Running Head: ANALYZING AND RESEARCHING A CHILDS DRAWING

Analyzing and Researching a Childs Drawing Emma Miller University of Missouri, Columbia

ANALYZING AND RESEARCHING A CHILDS DRAWING Analyzing and Researching a Childs Drawing A common misconception with art is that it must be representative of something. The truth about art is that it can be representative of anything; it simply depends on who looks at it. Just as we encourage students to analyze a math problem or to write creatively, teachers also need to encourage artistic freedom within their students. By encouraging our students to express their imagination freely we allow them to develop a sense of deep thinking and creativity.

Because there are "many ways to see and interpret the world," it is vital that we teach students to express their vision and interpretations through their own work (Eisner, 2002, p. 3). For this qualitative research paper I am going to be using my resources and knowledge of childrens development in art to analyze a childs piece of artwork. Keeping in mind that in the arts, imagination is a primary virtue (Eisner, 2009, p. 7). The artists name of the work I am going to be analyzing has been changed for confidentially reasons, but for this paper we shall refer to Figure 1 as Mikes artwork.

Figure 1. Example of artwork in the preschematic stage.

ANALYZING AND RESEARCHING A CHILDS DRAWING Description and Analysis After looking at and discussing Mikes artwork, certain characteristics led me to believe

that this picture was drawn while Mike was in the preschematic stage of his artistic development. We cannot say for sure what the intended subject of the illustration is, but my interpretation is that Mike was trying to draw a human figure. I alluded to this because of the lengthy body seeming figure with a detailed head on top of it. One of the more noticeable indications of art created in the preschematic developmental stage is Mikes omission of certain body parts within his human figure. This omission is expected of children in this stage and is believed that shortly after this oversight, students begin to realize what details are missing and add more of the human appendages to their future illustrations. Mike may have left out certain limbs for his human portrait, but he did manage to include details such as facial features and hair on his drawings head, showing his attention to detail is certainly increasing (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1970, p. 48). The spatial representation of Mikes drawing is also very apparently similar to those present in the preschematic stage. Mikes object (in this case, a human) seems to float around the page, implying he has not yet considered background and life-like details of how figures would stand-alone. The human figure is also drawn on a slight angle, distorted to fit the available space, and is disproportionate as a whole (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1970, p. 48). The slanted and disproportionate figure leads us to assume Mike may not yet understand how to incorporate spatial balance within his artwork. These aspects are not errors of Mikes art skill, but rather artistic characteristics that are very much in the norm for his age group. These characteristics will progress over time as Mike reaches the next stages of his art development. Conclusion

ANALYZING AND RESEARCHING A CHILDS DRAWING Children progress through a series of stages of development and that there are sets of

characteristics that can be identified (Luehrman, M., & Unrath, K., 2006, p. 71). This quote, and the developmental process mentioned within it, is important for teachers to understand. If a teacher is able to determine a students artistic developmental stage, they have a better chance at tracking progress and new skills within their students artwork. Regardless of the subject being taught, teachers have a daily challenge of how to balance educational content and their students the freedom to use their own analysis and creative expression of material. It is important to integrate these two concepts to encourage higher-level thinking and an open environment for students to express such thoughts. As professor Elliot Eisner wrote, To help students treat their work as a work of art is no small achievement (2009, p. 7). While it may not be easy to create an artistic meaning about a picture as simple as Mikes, it is still a picture that is meaningful and imaginative to him, and that is what makes it meaningful and imaginative to us as educators.

ANALYZING AND RESEARCHING A CHILDS DRAWING References Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University. Eisner, E. (2009). What education can learn from the arts. Art Education, 62(2), 22-25. Lowenfeld, V., & Brittain, W. L. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York: Macmillan. Luehrman, M., & Unrath, K. (2006). Making theories of childrens artistic development meaningful for pre-service teachers. Art Education, 59(3), 6-12.