Stages

of Artistic Development Stage Scribble (Under 2) Developmental Norms Scribbles of various types Child is developing motor skills and figuring out how to use body to do things.

Tadpole (2 to 4) Eriksons Stage of Autonomy vs. Shame (1.5 to 3)

Circles, rectangles Child will draw a person (or animal) with a circle and two dangling lines for legs at this stage. No concern with scale at this point. Things are drawn as child sees them, not how the world looks. The Subjective use of color Preschematic Little understanding of space. Distorted figures (4 to 6) and omission of body Eriksons Stage of parts. Initiative vs. Guilt Symbols are constantly (3 to 5) revised Art is projective +power of suggestion -> not representing much emotional material. The Schematic Child has developed a schema, a way of (6 to 9) depicting people and Erikson's stage of things and will repeat it Industry vs. again and again. Inferiority (6 to 12)

Social Work Career Development (2012) www.dorleem.com

Stages of Artistic Development The Schematic (cont.) Baselines/skylines X-ray pictures (some objects will be transparent-like) Objective use of color

The Gang Stage/ The Dawning Realism (9 to 11)

Greater attention to details Perspective Differentiation of gender Sky meets horizon Product is most important to child (earlier, process was most significant) Strong desire for realistic drawing, may become highly self-critical

Realism (11 to 13) Erikson's stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion

Perspective/depth Body proportions become more realistic Modeling/shading Greater detail/mastery Abstract drawings

Reference: CREATIVE AND MENTAL GROWTH, Viktor Lowenfeld, Macmillan Co., New York, 1947. Images from: http://www.artjunction.org, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_art and http://www.d.umn.edu/~jbrutger/Lowenf.html.

Social Work Career Development (2012) www.dorleem.com