Research Paper

Sydney Tolbert
Research Paper
Art for Children
2/24/2015

Research Paper

Students do not always fall into developmental category. Each student is unique and so
are their artistic abilities. The student that I worked with for this project is my 10 year old cousin.
He will be referred to throughout this paper as N. N does not fall into one artistic level. He
generally falls into two different artistic levels and most of the time he is above level for his age.
Before even starting his drawing he thought about what he wanted his photo to represent. I gave
him the options of either drawing himself or his family. Though we were given the option of the
student drawing a tree I did not tell him this because I wanted who he is to be shown through his
drawing and I dont think that a tree would have done this justice. N is a very athletic boy who
enjoys both baseball and basketball. He cares a lot about being the best at everything that he
does. I was surprised to find that his focus in his drawing had nothing to do with his love for
athletics. I think that you can see that he has a strong attention for detail and he is above level
artistically.

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At age 10, N falls into the Gang Age. Drawing characteristics is the first part of the Gang
Age. Drawing characteristics is first evident in that he is self-conscious of this own drawings.
While he was drawing his picture of his family
he kept saying, I have to do well on this
drawing so you dont get a bad grade Sydney.
He also asked multiple times if his drawing was
okay. Children who fall into the Gang Age also
have a greater awareness of their physical
environment. Children in this stage do not
shade or shadow in their drawings. N was
above level in his ability to focus upon selected parts of the environment. He first focused on his
family members and himself and then the background. When he is above level he falls into the
Pseudo-naturalistic stage. Children usually fall into this category when they are between the ages
of twelve and fourteen. He started by drawing his family and then he colored in the back ground
and surrounding environment.
After the drawing characteristics step in the Gang Age or Dawning Realism is space
representation. During this stage children show the ability to overlap objects and the sky now
comes down to the horizon. Children no longer feel the need to draw a line between sky and
land, they understand that this line does not exist. When drawing his picture N first drew his
family and then the background, he felt that they were more important and that the background
only enhanced the picture. Analyzing Childrens Art (1970) mentions that certain scribbles are
known as multiple loop lines; N used these when drawing his clouds. This type of scribble is
more sophisticated than other types of scribbles because it requires more effort and detail. In the

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space representation stage N was slightly above level, he tried to show the depth of different
objects. When N was drawing his family I noticed that he focused on them being the center of
attention, he wanted your eye to go
directly to them in the picture.

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The third and final portion of the Gang style is called human figure representation.
During this stage students have a better understanding of where they place objects matters. As I
mentioned before N knew that if he wanted to focus on his family he needed to place them
towards the front of the drawing.
Children in this category have a
greater awareness of clothing details
(Kellogg 1970). This is true of N not
only in his drawing but who he is as
a person. N and his friends all enjoy
wearing bright colored Nike socks
and shorts. The crazier the better,
blue and orange together are his
favorites. When working on the clothing N was careful to draw exactly what he and his parents
were wearing that day. If you look closely you can see that he has drawn himself wearing orange
shorts with a blue outline and a black stripe down the center. During this stage childrens
drawings of body parts retain their meaning and they have great stiffness of figures (Kellogg
1970). There is less exaggeration in their drawings as well. N is above level in that the facial
expressions of his human representations vary for meaning. The fact that each of his people, his
dad, his mom and him, all have quizzical expressions on their faces is very fitting. N is a
humorous and light hearted kid who is very intelligent for his age.
After completing his picture N turned the paper over and signed it. He asked me if he
should just write his name or if he should use his signature. I suggested that he do what he
thought was best. Johnson (2008) mentions that you as the teacher, should refer to children as

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artists. Show children how artists sign paintings. After N decided to write his signature I
mentioned that it looked like a John Hancock, which I liked.
To him his signature is very important as he plans on
becoming either a professional baseball or basketball player in
the future. He told me that I should save this drawing because
his signature will be worth a lot someday.
When N started his drawing he said this will not take
me very long. He thought that because he knew what the task was and how to complete it he
could finish in less than twenty minutes. However once he started drawing he found that it was
more difficult that he had originally thought. Throughout his drawing he used private speech and
also asked me many questions. In all the project ended up taking him over an hour. I was very
glad that he took his time to get each of the details in his drawing perfect. This shows that he is
above level in his artistic abilities. He did not want me to turn in something that he had not tried
his hardest on. He wanted everyone who saw his drawing to be impressed.
From this assignment I have learned how to better analyze student work and how to assist
students without giving them every answer. This assignment has taught me how to use guided
questions and suggestions to students rather than giving them answers. I think that another great
art project for young students is having them identify something that represents their favorite part
of themselves and have a class camera to photograph this. I observed at a school that did this and
students picked things like their hand and smiles. One of my favorites was a boy who said his
hands were his favorite because he could pick up food to eat. Allowing students to identify a
favorite part of themselves encourages a positive self-image and I think that now more than ever
children need this.

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References
Erickson, M., Young B. (1996). What every educator should (but maybe doesnt) know. School
Arts, 40-42.
Kellogg, R. (1970). Analyzing childrens art. National Press, 15.
Lowenfield. Learning to draw: nurturing the natural. 39-47.
(1974). Art experience develop visual perception. Board of Education of Baltimore County, 6.
Johnson, M. H. (2008). Developing verbal and visual literacy through experiences in the visual
arts. Young Children, 65, 67.