4 Ways to Give Your Kid a Creative Boost

Every kid is creative. Some days that creativity just needs a little push to get going. A blank page can feel exciting to one child and scary to the next, so the trick is to give them a starting point that fits where they are right now.

I’ve made four different kinds of drawing books, and each one gives kids a different kind of creative boost. Here’s how each one works, and what it helps your child build along the way.

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1. Trace Then Color: Build Confidence and Control

Creative boost 1: Trace Then Color builds fine motor skills, creativity and confidence. Covers of Trace Then Color: Baby Animals, Unicorn Animals and Cool Stuff 2 by Kevin Coulston, with a tracing page and his cartoon brachiosaurus

Trace Then Color is the easiest place to start, and it works for kids as young as 3. Each page has a character drawn in light outlines. Your child traces over the lines, then colors the picture any way they like.

  • Fine motor skills: Following a line with a pencil is real practice for little hands. It builds the grip, control and steady movement kids need for writing.
  • Creativity: Once the tracing is done, the coloring is all theirs. A purple dinosaur with green spots? Perfect.
  • Confidence: Every page ends with a finished drawing they’re proud of. That “I made this!” feeling is what keeps kids coming back to art.

All Trace Then Color Books

2. Draw by Grid: Train the Eye and the Brain

Creative boost 2: Draw by Grid builds critical thinking, focus and patience, and fine motor skills. Covers of Draw by Grid: Mermaids, Unicorns, and Other Cute Stuff, Goofy Faces and Silly Aliens by Kevin Coulston, with a grid page and his cartoon corgi

Draw by Grid breaks a drawing into small squares. Kids look at one square of the picture, copy what they see into the matching empty square, then move on to the next one. Square by square, the whole drawing appears. It’s a great fit for ages 5 and up.

  • Critical thinking: Kids have to look closely, compare, count squares and figure out where each line starts and ends. That’s problem solving on every page.
  • Focus and patience: Working one small square at a time teaches kids that a big task gets easy when you break it into little steps.
  • Fine motor skills: Drawing short, careful lines inside a small space builds precise hand control.
  • The big reveal: Kids are often amazed at what they drew once all the squares are filled in.

All Draw by Grid Books

3. How to Draw: Learn How Drawings Are Built

Creative boost 3: How to Draw builds critical thinking, fine motor skills and imagination. Covers of How to Draw: Food Monsters, Baby Robots and Cartoon Dinosaurs by Kevin Coulston, with a step-by-step page and his cartoon robot

My How to Draw books show kids how to build a character one step at a time. On every step, the finished drawing is shown as a light gray outline, so kids can see its size and shape on the page. Each step adds a few new black lines until the character is done.

  • Critical thinking: Kids learn that every drawing is made of simple lines and shapes put together in order. Once they see that, they start breaking down other things they want to draw.
  • Fine motor skills: Curves, circles and straight lines all get practice as the character comes together.
  • Imagination: When the steps are done, the fun starts. Add a hat, change the face, give it a pet, draw a background. Every kid’s version ends up different.

All How to Draw Books

4. Shape Drawing Challenge: Let the Imagination Run

Creative boost 4: Shape Drawing Challenge builds imagination, creativity and critical thinking. The Shape Drawing Challenge cover by Kevin Coulston between two sample pages, with his cartoon pizza

Shape Drawing Challenge is the most open-ended of the four. Each page starts with a simple shape, and your child decides what it turns into. A circle could become a pizza, a planet, a monster or a face. There’s no wrong answer.

  • Imagination: Kids have to come up with their own idea every time. It’s a workout for the “what if?” part of the brain.
  • Creativity: No two kids draw the same thing from the same shape, which shows them their ideas are worth something.
  • Critical thinking: Kids figure out how to fit their idea around the shape, turning it, adding to it and planning where everything goes.

Want to try it right now? The free Try a Shape tool gives your kid a shape to draw on, right in the browser.

Shape Drawing Challenge

Which One Should You Start With?

Better yet, mix them up. Tracing builds the hand control, grid drawing sharpens the eye, step-by-step drawing teaches how pictures are built, and shape challenges let kids use all of it to make something nobody else has made.

Every series comes in lots of themes, from dinosaurs and robots to unicorns and monsters, so you can match the book to whatever your kid loves right now. You can also grab a free activity page to try each kind before you buy.

Browse All Art Books for Kids

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