dialog drawing
when following N’s lead and interests, it is so obvious that she is a drawing machine… and not only does she love to draw, but her drawings are all about storytelling. she creates stories as she draws and tells them to herself and to me.
one of the art therapy techniques i have used with clients (of all ages) came to mind the other day when watching N engage me in her drawing — it’s called dialog drawing (or dialogue drawing for my friends in the uk 
) the idea is that two people will have a visual conversation by taking turns drawing on one page. this can be done by one person making a mark (a line, dot, curve,) then another making a mark, and so on back and forth until a picture develops. little ones don’t always have the patience for the slow unfolding of mark-making, so it’s a good idea to take turns making one “thing” at a time. you can say, “okay, let’s take turns! you draw something on the page. then it’ll be my turn to draw something on the page, then your turn. we’ll take turns going back and forth until we feel like our picture is finished.”
today we got out a large sheet of drawing paper – i’d recommend at least a 17×20 white page for this exercise. working large is great when two (or more – get all of your kids involved!) people are using it as their canvas. we used crayons, primarily, but i made colored pencils available. markers or any other dry media would work.
we began by setting some ground rules. make up your own. if you know your kid gets upset when someone’s marks touch or add to his/her work, then make a rule that the marks can’t touch each other… our rules were loose. they were just that she’d draw one object, then i’d draw one object, etc. you can create a rule of “no talking” so that it’s a strict visual conversation, but we chatted when we made ours. our first picture began with N drawing a self-image and a ball (which i later colored in.) on my first turn, i drew myself playing ball with her. it is important to remember to use your child’s artistic “handwriting” or visual language when doing this, so as to meet them where they are and non-verbally communicate that they are being seen and witnessed. more on these ideas here.
you can see how our first images of ourselves and a ball started an entire scene
not only is this a good exercise in patience and turn-taking, but it also helps to develop visual language, and it really allows you to give your child your very focused attention, playing an art game where the content is always fresh and new.
N LOVED making the dialog drawing together! after our first scene, which ended up being a beach picture, she said, “let’s do another one! but this one can’t be on a beach! now, you go first!”
drawing 1: the beach scene
so we did another…
drawing 2: the park scene
we spent over an hour doing these pictures and creating a story and talking with each other about it.
i loved watching how our ideas bounced off of one another. sometimes mine came first…
…sometimes hers did.
it was a really fun and connected morning art activity for us – try it!
.)
(pronounced “chick-sent-me-high”) who coined an idea called “flow theory.” flow is his term for the emotional state opposite frustration. flow is when you are fully, happily absorbed in an activity, completely satisfied, but not taking on more than you can handle. it is often what happens when an artist becomes absorbed in their work, and notions of time and space fall away. i relish in this creative space, and kids organically go there in their imaginal creative play. when observing a child in this state, you can usually hear all sorts of made-up stories, characters, ideas, plots spewing out – like a peek into the unconscious, coming out without a filter. such an honor to witness.
