VISUAL ART thoughts #2: Artistic Development + Portraiture

Stages of Artistic Development &

Wilson's Graphic Principles

In our second lecture, we learnt about children's stages of artistic development.

1. Scribble Stage (1-3 years)

• At this stage, it is a manipulative skill and involves hand-eye coordination development, a necessary prerequisite for developing the visual perception necessary to read from left to right.
• Children simply enjoy the physical motions involved in scribbling. It is the act of doing, not the product, that is important to the child.
• The duration of this stage is dictated by the encouragement of teachers, parents, the child's general health, muscle development, coordination, intelligence and the quantity and frequency of opportunities to randomly scribble.

2. Symbolic Stage (3-7 years)

• Tadpole shapes emerge in pre-symbolism.
• The basic forms from the previous stage now suggest images to the child that stand for ideas in the child's mind. In this way, children draw their first symbol.
• A symbol is a visual representation of something important to the child. It may be a human figure, an animal, a tree, or a similar figure.
• The drawing of a circle may not look different, but it now has a meaning of the sun.
• Creative expression is the goal.

3. Realism Stage (9 onwards)

• By the age of 9 or 10, many children exhibit greater visual awareness of their surroundings, and their drawings begin to reflect greater consciousness of detail and proportion.
• They typically include body parts such as lips, fingernails, hairstyles and joints.
• This new concern for making the image look "right" can lead to a crisis for many children, as their products often do not meet their expectations and they can become disappointed.
• This may lead to disengagement.

Roland (2006) states that "these stages are based on the popular view that the desired “end state” of this progression is graphical realism. However, this should not be taken to mean that the drawings that children typically do in earlier stages are  inferior or less desirable to those accomplished in later stages. On the contrary, some of the more aesthetically pleasing works often are produced by children just beginning to discover the joys of mark making."

In reasoning about why it is important to understand these stages, I figured that just as a child will go through stages of development in their writing and reading, so too will they go through artistic stages. To my mind, greater knowledge of these stages will assist with teaching students and helping them to move on to the next stage - if you know the stage they are at, you can teach just beyond that in accordance with Vygotsky's principles of proximal development. If you know what elements to look for and ascertain what stage they are at, then you can prompt them to consider aspects of the next stage that they may not have considered before.

An example might be: you notice that a child is still in the scribble stage. You might prompt them to draw something connected to their lives e.g. themselves, their parents, common symbols. In this way you will encourage them to move towards the symbolic stage in which they use their drawings to communicate and connect to the physical world around them.

A major concern in later primary school is how to prevent self-criticism and potential disengagement as students become preoccupied with realism. Roland (2006) provides the following suggestions:

• Expose children in upper primary to artists whom exhibit both realist and imaginative approaches to drawing.
• Encourage children to see that drawings are not meant to be photographic, but instead a way of showing the special and unique way they see the world.
• Provide students with a chance to engage in both imaginative and realistic drawing exercises.
• Celebrate and value the diverse approaches the students have.
• Provide children with many opportunities to draw and develop their artistic skills.

We also learnt about Wilson's Graphical Principles as a way of analysing and understanding why children's drawings look the way they do:

• Territorial imperative: things are not touching
• Fill the format: If you tell children to fill the page, they might draw the objects very large
• Conservation and Multiple Application: Repetition of the same object or symbol, i.e. if the child likes the object, they will continually use it such as crowns for princesses
• Draw Everything: X-Ray drawings
• Plastic: Exaggerate the size of whatever is important e.g. hair for girls
• Simplicity: Draw it, sculpt it, paint it the simplest way you can. Many adults still use this principle

Workshop Ideas: 

Drawing a Portrait

In our second workshop, we learnt about the procedure for drawing a portrait

Dimensions for Drawing a Portrait

1. Draw an oval
2. Draw a horizontal line across the halfway mark - this is the eye level
3. Halfway between that line and the chin, draw another line - this is the nose level
4. Between this line and the chin, draw another line - this is the mouth level
5. Draw 4 dots along the eye line and draw football shapes from first to second and third to fourth - these will be the eyes
6. Draw lines from the centre of the eyes down to the mouth line. These are the corners of the lips.
7. The ears' tops are in line with the sides of the eyes.
8. Now that you have the basic dimensions, adjust aspects like the eye shapes so that it reflects the individual's face.

Example from Workshop: I drew this of the girl across from me, Regina.

I found this a valuable exercise as you really see someone you may not know very well. In this way, and if used as such, it could be a valuable way of strengthening the classroom community. Furthermore you learn about facial proportions and that drawing is a skill that can be taught and learnt. The exercise could also have strong links to Mathematics if you were to discuss the fractions and ratios involved in faces