When I had the ARTrox Imagination Station most children would come in, and after a little bit of shyness embrace the messy glue, glitters, shapes and punches with gusto. But there were always a few children who really struggled with their work not being ‘perfect’.
I had heard about these children from other mothers and ‘poo-pooed’ the idea that a child really could be a perfectionist at such a young age, yet when my first perfectionist arrived at ARTrox I saw this in action. He screwed up the paper with his attempt at a dog and became quite angry that I had insisted that he draw it rather than me.
It was a fascinating lesson, and I employed every tool in my arsenal to show this poor tortured soul that his artwork was a wonderful expression of colour and joy and not a means to judge himself against the illustrations he sees in books.
I thought it might be beneficial for others who might have the same issues to share some of my tactics for helping a perfectionist artist deal with their skill levels.
- The first thing to note is that ‘I can’t’ often means ‘I am overwhelmed’. Talk them through the process of creating whatever it is they want to create – what shape, what appendages, colour etc.
- ‘You draw it’ is fine, but you draw it with them, ie: on your own piece of paper…advising them that you want to see their artwork. (ps: Don’t let me catch you saying ‘I can’t’ either!!! That is for another blog post!)
- If they are struggling with their own ideas of what a dog, for example ‘should’ look like then encourage them to draw an alien, sea monster, dinosaur, something that you can explain nobody knows for sure what they look like (if they exist) and who is to say that their version is not correct?
- Tell them that we could draw a dog, but that would be really boring, how about a crazy kooky dog with antennae, and 6 legs and wings, and purple spots….show them that it is OK to have FUN with their art!
- If they screw up the paper, retrieve it and ask them to tell you what they don’t like about the drawing and do your best to lighten them up – explaining why it is OK. Discuss with them how they could ‘improve’.
- Acknowledge their desire for it to be perfect, but talk to them about how much practice they have had at doing this task. Perhaps if they are comparing to an illustration in a book you could point out that the illustrator has years of experience at drawing. But generally I like to use the example of learning to
walk or talk (much more salient if you know or have a younger child experiencing this) show them that when learning to walk you don’t fall down once and give up – that you get up again, and again, and again…ask them to run around the room…see? You didn’t give up and now you can run and jump and do all kinds of fun things…so don’t expect your drawing to be perfect first time either.
And if none of those work…let me know…you’ve got a tough nut to crack there and I wish you luck!
Excuse me, but I’m off to create a wonky donky with purple mane and green stripes…