Drawing for Older Children & Teens by Mona Brookes

Add another hobby to the list.

I have always wished I could draw, but it wasn’t until recently that I was spurred to action. (Recently means two years ago. Action commenced last Thursday.) Two things happened that gave me a specific artistic goal rather than just vaguely wishing I could draw.

The first was a friend of my parents’ who was a member of a tour group my mom put together. My mom regularly gets ten or twenty of their friends together to travel to some exotic place like the Silk Road, Peru, or Tibet. She told me about a woman who had brought a small diary with her on one of the trips, and would make notes and sketches of every place they went. When they returned, she photocopied her journal and put together a small booklet for each member of their group, an illustrated memory book of their trip. I loved this idea.

Not long after I heard about this woman, I read somewhere (The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, I think) that in order to truly appreciate the beauty of something that you see on your travels, you must attempt to draw it. The act of drawing, even if you are a terrible artist, forces you to truly look at, even study, the object of beauty. It obliges you to make decisions about why this thing is beautiful or special, and the attempt itself of capturing what makes it exceptional brings about a greater appreciation of what you see. I loved this idea too.

Having the artistic purpose of drawing interesting sights on my travels made it easier to take the plunge and do something about it—two years is, after all, not that bad. I had been thinking about it off and on, searching Amazon every once in a while for a highly-rated beginner drawing book, but never finding anything that seemed right for me, a total beginner with no artistic skills whatsoever.

Last week, however, I stupidly remembered that there was an art school around the corner from my office. I had been working there for six years, and I just thought of it. That afternoon, I read all about the classes online and then walked over in the pouring rain to see it in person. I wasn’t impressed with the place. There were only three students in the adult/teen class, and they seemed already to be much ahead of my level. The classroom was drab and the instructor standoffish. However, I was told that the instruction was based on a specific method detailed in the books Drawing for Children and Drawing for Older Children & Teens by Mona Brookes.

Why spend hundreds of dollars on classes when you can just buy a book?

By Thursday afternoon I had Drawing for Older Children & Teens (the subtitle is A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too) in my hands. By Thursday evening I had read half the book and had begun the simple seeing shape exercises. On Friday, I started attempting to draw from real life, and completed a few sketches of a pink lawn flamingo and animal figurines. They were the most amazing sketches I had ever drawn: they actually looked like the object I was drawing.

I couldn’t believe how effective this book was in teaching me how to see the elements of shape in what I was looking at, and duplicating them on my paper. I have never been prouder of anything I’ve ever drawn.

E and I spent most of the long weekend at Big Bear Lake skiing and snowboarding, but I thought about drawing all weekend. I couldn’t wait to get back at it. Finally, yesterday evening I continued in the book, learning about contrast, perspective, and shading, and completed some more exercises. I grabbed a snapshot of me from our last trip to China and drew myself petting a tiny puppy. I couldn’t believe that I was able to draw something that looked like me petting a puppy. I’m still amazed. Amazed.

I’m not yet able, however, to whip out a pad and do a quick sketch of a view in front of me. Every line I place on the paper is still slowly and painstakingly deliberated over, erased, and redrawn three times. I can see how one’s seeing and drawing skills would increase over time, and how, like anything else in this world, practice is the key. According to Mona Brookes, anyone can learn how to draw. I believe it now.

I have less than four weeks before E and I leave for our trip to Asia. I’m going to practice my butt off so that I might be able to keep a small illustrated journal of our trip. It may still be beyond my abilities, but it’s the trying that counts, after all.

Drawing for Older Children & Teens by Mona Brookes

Tags: art books how to draw Monart travel journals Mona Brookes