charcoal kiwis

We went with friends to one of our favourite places this week, Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. It was pouring with rain and we we're literally the only people there. Maybe that's why the kiwi was relaxed and happy enough to let us watch him for such a long time.

At home we talked about the kiwi's beak and feathers. After some playing around with the charcoal we drew some. We talked about making little lines and blending the charcoal with our fingers to make the kiwi's short feathers look soft.

Playful learning blog about toddlers using charcoal so this would be a good place to start if you're thinking of giving your kids some charcoal to experiment with.  It can get pretty messy though!

Some of their ideas are to:

• show them how to blend the charcoal by dotting their finger on the paper
• press down and run their finger across the page
• see what happens when they use their whole hand
• show them how to rub the long side of the charcoal across the page
• introduce some coarser, thicker paper and see how this changes how the charcoal moves

After we'd drawn the kiwis I showed them this ( a- maz-ing) picture. We talked about how the artist may have used the charcoal to create the different shades, lines and the white parts of the tiger's face. 

Next time we draw we'll talk about shading, and use a rubber/ eraser to rub out some of the dark areas or lines.

It was a lovely quiet way to spend a very rainy afternoon x

By Robert Longo