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RUNNING HEAD: Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

A Childs Drawing Analysis Research Paper


Katie Diven-Orange Block
LTC 4240: Art for Children, Michelle Livek

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

For many students, art is a form of communication that allows them to say what cannot
be said with words. As a teacher, I need to understand the individual development of my students
as artists in order to guide them through the creative process. Through my investigation, I wanted
to analyze a students work in order to understand he or shes process of making meaning from
the marks on their page. As teachers, we are supposed to help children develop into intelligent,
good-hearted individuals and it is my belief that we can accomplish this through art integration.
To improve the education of students, teachers need to draw connections to methods of printmaking, which will provide insight into the minds of each individual student. By learning about
the development of young artists, teachers will be able to adjust and individualize learning
experiences based off of each childs development. Art should be integrated into the curriculum
because it fits in as a process of learning. Art teaches students what a product of learning can
become, that it is not just a test score. In todays society, employers are desperately seeking rightbrained thinkers that can put a creative twist on anything. To prepare our students for life after
school, it is important to give them the opportunity to design and create new meanings. Through
my investigation, I had the opportunity to work closely with a student about the meaning behind
his illustration. I have taken a critical look at what was drawn as well as what was said during
our interactions. Through my investigation of the development of childrens artwork, I have
found comfort in the realization that no two students are the same with mark making.
During my investigation, I studied a 9-year-old boy who loved Yadier Molina from the
St. Louis Cardinals. For the sake of anonymity, we will call this 4th grade boy Molina. It was a
chilly Monday afternoon and the students were just coming back from lunch. The teacher was
conducting some reading assessments with students while the rest of the class had silent reading
time. I approached Molina, who of course was reading a book about the St. Louis Cardinals, and

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

asked him if he would be willing to work with me. On a desk in the hall, I had all kinds of
materials laid out. Multiple pieces of drawing paper were out and were surrounded by markers,
colored pens, colored pencils, and crayons. Molina was a little hesitant to sit down and
confessed, Im not very good at art. He was worried that I would get a bad grade on my
assignment because he did not consider himself a good artist. I reassured him that this was not
for a grade and I was simply wanting to know more about him through his mark making. I began
by asking, If you had to choose to illustrate your house, yourself, or a tree, which would you
want to create? All of the sudden, he reached for the markers and began making marks on the
white drawing paper. I noticed that his marks were starting to create a clear illustration of his
house. When he finished making the outline of his house, he started filling in the details. First, he
drew the windows on his house with a blue marker and then the door of his house with a black
marker. Next, he drew a garage in black marker and looked at his paper to observe his work. He
picked up the green marker and drew his driveway and some surrounding grass in his front yard.
He returned to the black marker to place his sidewalk in its correct place. Everything he drew
had a particular color and placement on the page.
Next, Molina said it was time to draw his family. However, he warned me that he did not
know how to draw people very well and was going to illustrate his family with stick figures. I
told him not to worry since I also rely on stick figures to draw people. Starting with his dad, he
drew every person in his family with yellow marker. He grabbed the brown marker and gave
everyone some hair. His mom and sister seemed to have curly hair while he and his dad had short
hair. Next, he reached for the black to give everyone the same eyes. He finished his family
illustration by placing some red lips on each face. When I asked him why he placed his family
inside the house rather than outside, he said, My family spends most of the time in the kitchen

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

together so it seemed more real to put us all in there. He pointed to each figure to let me know
who each one was and joked that his sister was taller than his mom. After looking hard at his
picture, he said, Oh! I almost forgot and grabbed the blue to draw the sky. He told me he
wanted it to be a happy day, so he then drew the sun in a bright yellow in the corner of the sky.
After he illustrated the sky, he told me he was finished. He asked, Can I still go back in and
read? Or is it time for social studies? After I told him he was free to go, I said, Thank you for
working with me and letting me take notes on all the smart things you were doing. I know you
said you were not very good at art, but you made a picture that is full of meaning. That is
something unique to you. Molinas preconceived notions about his ability in art caused him to
approach his project with caution. However, he took his perspective of his house and illustrated
that on the paper. He was able to make meaning from his work and narrate to me exactly what he
was doing. Despite his preconceived notions, Molina taught me a lot about young artists and how
each individual student goes through their own creative process when making marks on a page.

Above is the holistic image of Molinas house and family. As you can see, each line and
color was purposely placed there and holds meaning to the artist. According to Mick Luehrman

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

and Kathy Unrath (2006), the stages of development used in art provide a frame of reference to
make some judgment about how to encourage individuals in their artistic development (p. 7). By
using the developmental stages as a reference point, teachers can make individual suggestions
that are unique to a student. To start off, I first analyzed the surroundings Molina placed on the
page. I found it interesting how Molina rushed through the grass and the sky as though he had
drawn them a thousand times before and did not have time to thoroughly color it all in.

A.

B.
When looking at his illustrations of the grass and sky (Figures A and B), it is obvious that

he placed his scribbling in those spots on purpose. Brittain and Lowenfeld (1970) describe
named scribbling as scribbles that are placed purposely where empty space takes on meaning
(p.474). Based on this description, I believe Molina was slightly in the scribbling stage when
illustrating his grass and sky. As I mentioned earlier, he was interested in getting back to his St.
Louis Cardinals silent reading choice, which played a role in his unwillingness to color in the
grass and sky. Although there is some white space around his scribbles, it was clear that space
was also grass and blue sky and he was relating his marks to things known. However, Molina
was able to communicate to his audience that this day was a happy day through his blue sky and
bright yellow sun. The fact that he knew how to communicate a happy day through his artwork
shows he has characteristics in the Preschematic stage of development (pg.475). While both his

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

grass and sky are represented with scribbles, I do believe that Molina is well out of the scribbling
stage and is able to communicate meaning through his mark making.

C.

D.

Next, I started to look at his illustration of the house and the things inside. As I said above, he
first drew his house, then windows and garage, and then his family. Molina had a subjective
space representation when creating his illustration because if you look at Figure C, he had to fit
his family within the floor of the house and the window. He had to distort the window above his
fathers head because it was going to be in the way of the family portrait. In addition, Molina had
an established base line. Instead of having the house levitating in open air, Molina drew the
house on a baseline. Molina drew the driveway and sidewalk leading up to his house, which
shows that he was taking the perspective of someone on the sidewalk of the street looking up at
his house. Also, when looking at Figure D, you can visibly see that Molina has a repeated
schema for a person. When we started working together, he told me he was not good at drawing
people and that was why he resorted to stick figures. However, when you look at his figures, you
can tell that he had a repeated schema. Each persons body is yellow, they all have brown hair,
everyone has black eyes, and they all have a red mouth. He also relied on geometric shapes to
create his figures-circles and lines. All of these reasons and more have led me to believe that
Molina falls into the Schematic Stage of development. Brittain and Lowenfeld (1970) describe
this stage as being one where students have achieved a form concept (p. 476). When starting this

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

illustration, Molina already had a picture in his mind about what he wanted it to look like. While
he was making his marks, he was following his mental guide of his overall finished product.
Together, the marks on his page have 3-D form. Molina created an illustration of his family on a
happy day with all their natural surroundings which holds meaning and form to the artist.
From analyzing Molinas piece, I also noticed some developmental principles being
displayed from his markings. For example, from the way Molina drew his windows and garage,
you can tell he has developed the perpendicular principle. According to Wilson & Wilson (1982),
the perpendicular principle can be seen in early depictions of, crosses and ladders and in the
later orientation of objects at a 90-degree angle to the baseline (p. 41). The crosses Molina made
in his windows and garage are at a 90-degree angle to the baseline of his house. Since he first
drew the house and then the windows, the house acted as an anchor to draw his perpendicular
lines. Also, by listening to Molina talk about his artwork, I believe he has characteristics of the
draw-everything principle. The Wilson & Wilson article also describes the draw-everything
principle as drawing what can be seen from several or all points of view (p. 44). Molina
described to me why he drew his family in that particular spot rather than anywhere else on the
page. Based off of his descriptions of his home, when you walk inside the side door he drew, you
walk straight into the kitchen. According to Molina, this is where his family spends most of their
time together, eating family meals at the kitchen table while they talk about their days. While he
did not specifically draw the kitchen table inside his house, he did have the draw-everything
mindset when creating his illustration. He was portraying the point of view from inside the house
and placing his objects accordingly on the paper.
From what I heard and observed from Molina, I am very impressed with his illustration.
From the beginning, he worked hard and wanted to prove to himself that he could recreate his

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

home on the blank paper. Molina thought about his illustration in such a concrete way, creating
mental images of his final product that guided him through the process and thinking about
perspective from all angles. He did have doubts about his artistic capability in the beginning, but
he had so many smart and amazing ideas coming out of his mind that were reflected on the page.
I think the authors we have read and experts on artistic development would agree with me in my
interpretations. Holistically, I believe Molina is at the Schematic Stage of development when it
comes to creating art. I think others would agree with me in saying that the marks Molina makes
on the page have meaning and depth (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006). Some may believe his
illustration just shows a family inside a house, but realistically his illustration shows form,
perspective, and critical thinking. Daniel Pink emphasizes how important R-directed thinking is
becoming in society. He goes on to explain how the aptitudes of artistry, empathy, taking the long
view, and pursuing the transcendent will increasingly determine who soars and who stumbles in
society (2006, p. 27). Molina has the ability to think about things in depth and creates his own
rules within the process of mark making. From working with Molina, I can tell he will soar.
By analyzing the work of young artists, you can get a good sense of their success in school.
For some kids, their artistic capabilities can indicate whether they were a young reader. This and
many other connections are found between art and core subjects. Through this investigation, I
have learned how important it is for general education teachers to be trained in the
developmental art stages. Since there are so many connections between art and the general
education classroom, a teacher can get a good sense of development and progress through
analyzing the art of their students. Art can teach students that there are multiple approaches to
solving problems and that sometimes it is okay to mess up because it can lead to greater rewards.
It can also teach students to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective and

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

to never lose your imagination. Advice I would give to other elementary education majors is to
never generalize a group of students based off of art. As teachers, it is our job to identify
individual needs and unique qualities of each student that separate them from the generalized
development stages. In addition, I would stress the importance of the idea that no two students
are the same with mark making. Each individual student will have their own thinking process
when it comes to art and as teachers, we should work to analyze those processes. Art integration
can spice up a teachers core curriculum. Not only is it crucial to give students a voice through
art, but also to encourage their creative thinking. Art integration can provide a means of
communication within your classroom as well as allow teachers to develop stronger connections
with their students. By analyzing the developmental stages, you will be able to individualize your
teaching strategies and provide students with a better education to prepare them for their futures.

References
Brittain, W., & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and Mental Growth, 474-479.
Luehrman, M., & Unrath, K. (2006). Making Theories of Children's Artistic Development

Childs Drawing Analysis Paper

Meaningful for Preservice Teachers. Art Education, 6-12.


Pink, D. (2006). A Whole New Mind (p. 27). New York: Penguin Group.
Wilson, M., & Wilson, B. (1982). Learning to Draw: Nurturing the Natural. Engle Cliffs, NY,
39-47.

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