The first picture was from a 9 year-old boy, who seems to have drawn a

picture that, on Lowenfeld’s level, falls around the Schematic stage. There is a
clear ground line and the people figures are sticking their arms out. The space
seems flat and any overlap in the shapes or characters present in this drawing
seems to be unintentional. The sky also seems to be indicated with the sun in the
corner of the drawing. In Edwards’ level of development, this drawing seems to
fall on the storytelling pictures stage. The story they seem to be telling is about the
real-life revolutionary microbiologist Anton Van Leeuwenhoek making a
discovery, and people around him believing he is crazy. Perhaps this child is using
Van Leeuwenhoek as a filter for trying to understand any problems he might be
having with people around him. On Lowenfeld’s stages, this boy seems to be right
on track with his development in being in the Schematic Stage. Although he could
be falling a touch behind as 9 years old is when he should be at the tail end of this
stage. As for Edwards’ stages, this boy might be falling behind as the storytelling
stage is more prevalent in the ages of 4-6. One could argue that his picture falls
under the landscape stage, but not only would this boy still be behind, the picture
he drew is lacking in color and any landscape details aside from a sun and a ground
line.
The second picture was from a 6 year-old girl. It appears to be a self-portrait
or a drawing of some sort of humanoid monster (it’s mildly hard to decipher given
the sharp teeth). After some thought, I’ve determined that this drawing falls, on
Lowenfeld’s stages, squarely in the schematic stage. It seems to be leaning more
towards the end of the stage. It’s not quite dawning realism, but it seems to be real
close to it. It’s also far beyond the preschematic stage as it’s far more advanced
than a stick figure. In Edwards’ stages, this drawing falls around the stage of
complexity. It doesn’t make much sense to put it any lower, but one could argue it
could fall in the storytelling stage. Either way, it’s clear that this child is beyond
where she should be by her age, especially in Lowenfeld’s stage.
The third picture is by a 6 year-old boy. It seems to be a landscape of a
backyard or a farm. This drawing seems to fall squarely in the schematic stage of
Lowenfeld’s artistic stages. There is a clear ground line in the image and the blue
clouds at the top of the paper are clearly representative of the sky. Almost all the
objects in the picture, aside from the bird and the clouds, are lined up along the
ground line. The space is flat and the trees are like giant lollipops. Essentially, this
drawing looks like a picture perfect representation of the schematic stage. The
same could be said about Edwards’ stages. This picture seems to perfectly
represent Edwards’ landscape stage. It fits that with the blue clouds to represent the
sky and the green line to represent the ground. This picture also gives the
impression that the whole image would be thrown off if one element were to be
removed. In Lowenfeld’s stages, this kid is slightly ahead of where he should be.
Most kids around his age would be just working their way out of the preschematic
stage, while he seems he’s been in the schematic stage for a while. In Edwards’
stages, he’s right on track with where he should be. He’s at the age where he’s
starting to experiment with landscape drawings and learning how to fit things on
the page.
The last drawing is that of a 9 year-old girl, who’s drawn a simple picture of
a few flowers standing in a field. Although very simplistic, I’d still place this
image in the schematic stage of Lowenfeld’s stages. The way the flowers are
drawn implies that this is a schema that the child grew up thinking flowers are like.
The same goes for the grass being just little tick marks at the bottom of the page,
possibly representing the schema of grass. In Edwards’ stages, I’d say this one also
falls around the stage of Landscapes. Although simple, it doesn’t seem to tell much
of a story or exude much complexity. And although it’s only 3 flowers in the grass,
it still gives the impression that if any element were to be removed from the
picture, it wouldn’t look quite right. This child is about where she should be in
Lowenfeld’s stages, although I’d pay attention to see if and how her drawings
evolve over the next year or two to further cement where exactly she falls on
Lowenfeld’s stages. On Edwards’ stages, she falls a little behind in terms of where
she should be. Most children her age are starting to experiment with complexity
while she seems to be firm in practicing her landscapes.
Figuring out where on each set of stages your students fall on is critical
information that could be very helpful in working out lesson plans. In the
classroom, each student brings in a unique set of artistic skills. Each set of skills
will need to be fostered, so meticulous planning will be needed to ensure that every
student is learning and having fun while doing it. In my classroom, I would start
with a free drawing assignment. Students would draw whatever they pleased and I
would encourage them to do their best, but also assure them that this is just for the
purposes of assessing their skills and has nothing to do with how “good” the
picture looks. I’d also send home a questionnaire about how much they practice
drawing, what they like to draw, what they like to draw with, etc. Figuring out
what stages they are at in both sets of stages and learning a bit about their prior art
experience will help in determining lesson plans. Not many standards focus on
specific mediums of art like painting, drawing, or sculpting, especially elementary
years. Learning what skill level they are at ahead of time will help determine
specific standards to focus on that can apply to the entire class in terms of skill
level. We as teachers can focus on the specific skills students need to keep right on
track with their levels of artistic ability.