Book Review: Form Drawing October 11 2021

Form Drawing Waldorf Publications

Form Drawing is a book about a subject unique to Waldorf schools. This book offers the best introduction to form drawing this Library Lady has ever seen! Form Drawing is full-color and bursting-with-illustrations—it is a must-have for understanding this powerful and engaging artistic subject!

Beginning on the first day of first grade, form drawing helps artistically to develop in children a sense of space, movement, balance, proportion, and beauty. All drawing uses straight lines and curved lines but form drawing, usually done once a week for five years in grades one through five in a Waldorf school, blossoms into formal geography in grades six, seven, and eight. Form drawing then appears intermittently in the upper grades with complex figures that sometimes achieve the complexity of the drawings within the Book of Kells from Ireland.

Dick Bruin, a teacher from The Netherlands, has devoted his life to artistic work in Waldorf schools and his new book, Form Drawing, demonstrates the mastery he has accomplished in his Waldorf teaching. The book is written in Dutch, German, and English, so could also help in language classes, as well as in main lesson and art classes. There are an abundance of drawings to pull from for one’s own inner development or for curriculum plans.

It takes great concentration to accomplish a form drawing and this practice develops inner strength and a strong will. This is useful at any age!  In Waldorf schools, the concentration of form drawing in early grades carefully builds the inner muscles of self-discipline and discernment as each child works to complete a form that is correct, balanced, and beautiful— not easy, but fulfilling beyond imagining.

Displaying the drawings of a whole class of first graders gives the teacher insight into each child’s particular personality and temperament and gives deeper understanding of what gifts each child brings into our world. Form Drawing by Dick Bruin is, therefore, a gateway to a new world of mastery of hand-drawn skills; artistically, geometrically, and inwardly. Give it a try!  You will see how extraordinary this simple and challenging capacity can be!