DD4 is at the stage where she is getting upset at not being able to draw to a "good enough" level. She is of course an excellent drawer (about aged 8 on the development side of things)

We have the "draw really cool stuff" book which is great but she is just a step or 2 before that and I need to find some books to help bridge that gap and build her confidence.

We have guided her to copy and trace some things which works ok but of course she wants to draw free hand. Maybe something aimed at 6year olds? Our library is fairly limited and only has too easy or too hard (in most things Gah!)

Would you want to actually teach her? Learn along side her.

http://monart.com/monart-books/

this looks amazing - going to order it right now yay!!!!!

Is she starting kindergarten in the fall? I realize it's a little ways away yet, but we have found the elementary school art teacher to be a surprisingly great resource. When you get there, encourage her to talk to the art teacher about wanting to draw better and about what to work on. Have her ask if she can come in and practice during recess occasionally or something. Specialist teachers can be amazing help for kids that love their specialty.

Wow, Cookie that looks great, I am ordering too!

Hi, In NZ she will start when she turns 5 - so May, They just have the one teacher for everything, so I wouldn't expect her teacher to be anything more than the basics in terms of art - which is a shame. It's a tiny school, only 8 teachers in all.

Just make sure whatever book or course you pursue isn't forcing her to draw things she isn't interested in.

When I was 7 or 8, my parents were nice enough to send me to art classes because I loved to draw many things except the rocks and leaves we drew over and over again in that class. I wanted to draw ideas and cartoons. We didn't have pullout art in school back then.

I would suggest buying stencils and French curves. Those can help her hand get a feel for the movements while still allowing fairly unfettered drawing romps.

We like the Mo Willems Pigeon activity book. He shows you how to draw the pigeon, and also how to just have fun doodling and drawing.

thanks all - great ideas as usual!

I recently saw a paper DS brought home that had some really nicely drawn farm animals. I asked him how he drew them and he said that book you mentioned helped him. He's usually drawing abstract depictions of black holes and anything with numbers/dials, so I was overjoyed to see cute ducks, fuzzy sheep and a bull of all things! He has resisted any instruction from me, but apparently he was sufficiently intrigued by the book at school to give it a try.

As an artist who drew the Peanuts characters at age five, I can say that nothing is better than having a personal helper show a child that all drawings start with shapes they know. (Square, Circle, etc.) Once a child can "see" these shapes, it becomes much easier.

Try Drawspace.com

Thanks Ametrine, I have spent the last few weeks watching this explode and trying to stand back and provide the materials etc but we have reached a point that she is craving some kind of instruction. Good to hear you enjoyed it! The book we have doesn't cover the furry animals sadly (it was a hand me down) We tried a dinosaur out of it but that resulted in much anguish....

Have you tried any of the Ed Emberly books? Not sure that they're widely available in Aus & NZ. I picked up 3 for my arty then 4 year old last year for Christmas from The Book Depository and she loved them. Gave her the confidence and basics to really flourish.

I was a bit worried that they might limit her style but she's really developed her own very distinctive style over the past year. And my other two loved them as well.

We've enjoyed Mark Kistler's "Draw Squad".

Depending on reading level/whether or not you have the time to decode/relay the content of the text to your child this is a classic:-

how to draw what you see

It gets into the 'shapes' and then drawing these shapes out into 3-d 'prisms' and then how to 'see' objects as composites of these 3-d 'prisms' ( my quotes).

You should read Drawing on the right side of the brain.
Is a book definitely aimed at adults, but in my opinion gives a great perspective on drawing for realism, without constructionism. Having a strong foundation in really seeing is especially important because what she learns i school will almost definitely be formulaic like a tree is a stick with a ball, brown stick green ball. Other ideas for devloping seeing are hang a sheet up and strongly light an object from behind and drawing it, or making photographs black and white (no grayscale) and copying, or rubbings from leaves Or other textures and copying. Verbal skills like comparing drawings with photographs can also help. also if she is getting worried about accuracy, a trip to a museum to see how different artists approach representation differently might be worthwile.Drawing books that are like this how you draw a.... kind of squash creativity, in my opinion. Also, fingerpaint or something messy and tactile like pastels or charcoal are great and you can focus on other ways to add details

Absolutely! My mom is a drawing teacher and she has always had this book lying around. (I have to admit that I've never read it though.) I get so frustrated when kids are taught to draw by making outlines of things.