Children's Art Research Paper
A Child’s Drawing Analysis Research Paper
University of Missouri
Shelby Harper
Figure 1
Children have amazing artistic abilities even at a young age. “Children’s abilities to create drawings and to understand art develop in a parallel fashion to changes in their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth” (Erickson & Young, 1996, 40). There are 6 stages of development that children go through when creating art throughout their childhood and adolescence: the Scribbling stage, the Preschematic stage, the Schematic stage, the Gang age, the Pseudo-Naturalistic stage, and the Adolescent art stage.
My picture (figure 1) shows a human figure. There is a circular head, round eyes placed fair apart, but they are placed appropriately in the right area of the face. The nose is in the middle lower portion of the face and is large in proportion to the head. There is a slight smiley face that is made from a single line. From there, a short neck appears and is connected to an “upper body”. Coming off of the body are two arms with fingers, made from single lines. There is no lower body or legs in the picture; the picture stops with the chest being carried down the picture. On the left side of the upper body, there are dark scribbles on the chest, which could be seen as shading. There are fingers at the end of each arm, which are made by single lines. The hair in the drawing is made by 2 single lines coming out of the middle of the head.
Above, on the previous page, is the picture that my student drew, labeled as figure 1. I believe that this student is in-between The Preschematic Stage and The Schematic Stage. I believe that this student is in the preschematic stage because their shapes for the objects that they drew are geometric and the head and feet have grown out of a scribble. In this drawing, the student uses basic geometric shapes to base the head and arms off of. Also, the object is looking at the viewer and there is inclusion of the arms, body and fingers. This is a one-dimensional object because there is just the front view of the person in the drawing and it is looking straight at the viewer. There is distortion and omission of the legs and lower half of the body, but there are clothes, hair and other vague details shown in the picture (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, 475). All of these characteristics are those of the preschematic stage. The following are characteristics of the schematic stage. This drawing has a development of a form concept which is repeated again and again. This is seen through this students’ use of circles in the drawing and the repetition of circles in the face. This drawing is a bold, direct, flat representation. In this drawing, there is no overlapping of lines and the arms show volume and are correctly placed on the body (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, 476).
Based on the characteristics of both stages of development, I think that this student is in-between stages and is going through a transition. However, I do slightly think that this student is developing more towards the schematic stage because this is a very recognizable figure that has recognizable features that are made from simple geometric shapes. I believe that it has more characteristics that are distinguishable to the schematic stage, while still having some characteristics of the preschematic stage.
I do not believe that this student is in the scribbling stage because “there is no attempts made for human figure representation”(Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, 474). This is clearly a human figure and although it might seem like some of the lines are scribbles, I believe that the lines are purposefully made and they all have a specific intention for the drawing. This drawing is beyond the beginnings of self-expression and the student knows what a human figure should look like and they have chosen certain shapes to create that look.
This student shows pretty good detail, but it is vague. There are not in-depth touches to the body such as eyebrows, more hair, and there is not a complete lower half of the body at all. However, overall, this student does show that they do know what a human body should look like and the proportions used in the drawing are actually pretty accurate.
One of the great things about art is that you can see it through completely different perspectives. “The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world” (Eisner, 2002, 3). Different people might interpret this drawing a certain way and put it into different categories that what I did. This is what is so great about art; multiple people can look at a drawing and see completely different things depending on the viewpoint of the onlooker.
“Piaget described characteristic behaviors, including artistic ones such as drawings, as evidence of how children think and what children do as they progress beyond developmental milestones into and through stages of development” (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006, 6-7). I think this is very telling in my students’ drawing because this is showing more sophisticated thinking but still very elementary thinking as well. There is a mix of both stages in this drawing, I think, and this drawing is probably a good indication of where the student is at academically as well; this student is probably a pretty sophisticated learner, but still has a ways to go before he/she reaches their end goal.
Art doesn’t have to be sophisticated to be considered art. We have all heard from our parents that everything we create is a work of art; I have a whole box in my house of my elementary art projects and drawings that I brought home. Looking back on those, I find that I hit every one of the stages of art development. The picture above has a beginners feeling to it, but the student definitely knows what they want to create. They are on their way to making sophisticated human figures with more detail and a more realistic feeling. By knowing the characteristics of each stage of development, I will be able to use this knowledge in my future classroom. Being a teacher is about helping your students move forward in their development and by knowing this information, I will be able to help move my students forward in development artistically. This can be done through activities where drawing and creating art is encouraged. Bringing art into the classroom is easy and an easy way to bring fun back into the classroom.
Works Cited:
Brittain, W.L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York, N.Y:
Macmillan Co., 22-25, 474-479.
Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Ten lessons the arts teach. Yale
University Press: NAEA Publications.
Erickson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What Every Educator should (but maybe doesn’t)
know. School Arts, 40-42.
Luehrman, M. & Unrath, K. (2006). Making theories of children’s artistic development
meaningful for pre-service teachers. Art Education, 6-12.
University of Missouri
Shelby Harper
Figure 1
Children have amazing artistic abilities even at a young age. “Children’s abilities to create drawings and to understand art develop in a parallel fashion to changes in their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth” (Erickson & Young, 1996, 40). There are 6 stages of development that children go through when creating art throughout their childhood and adolescence: the Scribbling stage, the Preschematic stage, the Schematic stage, the Gang age, the Pseudo-Naturalistic stage, and the Adolescent art stage.
My picture (figure 1) shows a human figure. There is a circular head, round eyes placed fair apart, but they are placed appropriately in the right area of the face. The nose is in the middle lower portion of the face and is large in proportion to the head. There is a slight smiley face that is made from a single line. From there, a short neck appears and is connected to an “upper body”. Coming off of the body are two arms with fingers, made from single lines. There is no lower body or legs in the picture; the picture stops with the chest being carried down the picture. On the left side of the upper body, there are dark scribbles on the chest, which could be seen as shading. There are fingers at the end of each arm, which are made by single lines. The hair in the drawing is made by 2 single lines coming out of the middle of the head.
Above, on the previous page, is the picture that my student drew, labeled as figure 1. I believe that this student is in-between The Preschematic Stage and The Schematic Stage. I believe that this student is in the preschematic stage because their shapes for the objects that they drew are geometric and the head and feet have grown out of a scribble. In this drawing, the student uses basic geometric shapes to base the head and arms off of. Also, the object is looking at the viewer and there is inclusion of the arms, body and fingers. This is a one-dimensional object because there is just the front view of the person in the drawing and it is looking straight at the viewer. There is distortion and omission of the legs and lower half of the body, but there are clothes, hair and other vague details shown in the picture (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, 475). All of these characteristics are those of the preschematic stage. The following are characteristics of the schematic stage. This drawing has a development of a form concept which is repeated again and again. This is seen through this students’ use of circles in the drawing and the repetition of circles in the face. This drawing is a bold, direct, flat representation. In this drawing, there is no overlapping of lines and the arms show volume and are correctly placed on the body (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, 476).
Based on the characteristics of both stages of development, I think that this student is in-between stages and is going through a transition. However, I do slightly think that this student is developing more towards the schematic stage because this is a very recognizable figure that has recognizable features that are made from simple geometric shapes. I believe that it has more characteristics that are distinguishable to the schematic stage, while still having some characteristics of the preschematic stage.
I do not believe that this student is in the scribbling stage because “there is no attempts made for human figure representation”(Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, 474). This is clearly a human figure and although it might seem like some of the lines are scribbles, I believe that the lines are purposefully made and they all have a specific intention for the drawing. This drawing is beyond the beginnings of self-expression and the student knows what a human figure should look like and they have chosen certain shapes to create that look.
This student shows pretty good detail, but it is vague. There are not in-depth touches to the body such as eyebrows, more hair, and there is not a complete lower half of the body at all. However, overall, this student does show that they do know what a human body should look like and the proportions used in the drawing are actually pretty accurate.
One of the great things about art is that you can see it through completely different perspectives. “The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world” (Eisner, 2002, 3). Different people might interpret this drawing a certain way and put it into different categories that what I did. This is what is so great about art; multiple people can look at a drawing and see completely different things depending on the viewpoint of the onlooker.
“Piaget described characteristic behaviors, including artistic ones such as drawings, as evidence of how children think and what children do as they progress beyond developmental milestones into and through stages of development” (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006, 6-7). I think this is very telling in my students’ drawing because this is showing more sophisticated thinking but still very elementary thinking as well. There is a mix of both stages in this drawing, I think, and this drawing is probably a good indication of where the student is at academically as well; this student is probably a pretty sophisticated learner, but still has a ways to go before he/she reaches their end goal.
Art doesn’t have to be sophisticated to be considered art. We have all heard from our parents that everything we create is a work of art; I have a whole box in my house of my elementary art projects and drawings that I brought home. Looking back on those, I find that I hit every one of the stages of art development. The picture above has a beginners feeling to it, but the student definitely knows what they want to create. They are on their way to making sophisticated human figures with more detail and a more realistic feeling. By knowing the characteristics of each stage of development, I will be able to use this knowledge in my future classroom. Being a teacher is about helping your students move forward in their development and by knowing this information, I will be able to help move my students forward in development artistically. This can be done through activities where drawing and creating art is encouraged. Bringing art into the classroom is easy and an easy way to bring fun back into the classroom.
Works Cited:
Brittain, W.L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York, N.Y:
Macmillan Co., 22-25, 474-479.
Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Ten lessons the arts teach. Yale
University Press: NAEA Publications.
Erickson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What Every Educator should (but maybe doesn’t)
know. School Arts, 40-42.
Luehrman, M. & Unrath, K. (2006). Making theories of children’s artistic development
meaningful for pre-service teachers. Art Education, 6-12.