research paper
children's drawing analysis
Abbi Sandweiss
LTC 4240
University of Missouri - Columbia
Spring 2013
Children’s Drawing Analysis: Analyzing Stages of Artistic Development
Students, parents, and teachers often wonder why the art program is one that is constantly obtaining less and less money from the district. Unlike subjects like math and literacy, art is not required beyond sixth or eighth grade. According to Mary Erickson and Bernard Young in the article, What Every Educator Should (But Maybe Doesn’t) Know, this is because the decision makers at the school do not understand the goals and achievements of an art curriculum. Many theorists like Viktor Lowenfeld and W.L. Brittain, give us a better understanding of a child's progress throughout developmental stages in their art, with wide variations within each age group (Erickson & Young, 1996, p. 41). In class I selected a piece of children’s art that I would later analyze to determine his or her artistic stage of development. After much consideration, I decided that my student’s art primarily fit in the schematic stage. For the purposes of this paper, considering I have no background knowledge on the student, I will refer to my student as Karson.
Brittain and Lowenfeld’s (1970, p. 476) analysis states that Karson’s drawing is in the schematic stage, which ranges from seven to nine years old. This stage is described as the achievement of a form concept. Karson is in the schematic stage because of her greater awareness of human representations and drawing characteristics. The image is made up of geometric shapes and the arms and legs of the human show volume and are correctly placed on the body. The drawing consists of details like hair, hands, shoes, and a neck. The student has a bold, direct, and flat representation and the drawings reflect the child’s active knowledge of the environment and what a human is supposed to look like. The main reason my student is in the schematic stage and not the gang age is because of her lack of awareness on details like clothing, ears, and body proportions. As well as a students overall self consciousness of their drawings. Considering Karson scribbled out her mistake, rather than starting over, shows a small lack in her advancement of drawing stages.
The beginning stage of visual expression of young children that Karson is in is the embellishing symbols stage. She draws objects of particular interest, adding details that are only important to her. Although she does understand the concept of hands and feet (Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County, 1984, p. 3). In the article Learning to Draw: Nurturing the Natural, there are a few principals that relate to Karson’s drawing. On page 45, we see that figure 3-12 looks similar to her drawing, and this principle is the conservation and multiple-application principle. “A line with a loop at the end, serves for an arm with a hand and the two legs with feet,” (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, 45). Karson’s drawing has the same figure used for her arms and legs but they are more advanced than the description, including details of fingers and shoelaces. She also uses the fill-the-format principle, which shows my student’s, “need to stretch limbs in order to reach an object or to lengthen or shorten features so that they may fit neatly and in an aesthetically pleasing way into a given space,” (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, p. 43). Karson takes up the entire space of the paper with her drawing. She does not take into the account the length of each part. For example, her images arms are extremely long and stretch across the page. She also shortened the legs in order to neatly fit feet onto the page.
To further develop my student’s artistic development, I could encourage her to add more details to her drawing. As we do in music and literature, we study the craft of writers in the past. Rather than creating all of our own material we study what has been done before and therefore teach our students how to further expand and develop their work. This can also be integrated into art. I could show Karson some example drawings that artists have done of people. Using those as examples and studying the artists individual craft, Karson will be able to pick up on things that artist did that will help to add detail to her drawings.
The gang age is the next stage after the schematic stage in Brittain and Lowenfeld’s (1970, p. 477) analysis. In this stage of human figure representatives, the artist will have greater awareness of clothing details, less exaggeration of body parts to show emphasis, and the body parts will retain their meaning when separated from the drawing. Even adding details such as borders and a prop to the drawing will slowly help Karson deeper develop her artistic skills.
In order to assess the artistic development of a child, one must collect a variety of student drawings. After researching for some time, the researcher tends to notice patterns between students artistic work. “Just as reading and math levels vary widely in an average class, we should expect it would be natural for art levels to also vary widely,” (Erickson & Young, 1996, p. 41). Integrating art into other subjects will allow for students to share their creativity and expand their artistic abilities, while also strengthening their knowledge of subjects like science and math. After analyzing Karson’s work I was able to see the wide variations within each stage of development in her art. This relates to how children's art progresses in similar and predictable ways, also explained in my description of Karson’s artwork above. The benefits to the elementary student and classroom teacher spring from the integration of art into different subjects and the understanding of each student’s personal development.
References
Brittain, W. L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York, NY: Macmillian Co., 22-25, 474-479.
Erickson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What every educator should (but maybe doesn’t) know. School Arts, 40-42.
Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County. (1984). Beginning stages of visual expression of young children. Art Experience, Development of Visual Perception, 1-8.
Wilson, M. & Wilson, B. (1982). Learning to draw: Nurturing the natural. Engle Cliffs, NY, 39-47.
LTC 4240
University of Missouri - Columbia
Spring 2013
Children’s Drawing Analysis: Analyzing Stages of Artistic Development
Students, parents, and teachers often wonder why the art program is one that is constantly obtaining less and less money from the district. Unlike subjects like math and literacy, art is not required beyond sixth or eighth grade. According to Mary Erickson and Bernard Young in the article, What Every Educator Should (But Maybe Doesn’t) Know, this is because the decision makers at the school do not understand the goals and achievements of an art curriculum. Many theorists like Viktor Lowenfeld and W.L. Brittain, give us a better understanding of a child's progress throughout developmental stages in their art, with wide variations within each age group (Erickson & Young, 1996, p. 41). In class I selected a piece of children’s art that I would later analyze to determine his or her artistic stage of development. After much consideration, I decided that my student’s art primarily fit in the schematic stage. For the purposes of this paper, considering I have no background knowledge on the student, I will refer to my student as Karson.
Brittain and Lowenfeld’s (1970, p. 476) analysis states that Karson’s drawing is in the schematic stage, which ranges from seven to nine years old. This stage is described as the achievement of a form concept. Karson is in the schematic stage because of her greater awareness of human representations and drawing characteristics. The image is made up of geometric shapes and the arms and legs of the human show volume and are correctly placed on the body. The drawing consists of details like hair, hands, shoes, and a neck. The student has a bold, direct, and flat representation and the drawings reflect the child’s active knowledge of the environment and what a human is supposed to look like. The main reason my student is in the schematic stage and not the gang age is because of her lack of awareness on details like clothing, ears, and body proportions. As well as a students overall self consciousness of their drawings. Considering Karson scribbled out her mistake, rather than starting over, shows a small lack in her advancement of drawing stages.
The beginning stage of visual expression of young children that Karson is in is the embellishing symbols stage. She draws objects of particular interest, adding details that are only important to her. Although she does understand the concept of hands and feet (Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County, 1984, p. 3). In the article Learning to Draw: Nurturing the Natural, there are a few principals that relate to Karson’s drawing. On page 45, we see that figure 3-12 looks similar to her drawing, and this principle is the conservation and multiple-application principle. “A line with a loop at the end, serves for an arm with a hand and the two legs with feet,” (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, 45). Karson’s drawing has the same figure used for her arms and legs but they are more advanced than the description, including details of fingers and shoelaces. She also uses the fill-the-format principle, which shows my student’s, “need to stretch limbs in order to reach an object or to lengthen or shorten features so that they may fit neatly and in an aesthetically pleasing way into a given space,” (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, p. 43). Karson takes up the entire space of the paper with her drawing. She does not take into the account the length of each part. For example, her images arms are extremely long and stretch across the page. She also shortened the legs in order to neatly fit feet onto the page.
To further develop my student’s artistic development, I could encourage her to add more details to her drawing. As we do in music and literature, we study the craft of writers in the past. Rather than creating all of our own material we study what has been done before and therefore teach our students how to further expand and develop their work. This can also be integrated into art. I could show Karson some example drawings that artists have done of people. Using those as examples and studying the artists individual craft, Karson will be able to pick up on things that artist did that will help to add detail to her drawings.
The gang age is the next stage after the schematic stage in Brittain and Lowenfeld’s (1970, p. 477) analysis. In this stage of human figure representatives, the artist will have greater awareness of clothing details, less exaggeration of body parts to show emphasis, and the body parts will retain their meaning when separated from the drawing. Even adding details such as borders and a prop to the drawing will slowly help Karson deeper develop her artistic skills.
In order to assess the artistic development of a child, one must collect a variety of student drawings. After researching for some time, the researcher tends to notice patterns between students artistic work. “Just as reading and math levels vary widely in an average class, we should expect it would be natural for art levels to also vary widely,” (Erickson & Young, 1996, p. 41). Integrating art into other subjects will allow for students to share their creativity and expand their artistic abilities, while also strengthening their knowledge of subjects like science and math. After analyzing Karson’s work I was able to see the wide variations within each stage of development in her art. This relates to how children's art progresses in similar and predictable ways, also explained in my description of Karson’s artwork above. The benefits to the elementary student and classroom teacher spring from the integration of art into different subjects and the understanding of each student’s personal development.
References
Brittain, W. L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York, NY: Macmillian Co., 22-25, 474-479.
Erickson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What every educator should (but maybe doesn’t) know. School Arts, 40-42.
Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County. (1984). Beginning stages of visual expression of young children. Art Experience, Development of Visual Perception, 1-8.
Wilson, M. & Wilson, B. (1982). Learning to draw: Nurturing the natural. Engle Cliffs, NY, 39-47.