Virtual Book Club for Kids – Drawing Lessons from a Bear…For A Kid

I was not familiar with this month’s author, David McPhail. I had to do some research with my daughters. I really do enjoy discovering a new author. I love seeing how an author’s work can appeal to different age groups in different ways. With David McPhail I wasn’t certain that I was going to find a book that would really appeal to my 9 year old…and then I came across “Drawing Lessons from a Bear“and I knew we had found the perfect book. 

The story is simple, we follow a little bear as he learns how to be a bear from his mother. Not only does he learn how to live like a bear, he also learns how to draw like an artist. In the end, the bear is a beautiful artist and McPhail has the reader feeling like an artist too. Such a lovely book. At the end of the book McPhail shares some tips for how to draw a tree. I was inspired by the artistry and am always looking for ways to teach my daughters different art techniques. So, we grabbed the pencils and some paper and got creative.

First, I drew a simple two-dimensional tree on a piece of paper.

Next, I showed my daughter how to shade a box using a cross-hatch technique (example A). To make an area darker – concentrate more cross-hatches. To make an area lighter – concentrate fewer cross-hatches. Also, we worked with different pencils (example B). A “regular” pencil is usually HB on the graphite grading scale (the graphite grading scale measures the hardness of the core of the pencil). We tried out a set of pencils that were gradually darker (softer core) than a “regular” pencil…HB 2, HB 4 and HB 5. By using the differently graded pencils a shaded area can be created.

With this knowledge, I had my daughter turn her two-dimensional tree into a three-dimensional tree. She decided where the sun was shining from and began shading her tree from there.

In the end, the tree looked fabulous. Not too bad for a very first attempt at shading. She used both techniques. I was so impressed. It always amazes me how reading a book can inspire such creativity in a child. This is the hidden magic in books. It’s not always about the physical book, it is how a child sees and feels the book that is so amazing.

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