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Running head: ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER

Childrens Art Analysis Research Paper

Jennifer Garmon
University of Missouri

ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER

Childrens Art Analysis Research Paper

The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mindcreators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people-artists,
inventors, designers. (Pink, 1). According to Daniel Pink the world we know today is
changing and the more creative right brain thinkers are becoming more valuable. Being able to
analyze childrens art is an important skill for teachers in the future because those creative skills
are going to be more important in the real world. In order for teachers to be able to increase their
students knowledge of art, they have to know where their students are developmentally. The
purpose of this investigation is to begin getting the practice of analyzing student art work to gain
a sense of where artistically, developmentally students stand and what further knowledge can be
gained. The context of this research is simply obtaining a piece of childrens artwork to compare
to stages and observe. There is no background knowledge of the artist at all. The first glance at
the drawing leaves the impression that this student has artistic ability and is somewhere in the
upper elementary range because of the complexity of the person and details.
Method
The participant was the child who completed the drawing. The identity and age of the
child are unknown as this piece of artwork was obtained in a college classroom from the
professor. I began with spending time observing the childs drawing. After looking at the piece
of art work I knew it had to be an older child because of the details and advancement of the
artistic characteristics. It was not just a drawing of a stick figure, it was a person in decent
proportion with human characteristics and drawn in motion doing a human activity. It is a simple
picture but one with enough detail, such as precision in proportion, motion within the picture and
the artistic ability to be that of an older student.

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This drawing is simple in the fact that there is little going on in the setting of the picture.
It contains only a person in motion and a bat. There is no scene or other indication of setting
other than a ground. When I first looked at the picture it kind of surprised me because it seemed
so advanced in the way the person was drawn in motion in relationship to how simple the scene
is. The person looks to be running up hill with only the bat around. The person is drawn with
both hands and feet and correct body posture. The bat is drawn relative to the size of the person
instead of being like younger artists who make everything the same size instead of considering
how real life size looks.
After determining it was an older child, I began to analyze the characteristics of the
drawing. I compared the characteristics of the art to the Lowenfeld stages and first identified the
most comparable stage by examining the examples of artwork to the childs art (Lowenfeld, 51).
Once I had identified the most comparable stage I begin looking at the characteristics of that
stage and seeing which were true of this childs drawing. By observing and noting the similar
characteristics between the Lowenfeld stage and art of the child I was able to determine it is most
fitting to Pseudo- Naturalistic Stage which includes ages twelve to fourteen years (Lowenfeld,
51).

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Findings
This piece of artwork fits characteristics of Lowenfelds Pseudo- Naturalistic Stage
(Lowenfeld, 51). The following are characteristics that group this piece of work into
Lowenfelds stage: The proportions of the person are relativity normal, not completely perfect
but the legs look supportive of the body. The face of the person seems to have some cartoonish
features which may or may not have been on purpose. I cannot be sure whether it was intended
or not but as a viewer the facial features seem more cartoonish than human. The facial
expression is varied to match meaning. I am not sure what meaning the artist was trying to
convey but there is a facial expression on the character instead of just a blank stare. There is
action in the picture- The person looks to be running based on the placement of the arms and
legs. There is an awareness of joints and body actions- this is a strong component of this picture.
The person is drawn with his knees bent and arms bent to imply that the person is running. The
muscles and broad shoulders of the character seem a little exaggerated. The arms and shoulders
are both quite large compared to the rest of the body. It is hard to tell whether these were
emphasized on purpose or not. All of the above mentioned characteristics are part of
Lowenfelds stage (Lowenfeld, 51).
Not only does this drawing fit the Pseudo- Naturalistic Stage of Lowenfeld, it also meets
criteria from The Board of Education of Baltimore Countys article Art Experience Develop
Visual Perception. The picture displays the characteristic of suggesting motion (Art
Experience, 56). The artist shows motion by the physical placement of the persons arms and
legs, and the increasing line of the ground. The line extends from the bottom of the page upwards
towards the opposite corner and the person is placed along it. As advanced as this piece of
drawing is, it is evident that the young artist still uses the beginning stages of artistic

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development within their work. In the basic scribbles chart, scribble number 4 is a single
diagonal line- It appears that the person in this piece of drawing has eyes made out of the basic
scribble number 4 (Kellogg, 40).
As children progress through their art development stages, it is just building on their
knowledge and combining characteristics of each stage. Just because a student moves to the next
stage does not mean they lose the skills and techniques of the previous stage. This picture is a
great example of that theory. The finding for this child means that they are doing well
progressing through the stages. Not only are they are developing strong artistic skills, but they
are ready to be challenged with more difficult tasks because they have met most of the criteria
for the Pseudo- Naturalistic stage. As a classroom teacher, in order to encourage growth, I would
need to allow more in depth and challenging artistic options. Offering an artistic way to present a
project without strong artistic limitations, such as a visual representation on a poster instead of a
written paper it would allow this child to continue to grow.
Pink stated that the world is evolving towards right brain thinkers which mean that
teachers need to prepare their students to think more creatively and artistically (Pink, 1). Students
need the opportunity and freedom to explore their creative thinking outlets and without that
opportunity students will not be prepared for the future career scene. This investigation has
shown that as classroom teachers, we need to offer opportunities for artistic growth. The
opportunities need to be offered in a variety of abilities because not all students develop
artistically at the same pace. Projects that can incorporate a variety of artistic opportunities with
varying levels of difficulty will allow the students extra chances to practice and become
comfortable with art. Classroom teachers are not art teachers, so their job is not to teach artistic
topics but to allow the chance to incorporate art into the normal classroom activities.

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References
Art Experience Develop Visual Perception. Board of Education of Baltimore County, 1974. Pp.
6-9
Brittain, W.L. & V. Lowenfeld. (1970) Creative and Mental Growth. New York, NY.
MacMillan Co. pgs 474-479.
Kellogg, R. (1970) Analyzing Childrens Art. Palo Alto, CA: National Press.
Pink, D. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York:
Riverhead Books.