inspired by the children's book "ish"

In the "Once Upon a Time" spring break camp, we read the children's book, Ish.

I cannot recommend this book enough as an art teacher. It is a lovely little story about a child who loves to draw. However one day after creating a vase of flowers, someone laughs at his drawing. The child then is frustrated with every drawing he ever makes because "it doesn't look real" and crumples each and every one up until finally he just quits drawing all together. Then the child learns that his younger sibling has quietly been gathering every crumpled drawing and pinning them to her bedroom wall. When he sees his drawings through her eyes, he realizes he doesn't have to draw things real. That a drawing that is "ish" is wonderful, a vase "ish" full of flowers is a beautiful thing. This discovery reignites his love of drawing and as books go, he lives happily ever after.

What a great story to read to a group of young children drawing with me, an affirmation that their unique style of drawing is beautiful. It was amazing to see this simple story boost their confidence as we ventured to create our own vase'ish' flowers.

8 year old

I brought in a bouquet of flowers from the corner grocer but told them to draw them anyway they wanted. Yellow flowers didn't have to be yellow, they didn't have to draw everything, and if they loved one particular thing in the arrangement they were welcome to draw ten of them even if there was only one.

5 year old

I first gave each child a water-soluble pencil to create a line drawing and then put out the water and brushes and told them to run over their lines. They were unaware until that point that the pencil marks would give them to lovely grey values. They loved this discovery and excitedly washed and rewashed over their lines.

9 year old

Then I gave each child some liquid watercolor in the primary colors. I quickly showed them a few techniques they could explore using watercolors, such as blending, wet on wet, and how to simple lay the brush onto the paper to create petals and then sent them off to create their masterpieces.

10 year old

I encouraged them to add flowers into their painting that they hadn't originally drawn if they wanted too.

8 year old

There was a wide variety of vase'ish' flowers in the room and the book seemed to give the campers the confidence to paint freely and in their own unique way.

8 year old

I was truly impressed and excited for each camper in the room as I was walking by them and viewing their artwork.

And then as I was pulling the papers off the table as they yelled out, "done", I stumbled across this.

5 year old

No watercolor at all. A vase of flowers with some pretty intricate work. When I began to ask about his drawing, I was fascinated. Evidently he has a secret code with his older brother, a code that is quite impressive in it's detail. Symbols stand for numbers and when put together, create other numbers. It was quite something and there is so much to look at in this drawing! I love how he placed his name amongst the flowers too. How much confidence this child had to create his very unique "vase-ish" flowers without ever touching the watercolors or water.

I so fell in love with the message from this book that I promptly bought one for my studio. To see it free the campers and reiterate to them that their drawings, their way were good enough was thrilling and the work speaks volumes to the power of books.