Kids' Play

I was asked if I would show a bunch of kids how to paint with a Chinese brush,  as part of a program to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  Their ages would range between 10 to 18, numbering 60.

So this should be a fun activity, for me and for the kids, I mused.  I understand not all kids came to this function out of their free will.  I will submit that the majority of them were just told to participate without the benefit of a discussion, but these are good kids who mind their elders,and follow instructions.  I prayed.

I must therefore recognize the fact that this was not going to be a painting lesson.  This was just going to be a wholesome activity, under the Chinese Brush painting banner.

I resorted to the paint by numbers method, sort of.  The is the worst and best of methods.  Worst in the sense that it fostered a wrong impression of how to paint; best as in it's result oriented.  Anybody can paint as long as they do what Simon says.

I had a easel set up so that each group of 20 kids could watch me.  I had to forgo my usual way of painting, which is on a flat surface lined with wool felt pad.

My plan was to paint one stroke at a time and stop, allowing the kids to emulate me.  I imagine the process would take about 30 minutes to finish the painting.  The painting would be of a monkey, since this is the year of the monkey in our calendar.

The set up resembled a class room; kids would be sitting four abreast, in five tables.  They were provided with a Chinese brush, a paper plate as the ink palette, and construction paper in lieu of the traditional Xuan.
We used construction paper because it is less likely to bleed if the brush is too wet, and of course, it is a lot cheaper.

I discovered that some of the kids did not know how to hold a Chinese brush.  They were handling it like a pen, thus only able to utilize the pointed tip of the brush and not the rest of it.  So we had to make do, after all this was not to be a painting lesson.

The following are some of the works by these novices:

These are actually not bad at all.

The ones below exemplify what happens when we are heavy on the tip and not much else

however these lines captured the essence of the playfulness of the critter.  Therefore I think the language more than made up for the lack of Bi-fa.

Invariably you are always going to find a couple of clowns in a group.  So where does one draw the line? (no pun intended)  Should one stymie their creativity by stopping them in their tracks or better yet, how should one channel their energy?  Where does discipline come in.

I felt like I was being draconian by making the kids put away their cell phones, and in the 30 minute span than I had them, I wasn't going to rock the boat too much.