ABSTRACT
Children’s early school experience is often one of colouring in shapes they have drawn. This is an obvious way to apply colour to a drawing and basic to making artworks. The deeply ingrained habit of drawing in line and filling in with colour can remain the only way for some children to work when there are other skills they need. The filled-in shape also implies that artwork is finished if it has been filled with colour. The habit of thinking this way is less obvious using paint and large brushes, but can still limit the development of a wider range of skills. Reviewing and changing work becomes more difficult to implement. Schools’ art lessons are often full of good starts which lead nowhere when they could develop skills which are transferred to other work.
