Running head: STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER

Analysis of a Students Artwork Research Paper Marissa McMillian University of Missouri

STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER An Analysis of a Students Artwork Research Paper

The purpose of this qualitative research paper is to investigate the artwork of a particular elementary aged student. By analyzing the artwork of a student, teachers can gain important insights into the students lives. Understanding students development through art can help teachers better understand the students needs, which can help them grow academically. For this reason, it is important to understand our students drawings. As Erickson and Young (1996) state, childrens abilities to create drawings and to understand art develop in a parallel fashion to changes in their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth (p. 37). Educators can get a sense of how students are developing and what connections they are making with the world. This paper will analyze the artwork drawn by a student of an unknown age and classify his or her work within a range of stages developed by Viktor Lowenfeld. The focus of this paper will also address the different principles presented by Wilson & Wilson. Specifically, the research paper will argue the idea that the student in discussion appears to be in transition from the preschematic stage into the schematic stage (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). He or she also appears to exemplify characteristics of multiple principles, including: the territorial imperative principle, the plastic principle, and the conservation and multiple application principle (Wilson & Wilson, 1982). Method The participant under discussion is an anonymous child with no disclosed age. For the purpose of this paper, information was collected from observations made from Figure 1. When analyzing the student, his or her drawing was observed and defining characteristics were acknowledged. These defining characteristics were compared to writings composed by important and influential authors in the childrens art development field. The lists were

STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER composed of characteristics that define a specific stage according to Brittain & Lowenfeld (1970) and principles according to Wilson & Wilson (1982).

The drawing was first analyzed and classified according to the appropriate Lowenfeldian Stages (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). Afterwards the same drawing was analyzed in depth and compared to various principles described by Wilson and Wilson (1982), Learning to draw: nurturing the natural. After much attention to detail the students drawing was identified with specific principles and placement within the different stages was discovered. Findings The drawing created by the student in discussion appears to be of a boy wearing elbow and kneepads outside, possibly riding a skateboard. The picture of the boy is centered and large. The head is composed of a circle with circle eyes and black dots representing the pupils in the center. The nose is placed in the center of the face and is represented with a dot placed in the center of an upside-down u. The hair is short and brown, and what appears to be a black helmet on top of his hair. His ears are round with lines in the center and his smile looks like a wide u. His body is presented as a circle that is shaded in green to represent his clothes. His arms and legs are lines that extend directly from the circle body in the

Figure 1
appropriate locations. Three much smaller lines that extend from the end of the arms and legs represent his hands and feet. Green lines outline both sides of both arms and legs, representing the sleeves and pants. What appears to be elbow pads and kneepads are located at the center of both arms and legs and are represented by black circles. What appears to be either a skateboard with no wheels or the ground is located underneath the boys

STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER feet and is represented by a black line that extends from one of the boys feet to his other foot.

What appears to be a balloon is located on the left side of the paper next to the boy. He seems to be holding the balloon string in his hand. Directly above the brown balloon is a blue cloud in the sky. In the right top corner of the image there is the image of a sun. According to Lowenfeld and Brittain (1970), the students drawing suggests that he or she is transitioning out of the preschematic stage and into the schematic stage. This is believed to be true because the student shows characteristics of both developmental stages. Based on this observation, the child is suggested to be between the ages of six and eight. The first preschematic characteristic observed in this drawing is this idea that shapes for things are geometric and lose their meaning when removed from the whole (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 47). This can be observed when looking at the elbow pads, kneepads, and body of the child. The next characteristic, objects are distorted to fit space available (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 47), applies to this drawing when looking at the placement of the cloud and sun squished into the top corners of the students drawing. However, characteristics that would suggest the student is in the schematic stage include, establishment of a baseline on which objects are placed and environment symbolized (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p.48). The baseline in the image is the black line underneath the childs feet, which could arguably be considered ether a wheel-less skateboard or the ground. The environment symbols include the sun and cloud that can be found high in the sky. Having multiple characteristics of both stages supports the idea that the student is in between Lowenfelds stages (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1970). The drawing under analysis represents many principles discussed by Wilson & Wilson, (1982). The first set of characteristics can be attributed to the territorial imperative principle because the child allots to each its own inviolable space (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, p.60). None

STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER of the images overlap; the childs feet do not touch the ground and the green sleeves of the childs shirt do not touch his arm, but are instead placed on both sides of the arm. The next

principle visible in this drawing is the plastic principle because the student exaggerates objects that are most important (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, p.64), which in this case seems to be the image of the child. The child is large in size and placed directly in the center of the page; the drawing could possibly be a self-portrait. The final principle that can be observed in Figure 1 is the conservation & multiple-application principle (Wilson & Wilson, 1982). This particular principle is defined as using the same configuration over and over again in a variety of ways (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, p.62). The child uses three lines extending from the arms to represent the hands. The child also uses the same three lines at the end of the legs to represent the child in the drawings feet. Conclusion The findings discussed in this paper support the idea that the child is in transition between the preschematic stage and schematic stage (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1970). After analyzing these findings the next step is to interpret the data. The presence of the sun and a cloud shows a relationship between two symbols, and according to the Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County (1974) teachers should encourage the child to become aware of spatial relationships between himself [or herself] and an object or between two objects (p. 55). The Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County (1974) also suggests that the teacher explore surroundings to suggest backgrounds due to the fact that the student in discussion uses the space around the drawing by implementing a baseline and surrounding symbols (the sun and cloud) (p. 54). Different approaches to these instructions might include taking student on a nature walk and discussing the environment then drawing pictures that represent what the

STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER students see. I will use the knowledge I have gained by analyzing this students artwork and apply it to the artwork of my own students in the future. A teacher can learn a great deal from

his or her students artwork. The easier it is to interpret a childs work of art, the easier it will be to support them educationally and provide them with the proper instructions and tools necessary to succeed.

STUDENT ANALYSIS RESEARCH PAPER

References Erickson, M., & Young,B. (1996). What every educator should (but maybe doesnt) know. School Arts, 96(2), 40-42. Lowenfeld, V., & Brittain, W.L. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York: Macmillan. Maryland Board of Education of Baltimore County. (1974). Beginning stages of visual expression of young children. In Art Experience, Development of Visual Perception, 1-4. Wilson, M., & Wilson, B. (1982). Teaching children to draw. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall. (please note that the chpter title is called Learning to Draw: Nurturing the Natural)