Just be happy: Experimenting With Art Materials

JX was first introduced to art during his first birthday where LK and i bought him a water-based drawing set called – Aqua Doodle (Thanks Pit for your great recommendation). The set comes with an Aqua Doodle Mat and an Aqua Doodle Pen. It’s a very simple drawing set, all I needed to do was to fill the Aqua Doodle pen with water and JX can start to doodle on the Aqua Doodle Mat. When the water dried off, all pictures would fade away and the mat is ready to be reuse again.

For a very young toddler, JX’s initial response to a new creative medium was not about making art but instead was about exploring and experimenting with the materials. I had given JX plenty of time to just figuring out what this cool thing called Aqua doodle pen & mat can do. I let him discover the link between his hand holding the Aqua doodle pen and the lines/scribbles he made on the mat. I let him experience what is so called cause-and-effect.

I still remembered how exciting he was when he discovered his new ability to hold things in his hands and fingers then later made a first ‘mark’ on the world. And the first scribbles he made was actually more of the result of his large shoulder movement. He also tried to smell and taste the Aqua doodle pen.

As JX reached 18 months old, I slowly introduced him to more art materials like pens (of different colours), pencils (mechanical and 2B) and also colour pencils.

This month, my top pick to welcome JX enters into 21 months old were crayon and watercolour. (Remembered to choose a non-toxic one for young children).

As usual, I just sit beside him (or draw alongside) giving him plenty of time to explore the material’s properties and capabilities freely without needing to ‘make’ something. Every marks he made didn’t have to be represent something, just let it be a mark created during exploration process.

Art is about ‘free choice’ creating time, isn’t it?