A 3rd Grade Piece of Art

LTC 4240: ART FOR CHILDREN

CHRISSY MOORE
AN ANALYSIS OF A THIRD GRADE PIECE OF ART

An Analysis of a 3rd Grade Piece of Art

Art exercises the imaginative ideas of a child. Imagination may seem like an unnecessary

characteristic to practice; however, it can be extremely influential throughout school and

adulthood. The exercise of imagination is one of the most important of human aptitudes

(Eisner, 2009, p. 7). Too often in this age of abundance and automaticity, imagination may not

seem valuable. The arts are one way for students to express themselves or ideas in a meaningful

way. For example, a child may not be able to fully express their feelings vocally but they might

be able to draw their emotions. Art can also help children see and understand the world around

them. Visual concepts are constructed from acts of looking and seeing, acts which lead to the

grasping of outstanding features in the visual world of objects, events, and materials. (Burton,

1986, p.2). Allowing children to construct these visual acts can be a challenging and confusing

idea for mainstream teachers. While they can be challenging, these visual acts and artistic

opportunities are important to integrate into the mainstream classroom.

A childs artistic development can be classified in six different stages. These stages range

from the Scribbling Stage to the Adolescent Art Stage. The first stage begins with disordered

scribbling where artists may ignore previous marks placed on a page (Brittain & Lowenfeld,

1970, p. 474). The Scribbling Stage evolves into more sophisticated and developed stages of

artistic development. The final stage includes attention to non-naturalistic representation for

haptically minded; portrayal of mood, shifting of space or distortion for purposeful emphasis

(Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 479). These stages can be very helpful when discussing the

artwork of a student. After conducting this study, I believe I am able to correctly identify my

selected students artistic development stage. Throughout this activity, I also learned about the
AN ANALYSIS OF A THIRD GRADE PIECE OF ART

feelings and abilities of a student through her artistic ability. I learned that the student enjoys

drawing and making art for fun. She focuses on the output rather than mistakes or a formula.

Methods

For this study, I interviewed a young, third-grade girl, Katie (a pseudonym) and

investigated her drawing. This study took place directly after a Thursday school day. I asked her

to draw an outdoor scene on a blank piece of paper. I chose Katie for this study because she

enjoys drawing and often doodles in a notebook. I wanted to view Katies artistic talent and

understand why she enjoys drawing so much. Katie had access to paper, markers, crayons,

colored pencils, and pencils. I sat next to Katie at her kitchen table and I recorded our discussion

about her art. When there was silence for longer than 30 seconds, I would ask her questions to

understand her drawing. These questions included, Why did you draw this line here? and

What made you draw this item here?. I asked her these specific questions to understand her

artistic thinking. I also thought these questions would allow her to explain her thinking when she

might have not otherwise.

Findings:

Katie created a drawing in about 14 minutes. She decided to draw an outdoor scene that

resembles her backyard.

AN ANALYSIS OF A THIRD GRADE PIECE OF ART

Katies drawing of an outdoor scene.

She began first by drawing the outside of the trampoline. These are the dark-blue vertical

lines in the center of the page. She then used an orange marker to begin drawing wavy lines to

show the net of the trampoline. I used squiggly lines because the net has a bunch of holes.

While she drew this, she would look outside of the window to inspect her backyard scene. After

the top of the trampoline was drawn, she began to draw blue, vertical lines that she described as

the bars that keep the trampoline off the ground. Katie then used a purple marker to draw us

to show the metal things that go over the bottom of the trampoline to keep it on the ground.

She then used a green marker to begin drawing the grass with horizontal lines. This needs to

look like its outside! Katie begins to draw a tree with a brown colored pencil. The tree included

a circle located at the bottom. She included this circle because she wanted the tree to look

different. She is used to seeing trees drawn with an opening in the trunk. She chose to draw the

opening at the bottom to ensure her tree was unique. She used vertical lines to color in the tree

yet left the circle open at the bottom. She them drew half-circles all connected to show the top of
AN ANALYSIS OF A THIRD GRADE PIECE OF ART

the tree and filled in the area with a green marker. Katie grabbed a purple marker and began

drawing the gate around the backyard. She used the same technique as the tree and drew an

m shape around the paper. I added blue to the fence because I wanted to add some colors that

I havent used yet. Throughout this drawing she used mostly markers to create her art piece.

When Katie began drawing, I learned a lot about her techniques as an artist. She is very

confident in her drawing that she begins with marker, something you cannot erase. When I asked

her why she started with markers, she said, Well if I make a mistake, Ill just make it a part of

my drawing! Its for fun so it shouldnt be perfect. I thought this was so interesting because

many times students are afraid of being right or wrong. Katie did not care about this with her

drawing, she even celebrated mistakes by making them part of the art. I think she did not worry

about making a mistake because she knew the purpose of this drawing was for entertainment.

She seemed genuinely excited to simply draw something for fun.

By the end of the session, I believe that Katie is in between the Schematic Stage and the

Gang Age. Katie demonstrated characteristics of both stages, making me believe she is in

between the two stages of artistic development. Katie showed aspects of being in the Schematic

Stage because the drawing actively reflects a childs active knowledge of the environment.

(Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 476). Her drawing reflected her backyard scenery that was easily

visible from the table. Along with this, Katies drawing had symbols of the environment, as seen

by the tree to the right of the trampoline. When I asked why she drew this, she stated that trees

reminded her of being outside. She used this as a symbol to reinforce the nature scene.

Katie demonstrated aspects of the Gang Age by focusing on details. This can be seen

through the net of the trampoline or the hooks that go into the ground. Katie made a point to

draw these details to share her knowledge. She also shows the characteristic of drawing
AN ANALYSIS OF A THIRD GRADE PIECE OF ART

overlapping objects that coincide with the Gang Age. The fence, the trampoline, and the tree all

have overlapping lines and objects. Finally, Katie does not draw any shading showing, she might

have no understanding of shade and shadow (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). Katie is in

the stage that correlates with her age. She seems to be developing at a normal pace.

Conclusion:

For Katie to move fully into the Gang Age, I would recommend her to begin shading and

creating shadows throughout her drawings. I would also challenge Katie to exaggerate less on

her drawings. Her exaggerations can be seen by the massive tree on the left side that does not

correlate with the trampoline or fence size. I think these two tasks could propel her to the next

stage of artistic development and her artist ability. These tasks could also help Katie grow as a

learner and might assist her in incorporating art into subjects.

After finishing this task and assessing Katies art, I have a deeper understanding of what

goes into the development of an artist. Stages may seem linear; however, a child may very well

be in between stages and moving forward. Through artistic development, students learn to take

time on their work and slow down perception. This can be extremely important throughout

Katies schooling and education. With this knowledge, I want to encourage my students to

explore their imaginative side. I want my students to feel comfortable exploring different things

and taking the time to truly experience them. I now know that this can be developed through the

arts.
AN ANALYSIS OF A THIRD GRADE PIECE OF ART

Works Cited:

Brittain W.L. & V. Lowenfeld. (1970). Creative and mental growth. Ney York, NY: MacMillan

Co. p. 474-479.

Burton, J. M. (1986). Beginnings of artistic language. Developing minds.

Burton, J. M. (1986). The first visual sumbols. Developing minds.

Eisner, E. (2009). What education can learn from the arts. Art education. 6-9.