Children’s Drawing Project February 8, 2008

Artist: Juilianne, age 4. Julianne was the most dependent on me and the most expressive while she was drawing. She continuously was looking for feedback, and was quite persistent that I was drawing with her. When I asked her what she was drawing she couldn’t exactly tell me because I don’t think she knew herself, nor was she intentionally trying to draw something. Rather, she would just simply draw and tell me to watch, and when she had done something she liked, she would direct my attention towards it and say “Look what I did.” She also loves to cut things out, as you can see by her art. The tiny pieces are her favourite part, and she always gives them away as something more special than a full piece drawing.

 

Artist: Maxwell, age 7. Maxwell was the quickest and most concentrated. Once he had the idea in his head, which was the Super bowl, he went right to it, and didn’t ask for any feedback. He was very confident in his idea, and clearly had it mapped out in his head before he began to draw. There were no pauses, he drew the football, then wrote the score inside the football, which I thought was a very unique idea for a 7 year old. Due to his well structured plan in his head, he didn’t need to erase or go back and fix anything; he concentrated and produced what he intended to.

Artist: Tristan, age 9. Tristan, was the most meticulous but also had the most trouble getting his ideas out on paper. He drew the shape of the head with ease, but had a great deal of trouble placing the eyes and nose in proportion, and erased them many times. He was also very critical of his drawing, and needed a lot of encouragement to stay motivated. He didn’t seem to enjoy drawing as much as the other two, and definitely had a harder time producing the picture.

                                                                             Children’s Drawing Project

Drawing is a very powerful tool to express thoughts, ideas and feelings, and it is an especially powerful tool for young children. For most children representing their ideas on paper is their very first tool of expressing themselves and their thoughts. Through having the opportunity to observe three different children of different ages, I was able to see the developmental differences in thought processes and ability. From observing the youngest, then to the oldest child it became quite clear that as children develop they are able to combine the actions of the hand and the mind in purposeful and meaningful ways. Through watching the youngest child it was apparent that there was little hand-mind connection, and her hand may have been drawing but her mind was on everything from me, to her hair, to her scissors etc. Her drawing was sporadic and unplanned, but so are most things when you are 4 years old. The seven year old on the other hand, was very engaged and the mind-hand connection was obvious. It was clear the he carefully constructed the idea in his head then immediately went to work, displaying carefully his thoughts in his drawing. The nine year old, definitely had the mind-hand connection down pat, but his motivation level was much lower than the other two children. I have known this child for quite some time, and his past teachers have been very critical of his drawing skills, which I believe is the reason behind his lack of motivation, and confidence in his drawing. Art teaching must not focus on ability but rather empowering our students to be confident artists, and excite them about the breadth of possibilities that art has to offer.