Children's Art

Graphic Development

It has been observed that children in Western society use similar drawing techniques and schemata during different stages in their graphic development. Some questions have emerged from this observation. Do all children go through the same artistic development? If they do, what is the theoretical explanation for this phenomenon? Why do children draw? These questions turned out to be not so easily answered due to the complicated nature and lack of a cohesive theory of children's drawings.

In the early 20th century, Luquet studied his daughter's drawings and observed a progression from a scribble, circle, tadpole, to a human figure. His observations became the basis for our understanding of the stages of graphic development. Lowenfeld and W. Lambert Brittain expanded on and outlined these stages of graphic development in children's drawing based on Luquet's observations and Piaget's theory of cognitive development. They proposed that all children pass through each stage sequentially. These stages are the following: first attempt at self-expression (scribble), first representational attempt (preschematic), achievement of a form concept (schematic), dawning realism, pseudo-realism, the period of decision, and adolescent art. This model of graphic development has [Page 76]come to be known as the classical model of artistic development.

The assertion that these stages are universal is controversial, according to the published literature. Researchers such as Brent Wilson and Marjorie Wilson have argued that the classical model of artistic development is based on a Western, modernist view of creativity and has outlived its usefulness. The modernist view of artistic development claims that learning to paint or draw is an intrinsic process resulting from children's interactions and perceptions of the natural world. The modernist assumption is that art is self-contained and that the innate qualities of the artistic media (e.g., fluidity of paint) engage the artist and shape the artwork. This is art for art's sake. Any influence of cultural artistic conventions is viewed as a contamination of the creative process and is consequently discouraged.

...