Running Head: A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

A Childs Drawing Analysis Pre-service teachers are always hearing about stages of development. These stages of development usually relate to psychological, emotional, physical, and behavioral growth in a child. In schools, teachers also talk about reading, math, and writing levels. What teachers dont talk about as much is childrens development in art. Lowenfeld researched and discovered six stages of art development measuring from two years old all the way to adulthood. These stages are the Scribbling Stage, the Preschematic Stage, the Schematic Stage, the Gang Age, the Pseudo-Naturalistic Stage, and Adolescent Art (1970). Each of these stages have unique characteristics that describe what artwork looks like from each stage. Each age range is associated with the different stages. Just like in any stage of development, some students may be advanced while other students may be further behind their peers. As teachers, we can determine our students stages in order to assign them appropriately difficult activities, and creative tasks. In this paper, I will be analyzing the drawing of a student of which I believe to be in transition from the Schematic Stage to the Gang Age of art development. Description and Analysis Lowenfeld states that In this regard the Schematic stage is the first time that the child becomes aware of a lack of ability to show objects the way they appear in the surrounding environment. The human is shown as girl, boy, woman, man clearly defined with a feeling for details often resulting in a "stiffness" of representation. Perspective is another characteristic of this stage. There is an awareness of the space between the base line and skyline. Overlapping of objects, types of point perspective and use of small to large objects are evident in this stage. Objects no longer stand on a base line (Creative and Mental Growth). The image in Figure 1

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS fits the requirements of both the Schematic Stage and the Gang age, making it appear that the student is in transitioning between the stages. The image is clearly an image of a girl, and you can tell that she is trying to make a background with overlapping. The student shows the body proportions to be pretty close to accurate in this drawing.

The legs are a little longer than the torso, and even show a bend in the knee. The student is able to draw realistic body parts and pays more attention to individual parts (Donley, 2014). On the right hand, the student drew all five fingers, but all the fingers are drawn the same; you cant tell where the thumb is. On the left hand, it looks like the student is trying to draw a fist. It doesnt look very realistic, and is just drawn as part of a circle attached to the wrist. Her hair
Figure 1. A Childs Drawing

also has no detail. She has drawn the

outline of the hair and causes it disappear behind the shoulders. The student draws little circles in the hair, but Im not sure what this is supposed to be. Overall, there isnt detail or texture in the hair. This makes me think that the student is still partially in the Schematic stage because of the lack of detail. Body parts become less exaggerated and distorted in the Gang stage (Dawning Realism, 2014). Although the student drew very detailed eyes, with pupils and eyelids, they are a little distorted; one eyelid is higher than the other and the eyelids are much bigger than in

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS reality. This also shows how the student is transitioning between stages. Brittain, suggests that students in the schematic stage depict body part proportions based on emotional values (1970). Lowenfeld also states that In the schematic stage of drawing (ages 7-9), a definite base and sky

line is apparent. Items in the drawing are all spatially related. Colors are reflected as they appear in nature. Shapes and objects are easily definable. Exaggeration between figures (humans taller than a house, flowers bigger than humans, family members large and small) is often used to express strong feelings about a subject (1947). Looking at this drawing is interesting because she made the eyes and mouth big, and the nose small. This could mean that she feels curious, or ready to explore and look around the world. This can be very telling for teachers working for students at this age because they may be able to tell what is going on with a student just by looking at their drawing. If students are drawing tears coming from the face of a person in their drawing, this could mean that they are dealing with something that is making them sad. This drawing depicts a girl with big eyes, even holding up her muscle with a clenched fist. This could mean that she is feeling proud or victorious. Brittain also suggests that students in the Gang age pay more attention to detail in clothing (1970). In this picture, the student uses geometric shapes making little circles as the shirt. The circles start pretty neat and organized at the top, but then get sloppier and more oval shaped towards the bottom. The student also drew stripes on the pants. Just like the shirt, she got sloppier towards the bottom. The lines she drew met on either side of the pants but at the bottom the lines go past the pants on either side. For the background, she drew two overlapping circles as if to show the ground and the wall. The gang age begins to use overlapping, like she is (Brittain, 1970), but she also uses the x-ray type drawing where you can see thorough objects, which is a sign of the Schematic

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS stage (Lowenfeld, 1947). This is seen in the background when she draws right over where she had drawn the pants. Conlcusion After observing and analyzing the childs artwork, I believe that this child is in between the Schematic stage and Gang Age due to the characteristics shown in her artwork. It is important as teachers to be able to recognize the stages of development that our students are in. Each stage of development describes what a teacher should expect from a student. By knowing what stage of development a student is in, a teacher will be able to assign appropriate

assignments and activities that meet the needs of each individual student. This applies not only to art, but for several subjects. As a teacher, it I our job to facilitate learning and growth throughout the year for each individual student. By analyzing the work of the children, we will be able to provide the appropriate education, along with the appropriate expectations for our students.

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

References Dawning Realism - A Guide to Graphic Development. (n.d.). A Guide to Graphic Development. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://graphicguide.weebly.com/dawningrealism.html Donley, S. (n.d.). Drawing Development in Children. Drawing Development in Children. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html Lowenfeld. (1947). LOWENFELD'S. LOWENFELD. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.d.umn.edu/~jbrutger/Lowenf.html Lowenfeld, V., & Brittain, W. (1970). Creative and Mental Growth. Creative and Mental Growth (pp. 474-479). New York, NY: Brittain. Schematic - Stages of Artistic Development. (n.d.). Stages of Artistic Development. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://stagesofartisticdevelopment.weebly.com/schematic.html

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS