The Baha'i Writings and the Child: A Research Website

Drawing with Hand, Head, and Heart

Drawing with Hand, Head, and Heart is a comprehensive and practical guide to the art of drawing and the process of visual thinking. More than 500 illustrated exercises show teachers, parents, and students how to learn to draw simply and naturally as a child would learn to draw.

The book’s introduction examines research on brain development and its relationship to learning, showing how the process of picture – making contributes to the development of visual thinking. The book offers an overview of how children learn to draw and how their visual intelligence can be engaged through age-appropriate drawing exercises. The book contains many useful examples of form drawing, portraiture, and geometric and perspective drawing which illustrate the art and science of drawing for students of all ages and ability levels.

Of special interest is a technique called growing the picture. This technique is an organic approach to drawing starting with a general shape and gradually adding onto that shape to make the final picture. This book is highly recommended as an excellent and practical reference. As the author notes, “A healthy education will always strive not only to foster ideas in children’s heads but also enkindle feelings of warmth and enthusiasm for those ideas in their hearts in such a way that they will be stirred in their wills to become active and creative individuals eager to transform the world with their own
hands”. The author further notes, “The children should not feel inwardly satisfied with merely observing the outer sense world but should be able to perceive the spiritual foundations of the world everywhere.”

Guiding Quotations

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