction to Technical Art book that I may pull out. Maybe that will help improve his drawing.... or help him make better stick figures! LOL!

[8filltheheart]

New poster and zombie thread. This post is 10 yrs old and the 9yr old is 19.

[kiwik]

Wonder if he ever learnt to draw better.