Sketching Children@NAIDOC, Library

Hi, Friends, are you enjoying sketching children? All of us want to capture their innocent beauty, don't we? I love capturing emotional children. I hope it would be the quality of my picture book illustration. 

Capturing children is not hard, I've learned. First of all, I've realised the importance of trust in my own eyes. All of us can tell how old a child is and what feeling s/he has. If so, we all have wonderful knowledge about what children are. Just use my eyes' perception and depict kids on paper. But why and how? I've observed children carefully with Qs. Always have a Q is a good approach. Just looking is not looking (does it make sense?). I often set a theme in a time frame, for example, "movement for 2 months" and tried it. Answers have become my precious artistic assets. A child's face expression and movement interest me most.

A first sketch is an Indigenous boy dancing a traditional dance at NAIDOC week event, (="National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee") in Parramatta yesterday. His movement and body language was so strong and full of pride. It was really lovely to see Aboriginal people's languages and cultures.

This was a black and white sketch. Immediately, I got on colour. 

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held around Australia each July to appreciate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. If you have interest, please click their NAIDOC History Timeline that shows Indigenous Australians' hard and painful history, yet, full of their pride and fight for human rights. It is, certainly, our Australian history. 　

A second sketch is at a library where I go to study children picture books. A girl stood up and looked back for a moment, which was so charming for me. I could not resist it, although I did not draw the detail. A simplified drawing, in my view, can send a stronger message than complicated work.

A third sketch was a boy just standing. He was so cute! I simply like sketching and do it. Each child has a different age, a gender, body language and emotions. Furthermore, their human interactions always give me awe and joy in drawing and painting. These tens of thousands of sketches are my important references. I'd capture emotional moments and hope one day I can create it from my memories freely. Still a long way to go, but I love sketching children and people! In addition, please respect the privacy of a model and always gain permission from a model. I gain a permission from children's parents/care givers. 

BTW, I've just finished up the illustrations. Editor Helen, Author and Mentor Ann are very happy, which makes me really happy, too! Also, big names such as Libby Gleeson and Elise Hurst celebrate my illustration work done.
I'd come back to sketching. Although the hand still has a pain, it gets much better. Really thank you for warm cheers. I'll enjoy mentoring people with disability, too. I want to grow as a person and artist.
Friends, Happy Painting!!

Sketching Children@NAIDOC, Library