Highlights from Drawing Camps for Kids

Cloud 9 art instructor Leela Trumbo offered several summer camps focused on drawing. Here are some highlights, in Leela’s words.

My drawing workshop focused on an approach to drawing rather than following step-by-step instructions on how to draw a particular subject. While step-by-step lessons can be helpful in learning how to draw an apple, for example, the goal here was to teach young artists how to approach drawing so that they can then figure out the steps to draw any subject they chose.

We started by drawing small objects and then still-lifes. Once students were comfortable with these subjects we took a field trip into town, to sketch Bothell’s historical Main Street.

Finally we tackled the most difficult of subjects, drawing bodies and faces. 

I also introduced students to graphic design concepts like the Principles of Design and the Elements of Art and Composition. My students said they had the most fun drawing faces and sketching people at the library. 

All of the workshops turn out differently from one another, not due to the course content but due to the students and the way they make the projects their own. I put a lot of work into lesson planning, oranizing supplies and interacting with the students. And at the end of each class I am reminded of what an amazing job it is to be a teaching artist. I am reminded by  the artwork created by the young artists and by their faces as they create work they never knew they were capable of making. 

I get as much out of these workshops as my students do. Teaching art concepts and techniques  makes me think more deeply about how I can use them in my own own work. Through my classes I get to know some pretty amazing kids who are definitely going to grow up to be way cooler and talented than I am. Their crazy ideas and unique world views continuously surprise and inspire me. 

For more information about my art and my classes, please visit my website at www.leelatrumbo.com.

For more information about my art classes and to register, please visit my website or email me directly at trumboleela@gmail.com.