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Children
and Art - Wikipedia
Child art is the drawings, paintings and other artistic works
created by people under the age of 12. It is also referred to as
"children's art" or the "art of children".
The term 'child art' also has a parallel and different usage in the
world of contemporary fine art, where is refers to a sub-genre of
artists who depict children in their works. Child art"
There is a third use of the phrase "child art" in the literature; art
intended for viewing by children, say illustrations in a book for
juvenile readers, has been referred to as child art; such art could be
done by a child or a professional adult illustrator.
[edit] Stages of child art
As the child develops, their art passes through a number of stages.
It is thought that all children pass through these stages.
[edit] Scribbling
Random scribble by one year old nevertheless shows coordination of
colour
From about their first birthday children achieve the fine motor
control to handle a crayon. At first they scribble. The youngest child
scribbles with a series of left and right motions, later up down and
then circular motions are added. The child appears to get considerable
pleasure from watching the line or the colours appear. Often however children do not
pay attention to the edges of the page and the lines go beyond the
confines of the page. Children are often also interested in body
painting and, given the opportunity, will draw on their hands or
smear paint on their faces.
Later, from about their second birthday, controlled scribbling
starts. Children produce patterns of simple shapes: circles, crosses and
star-bursts. They also become interested in arrangement and can produce
simple collages of coloured paper, or place stones in patterns. Once
children have established controlled scribbling they begin to name their
scribbles.
[edit] Pre-symbolism
Smiling person (combined head and body) age 4½
From about age three, the child begins to combine circles and lines
to make simple figures. At first, people are drawn without a body and
with arms emerging directly from the head. The eyes are often drawn
large, filling up most of the face, and hands and feet are omitted. At
this stage it may be impossible to identify the subject of the art
without the child's help.
Later drawings from this stage show figures drawn floating in space
and sized to reflect the child's view of their importance. Most children
at this age are not concerned with producing a realistic picture.
[edit] Symbolism
In this stage of a child's development, they create a vocabulary of
images. Thus when a child draws a picture of a cat, they will always
draw the same basic image, perhaps modified (this cat has stripes that
one has dots, for example). This stage of drawing begins at around age
five. The basic shapes are called symbols or
schema.
Each child develops his/her own set of symbols, which are based on
their understanding of what is being drawn rather than on observation.
Each child's symbols are therefore unique to the child. By this age,
most children develop a "person" symbol which has a properly defined
head, trunk and limbs which are in some sort of rough proportion.
Two schematic figures on a green base line
Before this stage the objects that child would draw would appear to
float in space, but at about five to six years old the child introduces a
baseline with which to organize their space. This baseline is often a
green line (representing grass) at the bottom of the paper. The figures
stand on this line. Slightly older children may also add secondary
baselines for background objects and a skyline to hold the sun and
clouds.
It is at this stage that cultural influences become more important.
Children not only draw from life, but also copy images in their
surroundings. They may draw copies of cartoons. Children also become
more aware of the story-telling possibilities in a picture. The
earliest understanding of a more realistic representation of space, such
as using perspective, usually come from copying.
[edit] Realism
As children mature they begin to find their symbols limiting. They
realize that their schema for a person is not flexible enough, and just
doesn't look like the real thing. At this stage, which begins at nine or
ten years old, the child will lend greater importance to whether the
drawing looks like the object being drawn.
This can be a frustrating time for some children, as their
aspirations outstrip their abilities and knowledge. Some children give
up on drawing almost entirely. However others become skilled, and it is
at this stage that formal artistic training can benefit the child most.
The baseline is dropped and the child can learn to use rules such as perspective to organize space
better. Story-telling also becomes more refined and children will start
to use formal devices such as the comic strip.
[edit] Private drawing
Some children will largely give up on 'adult supervised' drawing and
draw only privately, as part of a largely un-noticed children's street culture (e.g.:
chalk drawings, rude and caricature drawings on pavements and walls),
and private doodlings in diaries. Some of these may later gravitate
towards making informal graffiti and skateboard art. Private drawings
are for children to do without the influence of others on their
self-expression. This can also include other friends and siblings along
with other technologies.
[edit] Therapeutic
A drawing made by a refugee child, former resident in Pristina,
depicts his horrific experiences in the Kosovo
War.
Art therapy can be an effective way for children to develop
and connect with their emotions. Some children with autism
have found that drawing can help them to express feelings that they have
difficulty expressing otherwise. Similarly children who have faced
horrors such as war can find it difficult to talk about what they have
experienced directly. Art can help children come to terms with their
emotions in these situations.
[edit] Criticism
After visiting a children's art display in San Francisco in the
1980s, educator John Holt stated that, "...An
understanding of adultism might begin to explain what I mean when I
say that much of what is known as children's art is an adult invention."[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://gramoty.ru/index.php?no=202&act=full&key=bb
- ^ Holt,
J. (Ed) Teach your own: The John Holt book of homeschooling.
Perseus Publishing.
[edit] External links
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