A Child’s Drawing Analysis
Malika Jackson
University of Missouri-Columbia
“The left hemisphere of the brain reasoned sequentially, excelled at analysis, and handled words. The right hemisphere reasoned holistically, recognized patterns, and interpreted emotions and nonverbal expressions. Human beings are literally of two minds (Pink, 2005, p. 14).”What Pink discussed in his book, A Whole New Mind, describes perfectly what all human beings including our students are. It is important to teach to the whole child, and with teaching to the whole child comes the responsibility of supporting their growth and development. Learning to analyze our students’ artwork is an essential part of teaching because it helps to better know them as individuals.
The photo I chose in a drawing of a little girl or a woman depending on what the student had in mind. She has hair parted in the middle that drapes her shoulders. She has two eyes with eyelashes and eyebrows above them. A nose is pretty large and in the center of her face. Her mouth is in the shape of a large U signifying a smiley face. She has a shirt with a necklace in the middle of it. The charm is in the shape of a cross. This picture may also be depicting a lower shirt where there is a little of her chest showing with a cross emblem at the top of the shirt. The shirt she is wearing looks to be a long sleeve shirt.
I believe that this student is in the Gang Age. The Gang Age is normally associated with nine-twelve year olds. One characteristic of the Gang Age is that when representing human figures body parts retain their meaning when separated (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). This is apparent in the student’s artwork. The eyes, nose, eyebrows, etc. when taken off the face will still look like the parts of the face that they are. Another reason why I feel that this student is in the gang age is because the gang age has overlapping of objects (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). I personally believe that there is a necklace hanging down on the shirt so that is seen as overlapping. The Gang Age is described as having a greater awareness of details (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). I believe the student has definitely taken detail into account when creating this picture. The student was sure to draw swirls in the girl from the pictures hair to depict curl, I think. The picture has eyebrows and eyelashes, which are pretty detailed because it is not just a simple, boring face with only two eyes, a nose and mouth. In the Gang Age when representing human figures, there is less exaggeration (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). The picture is pretty much true to size and scenario. Nothing is too big or too small, but the student has drawn everything pretty proportionate. She leaves little room for exaggeration in her portrait.
While I believe this student’s artwork belongs in Gang Age there are a few observations I made that could place this child’s picture maybe in another stage. The drawing shows concept, not percept, which is associated with the Schematic Stage (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 476). The picture is a drawing of a girl or woman. I believe that the student artist did not draw her how he/she perceived her, but that the artist actually looked at a woman and drew it without adding his/her own perception. A characteristic of the Pseudo-Naturalistic Stage is that facial expressions vary for meaning (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 478). In the picture there is a smile drawn on the face of the girl but her eyes are also bright and shining in a way. I would say that the reason she has a smile and there is joy in her eyes is because she is happy. I feel this could place the drawing in the Pseudo-Naturalistic stage partially.
According to Luehrman and Unrath, “Stage theories of development describe characteristics milestones that delineate passage from one stage to another and explain how the majority of children progress in a similar way through a developmental sequence (2006, p. 6).” Stage theories are extremely important and are a huge help when assessing and trying to learn more about our students’ development. “Just as reading and math levels vary widely in an average class, we should expect it would be natural for art levels to also vary widely (Erickson, Young, 1996, p. 38)” This experience makes me take into account that all our students’ abilities differ including their art skills. My number one art plan when it comes to this student and when I have students in my own classroom is to conference with him or her. Art is a very individual and personal form of self-expression. While it is a great idea to look at and attempt to analyze our students’ work while looking at theories, discussing their work with them will give us more insight than any book possibly could.
Works Cited
Brittain, W. L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York, NY: Macmillan Co., 22-25, 474-479.
Erickson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What every educator should (but maybe doesn’t) know. School Arts, 40-42.
Johnson, M. H. (2008). Developing verbal and visual literacy through experiences in the visual arts. Young Children, 74-79.
Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 20-27.
Malika Jackson
University of Missouri-Columbia
“The left hemisphere of the brain reasoned sequentially, excelled at analysis, and handled words. The right hemisphere reasoned holistically, recognized patterns, and interpreted emotions and nonverbal expressions. Human beings are literally of two minds (Pink, 2005, p. 14).”What Pink discussed in his book, A Whole New Mind, describes perfectly what all human beings including our students are. It is important to teach to the whole child, and with teaching to the whole child comes the responsibility of supporting their growth and development. Learning to analyze our students’ artwork is an essential part of teaching because it helps to better know them as individuals.
The photo I chose in a drawing of a little girl or a woman depending on what the student had in mind. She has hair parted in the middle that drapes her shoulders. She has two eyes with eyelashes and eyebrows above them. A nose is pretty large and in the center of her face. Her mouth is in the shape of a large U signifying a smiley face. She has a shirt with a necklace in the middle of it. The charm is in the shape of a cross. This picture may also be depicting a lower shirt where there is a little of her chest showing with a cross emblem at the top of the shirt. The shirt she is wearing looks to be a long sleeve shirt.
I believe that this student is in the Gang Age. The Gang Age is normally associated with nine-twelve year olds. One characteristic of the Gang Age is that when representing human figures body parts retain their meaning when separated (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). This is apparent in the student’s artwork. The eyes, nose, eyebrows, etc. when taken off the face will still look like the parts of the face that they are. Another reason why I feel that this student is in the gang age is because the gang age has overlapping of objects (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). I personally believe that there is a necklace hanging down on the shirt so that is seen as overlapping. The Gang Age is described as having a greater awareness of details (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). I believe the student has definitely taken detail into account when creating this picture. The student was sure to draw swirls in the girl from the pictures hair to depict curl, I think. The picture has eyebrows and eyelashes, which are pretty detailed because it is not just a simple, boring face with only two eyes, a nose and mouth. In the Gang Age when representing human figures, there is less exaggeration (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). The picture is pretty much true to size and scenario. Nothing is too big or too small, but the student has drawn everything pretty proportionate. She leaves little room for exaggeration in her portrait.
While I believe this student’s artwork belongs in Gang Age there are a few observations I made that could place this child’s picture maybe in another stage. The drawing shows concept, not percept, which is associated with the Schematic Stage (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 476). The picture is a drawing of a girl or woman. I believe that the student artist did not draw her how he/she perceived her, but that the artist actually looked at a woman and drew it without adding his/her own perception. A characteristic of the Pseudo-Naturalistic Stage is that facial expressions vary for meaning (Brittain, Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 478). In the picture there is a smile drawn on the face of the girl but her eyes are also bright and shining in a way. I would say that the reason she has a smile and there is joy in her eyes is because she is happy. I feel this could place the drawing in the Pseudo-Naturalistic stage partially.
According to Luehrman and Unrath, “Stage theories of development describe characteristics milestones that delineate passage from one stage to another and explain how the majority of children progress in a similar way through a developmental sequence (2006, p. 6).” Stage theories are extremely important and are a huge help when assessing and trying to learn more about our students’ development. “Just as reading and math levels vary widely in an average class, we should expect it would be natural for art levels to also vary widely (Erickson, Young, 1996, p. 38)” This experience makes me take into account that all our students’ abilities differ including their art skills. My number one art plan when it comes to this student and when I have students in my own classroom is to conference with him or her. Art is a very individual and personal form of self-expression. While it is a great idea to look at and attempt to analyze our students’ work while looking at theories, discussing their work with them will give us more insight than any book possibly could.
Works Cited
Brittain, W. L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York, NY: Macmillan Co., 22-25, 474-479.
Erickson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What every educator should (but maybe doesn’t) know. School Arts, 40-42.
Johnson, M. H. (2008). Developing verbal and visual literacy through experiences in the visual arts. Young Children, 74-79.
Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 20-27.