My child art analysis was done on a drawing that my five-year-old nephew drew for me. My nephew�s name is Michael and he his in Kindergarten. He will be turning six years old on April 5th. To help understand why Michael drew what he did, I will give a little background about Michael. Michael likes to play sports. His favorite sports are football, hockey, and basketball. The reason Michael likes to play football, hockey, and basketball is because my sister and brother-in-law have season tickets to the Wisconsin Badger football and basketball games. Therefore, Michael goes to a lot of these Wisconsin Badger football and basketball games and has grown to like football and basketball. Michael also goes to a lot of Wisconsin Badger hockey games and he says hockey is his favorite sport.
Some of Michael�s interest in sports has to do with the influence of me. During the summers I live with Michael and we play a lot of sports because that is what I also like to do. I am also a big Wisconsin Badger fan and Michael and I play a lot of football and basketball together and we pretend we are the Badgers. I also have an Xbox and all I play is football on the Xbox and Michael likes to play with me.
When I asked Michael to draw me a picture, he of course drew a picture of him playing football with his mom, who is my sister. Michael is the person wearing the green jersey and blue pants. He told me he has the football and that he just scored a touchdown to tie the game up. The score is now 23 to 23. He said he wanted a tied score. He said this because he is just starting to learn about winning and losing and he wants the score to be tied so that nobody gets their feelings hurt. Michael really hates to lose, but we have been trying to teach him that he cannot always win. Therefore, instead of him winning or his mom winning he has the score tied so that nobody gets their feelings hurt.
Michael�s mom is the person wearing the yellow jersey and purple pants. Michael told me he is the Seattle Seahawks and that his mom is the Minnesota Vikings. Michael told me that he is the Seahawks because he likes them and that his mom is the Vikings because he does not like the Vikings. He told me that they are playing at the Seattle Seahawks stadium and he tried to draw the Seattle Seahawk in the middle of the football field they are playing on.
My Analysis
Michael�s chosen media were highlighters and a pen. He simply used a common 8�� x 11� white piece of paper which was all that was available in the house. The colors chosen reflect that Michael was attempting to draw true to life because he tried to represent each team�s uniform with the right colors. He chose to cover the entire piece of paper with his drawing and I think despite the amount of colors used it could be described as a vibrant drawing. It is my feeling that Michael is well into the pre-schematic stage. The drawing is a two dimensional representation of him and his mom and while it is not necessarily a realistic interpretation of them, he thought enough to give himself and his mom the correct hair style and eye colors. Michael has blue eyes and his mom has brown, but since he was using highlighters and a pen he did not have the color brown, therefore he used black because it was the closes color to brown.
You can see Michael used the Basic Scribbles that children evolve through. The head of his mother is composed of an imperfect circle and his head is a single crossed circle. Michael also used different type of scribbles to draw the facial features. On both faces he used a single curved line for the mouths and dots for the eyes. When making the hair on his head he used multiple vertical lines and on his mom�s head he used both the multiple vertical line and the multiple horizontal line. Michael chose to ground the football field to the bottom of the paper using that as his base line. Michael drew himself smaller than his mom because I think he realizes he is smaller than his mom. Finally, he chose to draw his face along with his mom�s face with big smiles because he is happy with the relationship he has with his mother.
My reasons for believing Michael is in the pre-schematic stage of drawing can be justified by the following characteristics of the pre-schematic stage: 1) two dimensional objects, 2) figures and any other objects are not in correct proportion, 3) bodies usually made up of classified scribbles, and 4) family becomes the most important subject to draw, and children create their own way to recognize members of the family (i.e. by using different colors, sizes, shapes, details or any other way).
Michael definitely has his own schema or style of drawing. Michael is aware of how things look and he takes that into account when he draws. But he has not lost the innocence and the freedom a child has when creating art. He is not worried that the picture does not look exactly like him or the Seahawk Stadium. I do think that he could be advancing in his development at a rapid pace because he is already showing characteristics of the schematic stage. For instance, he tried to draw the Seattle Seahawk in the middle of the football field that reflects a child�s active knowledge of the environment. Also it is apparent to me that Michael loves using color, which is in accordance with the schematic stage. I think that is apparent by Michael�s drawing that he is right on track as far as his development and I feel confident in saying that he has already developed into a wonderful, young artist.
Extended Analysis
The book that I used to help me analyze Michael�s artwork was �Creative and Mental Growth� by Viktor Lowenfeld and W. Lambert Brittain. This book helps support my analysis of Michael�s drawing. For example, when it comes to subject matter for children in the pre-schematic stage it says, �the most important consideration in the selection of topics for children in these first representational attempts should be the meaning of the activity for the child� (Lowenfeld & Brittain 176). Knowing the background of Michael and that he likes to play football is probably why Michael�s drawing shows him playing football. It is a meaningful event for him when he gets to play football.
Lowenfeld also discusses the importance of size relationship in the pre-schematic stage, which helps support my analysis of why Michael drew himself smaller than his mother. Lowenfeld says, �Size relationship can also be stressed� (Lowenfeld & Brittain 176). Lowenfeld suggest that children in the pre-schematic start to learn the difference between size relationships and that is why I feel Michael drew himself smaller than his mother because Michael realizes he is smaller than his mother.
I also suggested that Michael might be entering the schematic stage because he is aware of his environment and he has a baseline for his drawing. In chapter 7 about The Schematic Stage Lowenfeld said, �The first conscious awareness that a child is part of his environment is expressed by a symbol which is called a base line� (Lowenfeld & Brittain 187). It is clearly shown in Michael�s drawing that he used the bottom of the paper as the base line for his drawing because that is where he put the grass to the football field.
On the baseline of his drawing Michael drew his mother, himself, and the field goal posts. This shows that he is entering the schematic stage, but at the same time he is still in the pre-schematic stage because the scoreboard, sun, and birds are just floating in space. Lowenfeld supports my argument because Lowenfeld says: "A child�s drawing in the first representational level show a concept of space quite different from that of an adult. At first glance objects in space tend to be put down in somewhat random order. That is, objects will appear above, below, or beside each other in the way the child understands them (Lowenfeld & Brittain 160-161)."
Looking at Michael�s drawing it can clearly be seen that he is evolving from the pre-schematic stage into the schematic stage. With Michael soon to be six years old I feel confident in saying he is developing into a fine young artist.
Works Citied
Lowenfeld, Viktor, and W. Lambert Brittain. Creative and Mental Growth. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1975.