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Running head: Analysis of a Childs Drawing

Analysis of a Childs Drawing

Elizabeth Jackson

University of Missouri
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By analyzing the artwork of children, we can learn a lot about the childs development,

interests, thinking processes, etc. When people keep up with artistic practices as they age, they

typically go through artistic stages of development, beginning before even scribbling and

progressing into the period of decision. (Lowenfeld, 1970, p.479). While people often

progress through the stages of development, if art is abandoned or stressed to be unimportant,

then the final stages may not be reached. Artistic expression is often a form of identity; people

put themselves onto their canvas. Though this may not be in the form of a self-portrait, we can

learn a lot about a person by looking at their artwork, especially if the person, like my student, is

chatty whilst drawing. This paper will analyze the drawing of one eight year old female.

Method

The drawing took place on a Wednesday in February in an elementary school in mid-

Missouri. Shortly after lunch, during the students normal time to practice math on the computer,

I took one of the girls into the hall to draw pictures. She had a large piece of paper folded in half

and markers in hand. She was told she could color with whatever she wanted, and markers were

her medium of choice. In total, the student drew four pictures, one on each half to the paper on

both the front and back sides. The student was clearly very into drawing pictures, and she was

concerned with my judgements of the pictures as well, as I will discuss later in this paper. I have

included images of the students work at the end of this piece for reference.

Findings

On the whole, I would place this student somewhere between the preschematic stage and

the schematic stage as she demonstrates aspects of both stages in her drawings. I did find it

difficult to fully judge since she chose not to draw any people in her pictures, and much of the

criteria for the stage placement deals with the ways in which children depict human figures.
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While the student did go back and forth between the two stages, I would say that she ultimately

sways more towards the schematic stage of development, typical of a child 7-9 years old. As the

student who drew for me is 8 years old, this is a developmentally appropriate stage placement as

well. Particular aspects of her drawings that reflect my decision of placing her within the

schematic stage include, drawings reflect a childs active knowledge of the environment, and

establishment of a base line on which objects are placed and often a sky line, with the space

between representing the air. (Lowenfield, 1970, p.476). As she was drawing, the student was

telling me all sorts of stories about her life. It became clear to me that her stories and her

drawings coupled together represented the ways in which she understands and makes sense of

the world around her.

The student did seem somewhat concerned that I would be judging her based on her

drawings. She felt the need to justify some of her artistic choices to me so that I would know

that she doesnt actually draw this way,. For example, as she drew the black background in the

picture of the flower she kept saying Im just scribbling because it would take a long time to

color it all in. There isnt time to color in the whole sky. (Personal communication, 2017).

While being self conscious of own drawings (Lowenfield, 1970, p.477) is indicitive of the

gang age, the next stage up from the schematic stage, I am hesitant to categorize this student in

this stage. Her drawings are not quite sophisticated enough to warrant placement in the age of

The Dawning Realism (emphasis mine. Lowenfield, 1970, p.477).

Much of my hesitation to categorize this student fully in the schematic stage of

development comes from the simplistic nature of her drawings and her lack of humanoid figures

to analyze. Mostly, I found her stories about her life and about her images to be very interesting.

For instance, when drawing the assortment of sports balls, she was talking about her own
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involvement in basketball and about children's sports in general. She said to me, I think parents

only like the sports their kids play because its their kids. (Personal communication, 2017).

Additionally, there was a moment that made me stop and think while she was drawing the

planets. She said, My favorite thing about drawing planets is that you can make up whatever

you want. You could make an ice cream planet or a bouncy planet (Personal communication,

2017.). However, after making these remarks, she went on to draw the Earth and the moon, two

real things in space that show somewhat less creativity than if she had invented her own planet to

draw. Also, she didnt even attempt to color in the large planet in the foreground. I thought

maybe she was tiring out, but she flipped to the back and filled the page with color. The sunset

over the water must have had her more inspired than the planets.

Conclusion

To reiterate my findings, I place this student mostly in the schematic stage of

development, though she does, at times, dip back into the preschematic stage as well. For

reasons described, I am hesitant to fully place her within the schematic stage, though I believe

her drawings are age appropriate. She told me about how she draws every day with siblings, and

her teacher also remarked her fondness for art projects and for drawing. If this practice

continues, this student could progress greatly through the artistic stages. This student talked the

entire time she was drawing; I have pages in a notebook filled with quotes of things she said

while describing her life and her family and her dads girlfriend and her drawings and anything

else that popped into her mind.


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References

Lowenfield, V. (1970) Creative and mental growth. New York, NY. MacMillan Co.

pages 474-479.

Personal Communication. (February, 2017). Columbia, MO.

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