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Running Head: A Child'S Drawing Analysis 1

The document analyzes a drawing created by a 5th grade student to determine where they fall in the stages of artistic development. The student drew an outside scene with careful attention to detail, including individual blades of grass and purposefully placed colors. The analysis finds that the student exhibits characteristics of both the Schematic Stage and Post-Schematic Stage, showing a greater awareness of details and physical environment but still using consistent schemas and object placement in their work. Understanding the stages of artistic development can help teachers guide and challenge students appropriately.

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29 views

Running Head: A Child'S Drawing Analysis 1

The document analyzes a drawing created by a 5th grade student to determine where they fall in the stages of artistic development. The student drew an outside scene with careful attention to detail, including individual blades of grass and purposefully placed colors. The analysis finds that the student exhibits characteristics of both the Schematic Stage and Post-Schematic Stage, showing a greater awareness of details and physical environment but still using consistent schemas and object placement in their work. Understanding the stages of artistic development can help teachers guide and challenge students appropriately.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Running head: A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

A Childs Drawing Analysis


Melissa Pierson
LTC 4240
University of Missouri
October 1, 2015

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

A Childs Drawing Analysis


All children go through different artistic stages. They learn to hold a pen or
pencil and then eventually progress from scribbles to forming figures. Each student, in
every grade, goes through the stages at different times. Knowing about these stages and
what they are is important for teachers because it allows them to know what their
expectations for that child should be. As they go through each stage they start to learn
and notice more about the world around them. In an article from PBS the author said,
Learning to create and appreciate visual aesthetics may be more important than ever to
the development of the next generation of children as they grow up (Lynch, 2012). By
looking at how children make art and what they make we can learn a lot more about the
type of learner they are. Art and visual learning is an important part of a childs
development. Although every child is different, the purpose of this project was to see
where a student fell along the stages of artistic development.
Method
For this project, I selected one of the fifth graders in my class and I asked her to
draw either a self-portrait, picture of her family, or an outside scene. I supplied her with a
bin of markers and a piece of white paper and then gave her the freedom to do draw
however she liked. After setting up this project for my student, she told me that her
favorite thing to draw was an outside scene and then she continued to do so. I watched
and tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible so I could get an accurate
representation of her drawing skills. She started off by drawing the grass, and when she
did this she made each green marker stroke individually. She told me that she likes to
show more detail, not just squiggly lines because when you look at grass you can see

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

each blade separately. She also likes to leave some white space because she says that
when you look at grass there is sometimes places where the grass does not grow. I
thought that is was really in-depth thinking about a part of a drawing that some people
would just skip right over.

Next the student drew the flowers and the tree. She carefully picked out the colors
she wanted in her flower and even more carefully drew each flower. With the tree she
was again using small strokes to outline the exact shape she wanted it to be. She had the
tree look as though it was going over the page but still made some green leaves on the
branch as well as the top edge of the paper. She then added the clouds and the sky, again
she used individual strokes to form the clouds and fill in the sky. Finally, she added sun

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

to the top left corner of her drawing. She put yellow not only in the corner, where most
people think to put it, but all over the sky. When I asked her why she did this she told me
that, When you look around you see the sun rays everywhere, not just in the sky. With
that being said, she handed me her finished outside scene.
Findings
I noticed that with every part of this picture, my student gave a lot of attention to
detail. She put color only where she wanted it and each stroke she made was for a
reason. She purposefully did not add color to every area, only spots that she specifically
wanted it. Instead of just quickly shading in the grass, tree, or sky, she colored it in the
way she sees it when she looks outside. Even the white space she has in the picture was
for a reason to her because not everything she looks at is fully colored in. Everything she
drew, she drew because that is what she saw through her eyes. I thought that a lot of this
students thinking was very in-depth and thoughtful.
Often children show the characteristics of different stages at the same time. Out
of the six stages of artist development, this student is in both the Schematic Stage and the
Gang Age (or Post-Schematic Stage). This student shows parts of the post-schematic
stage because this stage focuses more on realism in art. She displayed a greater
awareness of details, and greater awareness of physical environment (Lowenfeld,
1970). This was clear in the way she focused on the individual aspects of each part of her
picture and wanted to represent them as accurately as she could. Another aspect of this
stage that the student drew was the sky now coming down to meet the horizon
(Lowenfeld, 1970). This shows that the student is looking at the world around them and
drawing a more accurate depiction of that world. Although, the student displays

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

characteristics from the post-schematic stage, there are still parts of the schematic stage
that are represented in this drawing. For example, the way the student uses the space on
the page. She uses a baseline to connect the sky and the grass, and all of the objects lie
on this baseline. The flowers and tree are directly on the grass and none of the colors or
objects overlap (Lowenfeld, 1970). It was also clear to see through the way that she was
drawing, that she has a schema about the way she draws this scene. Meaning that when
she draws trees and flowers, she usually draws them this way every time (Steel, 1997).
When I asked her if she was drawing a certain kind of flower, she told me that this was
the way she liked to draw flowers. So, many of her drawings may have this same look.
Conclusion
Students progress through all stages of life at different times and in different
ways. For this fifth grade student, she was working her way from the schematic stage of
drawing to the post-schematic stage of art development. Art students can move through
these stages at anytime, but knowing what the stages are can help teachers guide them.
Teachers must know where children are at in order to help and challenge them. With this
student it was easy to see that art is something she really enjoys and that is something, as
a teacher, that I would want to remember.

A CHILDS DRAWING ANALYSIS

6
References

(n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2015, from


http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/curriculum/guides/art/primaryelementary/part_p
2-19.pdf
Lynch, G. (2012, May 16). The Importance of Art in Child Development. Retrieved
October 1, 2015.
Smith, R., Lowenfeld, V., & Brittain, W. (1970). Creative and Mental Growth. Studies in
Art Education, 474-479.
Steel, B. (1997). Developmental Stages of Children's Drawings. Retrieved October 1,
2015.

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