Running head: EARLY ARTISTS DRAWING ANALYSIS

Early Artists Drawing Analysis:

Meaning Making from the Eyes of a Child
Elizabeth Smith
University of Missouri Columbia

Running head: EARLY ARTISTS DRAWING ANALYSIS

For any educator, it is agreed that the teaching process must begin with evaluating your
students developmental level and prior knowledge. To begin a lesson without such
understanding could simply be disastrous. Within the arts this truth is especially relevant. In
similar ways that children learn to read and write by decoding and making words, they too go
through stages of development that leads to visual literacy (Johnson, pg. 74). With this in mind, I
present you evidence which supports the notion that young artists creations can reveal their
artistic stage of developmental, conceptual understandings, and conceptual misunderstandings. In
the following investigation I will go through an in-depth case study of how the arts reveal much
and hold much value within the context of Elementary Education
For this analysis, the source of date under investigation was the drawing from a six year
old girl named Corrie. The analysis information was taken from the course booklet and the
interview. Worth noting is that Corrie is the second youngest of twelve siblings and she is home
schooled. The investigation occurred on February 20th 2015 around 4pm at Corries home. When
I arrived at the home, Corrie and her younger sister greeted me at the door wearing their bathing
suits. They informed me that the suits were comfy and that they had been waiting for me all day.
During the investigations there were a total of three other people present: Corries mother, the
youngest child, and an older sibling.
To begin our time together, I decided to get Corrie comfortable working with me by
asking her to help me create a gift for one of her older sisters. Earlier in the day, I had purchased
a white ceramic mug which I intended to have Corrie and her sister decorate with permanent
markers. The girls were ecstatic for the activity and started brainstorming ideas immediately.
Corrie suggested drawing a rainbow tree while her sister thought she might write her name.
Before I let them start, I first explained that permanent markers are hard to wash off. They

Running head: EARLY ARTISTS DRAWING ANALYSIS

promised me to try hard not to get the markers on themselves or their clothes. The girls spent
around fifteen minutes working on the mug, taking turns ever so often to draw on one side of the
mug. This opened up conversations about color names, how to write names, what looked good
on the mug, and what we were going to do next. When the girls were satisfied with the mug, we
stuck the mug on a cookie sheet and set the timer for 30 minutes in the oven. Around this time
Corries sister went to play with another sibling and Corrie and I began the drawing
investigation.
For the drawing, we decided to sit at the dining room table because it seemed like it
would be a good drawing surface. The dining table was situated in an open area connected to
both the kitchen and living room a place with much traffic within the house. I decided to put
away the permanent markers because I feared that they might bleed through onto the table. I
explained to Corrie why I put the markers away and then explained to her what three things she
could choose to draw: a tree on grass, her family, or a self-portrait. I also explained the purpose
of my investigation to her to learn more about her learning. During her drawing time, I
explained I would be writing notes on a paper about things we talked about and noticings I had.
Then, I offered Corrie a box of twenty-four crayons, a tub of colored pencils, and a stack of
white computer paper. Without much hesitation, she began drawing.

Running head: EARLY ARTISTS DRAWING ANALYSIS

To begin, Corrie excitedly said Im going to draw a tree on the ground!. This comment
was followed shortly by can I draw grass on the ground too?. I tried to keep my comments
neutral by stating things like whatever you would like but sometimes qualitative comments
would slip in. She decided to use crayons for her drawing and most of her color uses were fairly
realistic. She started with the grass as the bottom of the page, with the paper facing her
horizontally. Next, she drew the brown tree trunk up half the page followed by the green foliage
at the top of the trunk. She commented Thats the best tree I ever saw. Her next question was
What kind of tree is this? An apple or a peach?. She eventually decided apple and began
drawing red circles within the tree foliage. This was followed by green vertical lines on the tops
of the red circles.

It was around this time that I made the slight mistake of asking Where are your tree
branches? When working with children on art it is suggested to use open ended questions
because they are non-judgemental and lead to more reflective thinking (Johnson, pg. 65). If I
could have changed my comment I would have said What will you add to this drawing next?
with the hope that Corrie might have added the element of branches on her own. After I said this,
she immediately said oops! and began drawing branches coming out beneath the foliage of the

Running head: EARLY ARTISTS DRAWING ANALYSIS

tree. She also said the tree goes up all the way and drew two lines coming from the trunk to the
top of the foliage.
After these branches were completed, Corrie said done!. Instead, she quickly said
wait, I forgot to add a giant peach to my tree!. This was followed by the long branch that
extends out to the right of the page. At the very end of the branch Corrie drew a large orange
circle. She next asked me what color is a peach? and do peaches have stems? I explained to
her that peaches come in many shades and color combinations, but usually it is a mix of reds and
oranges. I also said that a stem actually is a piece of branch that both apples and oranges grow
on, but that when apples are picked a piece of the branch comes too. Immediately she scribbled
away with a red crayon in the middle of the peach and drew a small stem on the peach. To finish
the drawing she then decided to add her name at the top right corner of the page. As you can see,
the first c she thought was too small, so she drew a large one next to it.

At this point in time, Corrie and I talked extensively about her piece of art. She explained
to me that she used crayons instead of colored pencils because they are easier to work with and
very colorful. To the best of her ability, she tried to describe that she first found the picture in her
head and then tried to put it on the paper. She also pointed out that she made the branch (pointed

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to the branch with peach) really strong so that it could hold the giant peach. Her final question to
me does it look good? let me know what she really wanted to hear during this analysis.
Without a doubt, this experience revealed much to me about Corries developmental level
as well as prior knowledge she had about art and trees. To begin with, I noticed that according to
Kellogg, she used several basic scribbles including the imperfect circle (scribble 20) for apples,
the multiple-line overlaid circle (scribble 16) for the peach outline, and the multiple loop line
(scribble 14) for the grass (Kellogg, pg. 40). If I were to place Corrie in a stage of artistic
development, I would place her within the pre-schematic for four-seven year olds (Brittain, pg.
475). I say this for many reasons: the geometric shapes of the tree trunk and fruit, the subjectivity
of the size of the peach and its lack proportion with that of the tree, and the distortion of the tree
branch for the peach.
Corries drawing also revealed some concepts found with the article Learning to draw:
nurturing the natural found within the MMBooklet. The one that stands out the most is the
simplicity principle which attests that children depict objects in a non-descriptive manner
(Wilson, pg. 59). Corries picture aligns with this in that she only added the outline of objects,
excluding the peach she colored in. The perpendicular principle is represented by the baseline of
the grass at the bottom of the page (Wilson, pg. 59). I would also say that the conservation and
multiple-application principle is present within Corries piece (Wilson, pg. 62) . For example, she
repeatedly draws apples the same way and branches the exact same way. These observations help
me deduce that Corrie has many areas of development that could be guided with a well informed
educator.
One interesting thing about this experience that I did not expect is how much it revealed
about Corries understanding of plants. For instance, Corrie did not hesitate to add the peach to

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the apple tree even if such a growth was impossible. In addition, the peach she drew she labled as
giant and the branch touching it was attatched to the bottom of the peach instead of the top. I
predict the label giant perhaps came from a previous experience with a very large peach, or
interpretation of a giant peach, such as the odd story of James and the Giant Peach by Roald
Dahl. Lastly, her question about the stems let me know she was thinking about where both the
apple and peach come from. If I were Corries educator, these details would help me greatly
determine what scientific concepts I could present to Corrie that would be within her zone of
proximal development.
From a teaching perspective, these findings help me know how to guide Corrie in her
visual literacy as well as scientific understandings. This investigation adds to the wealth of
research that argues regular classroom teachers should incorporate art within the classroom.
Whether it is investigating prior knowledge, or determining students developmental abilities, art
integration should be a key tool within the classroom.

References

Running head: EARLY ARTISTS DRAWING ANALYSIS

Brittain, W.L. & V. Lowenfeld. (1970). Creative and Mental Growth. New York, NY. MacMillan
Co. pgs 474-479.
Johnson, M. H. (2008). Developing verbal and visual literacy through experiences in the visual
arts. Young Children, 63(1), 74-79.
Kellogg R. (1970). Analyzing childrens art. Palo Alto, CA: National.
Wilson, M., & Wilson, B. (1982). Teaching children to draw. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall.