Drawing Art Educator’s Guide to Why Draw? Who’s Victor Lowenfeld? Who’s Betty Edwards?

"Why teach drawing to accountants "Why teach drawing to accountants? Because drawing class doesn't just teach people to draw. It teaches them to be more observant. There's no company on earth that wouldn't benefit from having people become more observant." Randy S. Nelson (dean of Pixar University)

Of all the art skills one might find useful to nurture and to develop in children, drawing has always been the most important. In its simplest form, drawing consists of making a mark or leaving a trail on a surface. In this respect, drawing is a basic human activity rooted in our collective psyche and history as a species here on earth. Some of the earliest evidence we have of this type of human activity are the marks and symbols left by our forbearers on cave walls, rock formations, tools, and eating utensils.

“Drawing is not just a medium or a technique: it is a human activity with a rich and complicated history.” Tony Godfrey Child Age 3 Drawing with Crayon

As infants we begin to draw before we learn to write As infants we begin to draw before we learn to write. In fact, one could argue that writing is just a special form of drawing. Although we all experienced great joy and satisfaction when we engaged in mark-making as youngsters, for many of us the psychological benefits of drawing soon dissipated as we learned that in our culture drawings are suppose to look 'realistic' and that those which don't are viewed as little more than "scribbles."

Drawing can serve as a powerful means for developing children's perception and thought; and, yet, few adults view drawing as a skill that can be improved through practice and instruction. Rather, there is a common misconception that the ability to draw is more a "gift" or a talent than it is a basic human necessity. Moreover, since many adults feel that they "can't draw" themselves, they don’t usually teach drawing to children. Given the lack of encouragement from adults in this area, it is not surprising that many children stop drawing around the age of eight or so. These 4th graders filled pages of their sketchbooks with drawings of objects placed before them. Here the challenge was to draw animal skulls.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO LEARN TO DRAW? Since drawing is so much a part of creative work and creative idea development, our educational culture is short changing our creative potential. Just as reading is important for survival in our culture, drawing is important for creative idea development in our rapidly changing times. Survival and success is being forfeited by our casual and accidental approach to teaching observation drawing in our culture.

Japan is probably the only country with a universally prescribed national art curriculum that requires working from observation from a very young age (grade one and kindergarten). From what Japanese college students tell researchers in art education, they spend about three times as much time learning art during the first three grades in school as we do the the US. Theirs is not a one-sided curriculum. They also have lessons and activities based on the imagination and as well works produced from remembered experiences. All three sources of inspiration for art are learned.

A COMMON DRAWING MISTAKE OVERHEARD When children ask for help with drawing, many adults are heard to say, "That's okay, I can't draw either." Yet what adult would say? "That's okay, I can't read and write either." We need to realize that, like other skills, if the skill of observation is not taught, only a few discover how to learn it on their own. How many would learn to read and write if it were totally left up to children's own discoveries?

Children can begin practicing observation drawing very young Children can begin practicing observation drawing very young. This is not to say observational drawing needs to replace their drawing from memory and imagination. These are also useful in developing parts of the brain through regular vigorous practice requiring memory and/or imagination. However, if young children are not helped with observational drawing, many children mistakenly grow up believing they can't draw because they lack talent. It is true that they lack ability, and because no teacher ever helped them develop, they generally end up without talent. Talent needs nurture in order to flower.

If they do not have observational drawing practice when they are young, most children at about third grade realize the inadequacy of their childlike images. They inevitably see the work of a few peers who have practiced more enlightened and careful observation. Some of these "self-taught" 'talents' have learned to copy rather than to observe from real objects. For them, even though they can copy precociously, they can find it very threatening to draw from actual objects unless they are given sound observational methods. Often, because of their learned dependence on copying, they are totally unaware of methodology by which to develop real observational skill. They too experience a crisis of confidence to the extent that their lack of ability becomes a self-fulfilling inevitability. All teachers, whether they themselves were lucky enough to develop their brains for observational drawing, can teach drawing. Teachers should not show children how to draw by drawing for them. Teachers should not use "how to draw" books that prescribe patterns and formulas for making various animals and other objects. These methods perpetuate false ideas about the way drawing is learned. When you learn a formula for drawing a fish, you haven't learned to allow various fish to tell what they look like. You simply know one fish symbol. While symbolic language may function for basic communication, real observation and expression is so much more empowering and effective.

Teachers should, at times, encourage children to examine things closely, slowly, and carefully, compare sizes, study the slant of a line, and compare everything with everything else in the subject being observed. Not only the objects are observed, but the spaces between objects must be carefully compared in size and character with the each other and the objects (art teachers call these the negative spaces). Drawing becomes a perfect way to record this data. Drawing becomes the perfect way to encourage this learning by examination. A beneficial self perpetuating circle of learning is initiated. Observation makes better drawing and drawing motivates better observation . . . . practice happens.

Children only learn to see when they are free to stop looking at their paper as a mistake. They have to observe and totally become the thing being drawn. Generally, when they look at the paper, they obsess about getting it "right". Children often need help to learn that observational drawing is much different than drawing from memory and drawings from imagination. Observational drawing is based on external data. The data must be allowed to come from the subject. In other types of drawing, the data comes from within. When data comes from within, the information emerging on the paper can also be an important source of additional ideas for development. This is less true in observational drawing. In observation drawing, once the student is has become liberated from the misconceptions of infantile schema and symbolic representations, the student can rationally compare the created work with the source (compare the drawing with the object observed). When the student begins to see creative ideas in the work instead of only mistakes, the student has been set forth on a path of self learning and fulfillment.

Learning to draw is multifaceted. Not every drawing lesson should be slow and deliberate observation. For good drawing instruction, at times teachers should encourage children to make fast and impulsive expressionistic markings representing their gut feelings. While this is also from observation, it is a more immediate way to observe a subject (often a live person posed in an action pose). Marks are made to represent stimuli from within their inner selves. Drawing teachers often do this by requiring that observed impressions are forcefully recorded in a matter seconds. Many teachers encourage beginners to make quick "air drawings". Practicing fast drawing in the air builds confidence. In this type of drawing students are asked to start from the center and rapidly move outward. This is the opposite of contour line drawing that carefully outlines the edge.

Rembrandt and Kathy Kollwitz were two artists who mastered both modes of working, often including both within the same artworks. Picasso said he could draw like and artist when he was a child and it took a lifetime to learn to draw like a child. Both their contour lines and their gestural lines spoke volumes about their abilities to observe and express both their outer and inner worlds.

LOWENFELD'S STAGES OF ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT 1. SCRIBBLE (2 to 4 years) The Scribble stage is made up of four sub-stages. (a) Disordered - uncontrolled markings that could be bold or light depending upon the personality of the child. At this age the child has little or no control over motor activity. (b)Longitudinal - controlled repetitions of motions. Demonstrates visually an awareness and enjoyment of kinesthetic movements. Circular - further exploring of controlled motions demonstrating the ability to do more complex forms. Naming - the child tells stories about the scribble. There is a change from a kinesthetic thinking in terms of motion to imaginative thinking in terms of pictures. This is one of the great occasions in the life of a human. It is the development of the ability to visualize in pictures.

2. PRESCHEMATIC (4 to 6 years) The preschematic stage is announced by the appearance of circular images with lines which seem to suggest a human or animal figure. During this stage the schema (the visual idea) is developed. The drawings show what the child perceives as most important about the subject. There is little understanding of space - objects are placed in a haphazard way throughout the picture. The use of color is more emotional than logical. First conscious creation of form occurs around age three and provides a tangible record of the child's thinking process. The first representational attempt is a person, usually with circle for head and two vertical lines for legs. Later other forms develop, clearly recognizable and often quite complex. Children continually search for new concepts so symbols constantly change.

3. SCHEMATIC (7 to 9 years) This stage is easily recognized by the demonstrated awareness of the concept of space. Objects in the drawing have a relationship to what is up and what is down. A definite base and sky line is apparent. Items in the drawing are all spatially related. Colors are reflected as they appear in nature. Shapes and objects are easily definable. Exaggeration between figures (humans taller than a house, flowers bigger than humans, family members large and small) is often used to express strong feelings about a subject. Another technique sometimes used is called "folding over" this is demonstrated when objects are drawn perpendicular to the base line. Sometimes the objects appear to be drawn upside down. Another Phenomenon is called "X-ray". In an x-ray picture the subject is depicted as being seen form the inside as well as the outside. The child arrives at a "schema," a definite way of portraying an object, although it will be modified when he needs to portray something important. The schema represents the child's active knowledge of the subject. At this stage, there is definite order in space relationships: everything sits on the base line.

4. DAWNING REALISM (9 to 11 years) Dawining realism is also known as the gang age. Group friendships of the same sex are most common. This is a period of self awareness to the point of being extremely self critical. The attempts at realism need to be looked at from the child's point of view. Realism is not meant to be real in the photographic sense rather than an experience with a particular object. In this regard this stage is the first time that the child becomes aware of a lack of ability to show objects the way they appear in the surrounding environment. The human is shown as girl, boy, woman, man clearly defined with a feeling for details often resulting in a "stiffness" of representation. Perspective is another characteristic of this stage. There is an awareness of the space between the base line and sky line. Overlapping of objects, types of point perspective and use of small to large objects are evident in this stage. Objects no longer stand on a base line. Three dimensional effects are achieved along with shading and use of subtle color combinations. Because of an awareness of lack of ability drawings often appear less spontaneous than in previous stages. The child finds that schematic generalization no longer suffices to express reality. This dawning of how things really look is usually expressed with more detail for individual parts, but is far from naturalism in drawing. Space is discovered and depicted with overlapping objects in drawings and a horizon line rather than a base line. Children begin to compare their work and become more critical of it. While they are more independent of adults, they are more anxious to conform to their peers.

THE Psuedo Realistic or Psuedo NaturalisticSTAGE (11 to 13 years) In the previous stages the process in making the visual art was of great importance. In this stage the product becomes most important to the child. This stage is marked by two psychological differences. In the first, called Visual, the individual's art work has the appearance of looking at a stage presentation. The work is inspired by visual stimuli. The second is based on subjective experiences. This type of Nonvisual individual's art work is based on subjective interpretations emphasizing emotional relationships to the external world as it relates to them. Visual types feel as spectators looking at their work form the outside. Nonvisually minded individuals feel involved in their work as it relates to them in a personal way. The visually minded child has a visual concept of how color changes under different external conditions. The nonvisually minded child sees color as a tool to be used to reflect emotional reaction to the subject at hand. This stage marks the end of art as spontaneous activity as children are increasingly critical of their drawings. The focus is now on the end product as they strive to create "adult-like" naturalistic drawings. Light and shadow, folds, and motion are observed with mixed success, translated to paper. Space is depicted as three-dimensional by diminishing the size of objects that are further away.

The period of decision Art at this stage of life is something to be done or left alone. Natural development will cease unless a conscious decision is made to improve drawing skills. Students are critically aware of the immaturity of their drawing and are easily discouraged. Lowenfeld's solution is to enlarge their concept of adult art to include non-representational art and art occupations besides painting (architecture, interior design, handcrafts, etc.)

Betty Edwards Creative and Mental Growth The scribbling stage Random scribbles begin at age one-and-a-half, but quite quickly take on definite shapes. Circular movement is first because it is most natural anatomically.

The stage of symbols After weeks of scribbling, children make the discovery of art: a drawn symbol can stand for a real thing in the environment. Circular form becomes a universal symbol for almost anything. Later symbols become more complex, reflecting child's observations on the world around him.

Pictures that tell stories At four or five, the child begins to tell stories or work out problems with her drawings, changing basic forms as needed to express meaning. Often once the problem is expressed, the child feels better able to cope with it.

The Landscape By five or six, children develop a set of symbols to create a landscape that eventually becomes a single variation repeated endlessly. A blue line and sun at the top of the page and a green line at the bottom become symbolic representations of the sky and ground. Landscapes are compose carefully, giving the impression that removing any single form would throw off the balance of the whole picture.

The stage of complexity At nine or ten years, children try for more detail, hoping to achieve greater realism, a prized goal. Concern for where things are in their drawings is replaced by concern for how things look-- particularly tanks, dinosaurs, super heroes, etc. for boys; models, horses, landscapes, etc. for girls.

The stage of realism The passion for realism is in full bloom. When drawings do not "come out right" (look real) they seek help to resolve conflict between how the subject looks and previously stored information that prevents their seeing the object as it really looks. Struggle with perspective, foreshortening, and similar spatial issues as they learn how to see.

The crisis period The beginning of adolescence marks the end of artistic development among most children, due to frustration at "getting things right." Those who do manage to weather the crisis and learn the "secret" of drawing will become absorbed in it. Edwards believes that proper teaching methods will help children learn to see and draw and prevent this crisis.

http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/drawingisbasic.html