Analysis of Children's Paintings

Nancy Smith: Experience & Art

1. Pre-representation Stage

a. Motions and the marks they make (In this stage, children age 1.5-3 are focused on ‘motoric and kinesthetic sensations’ (page 6), painting with repetitive and jerky movements.

Description and Analysis: This child used blue and gray paint. There are two blue circles, one larger than the other, that are connected by one of the circle motions made in the larger circle. To the right of the larger circle there is an oval-like gray shape that has short horizontal and diagonal lines coming out of it. Over the three shapes, there are multiple blue and gray slightly faded sweeping lines. The painting is mostly in the center of the paper.

I put this painting in this first stage because of the circular motions and reflex-like nature of the sweeping brush strokes. There is not much variation in color; the child only used blue and gray. It appeared as though they were experimenting in different ways of using the paintbrush; up and down, round and round, zigzag. “Three year olds repeat the same kind of lines and shapes on top of each other, creating inadvertent order.” (Page 13)

Possible motivation: Explore what your brush can do. What kinds of shapes, lines, and dots can you make?

Comment to painter: “I see you chose to paint with blue and gray. There are lines on your paper that go up and down and side-to-side.”

b. Finding out about lines, shapes, and colors (In this stage, children age 3-5, have a greater understanding of graphic concepts. Their hand-eye coordination is more advanced, as is their understanding of lines, shapes, and colors. Their actions become slightly more direct.)

Description and Analysis: This child used red, blue, black, and orange paint. There is a thick, orange horizontal base shape that resembles a rectangle. On top of the orange base, there is a blob-like shape that is mostly red, with some mixing of black and a little blue. A few thin orange lines stick out of the right side of the entire shape as well as one floating above it.

I put this painting in the second sub-category of the first stage because the painter used “irregular and rambling shapes and also squares or rectangles.” (Page 24) They began mixing some colors on the paper, creating new colors, but still keeping some of the colors separate.

Possible motivation: What happens when you mix colors on your paper?

Comment to painter: “I see you mixed red, black, and orange on your paper. The mixing of the colors made a darker color, especially when you mixed black with red.

c. Design (In this stage, children age 4-6, use a more complex combination of lines, shapes, and colors. The arrangements of these various components really begin to stand out.)

Description and Analysis: This child used pink, purple, green, blue, and red circles. The same colored lines connect them. On top of the web-like design, there are multi colored, almost rainbow colored dots that go two parallel horizontal lines and trail off into one vertical line. On the bottom right corner, there is a yellow oval.

I put this painting in the third sub-category of the first page because the “the results of this concentration and deliberation are revealed in the careful order of their designs.” (Page 33) The child made the “configuration fit together as a whole on the paper.” (Page 32) The circles being connected with lines appeared to be such a deliberate design choice on the part of the painter. I additionally found the complex mixing of colors in the small dots quite pertinent to this stage of development.

Possible Motivation: What is a design? Think about the different components that can go into a design and use some of them today. Feel free to mix colors, as you like.

Comment to painter: “I see many circles on your page of different colors. You connected them with lines using the same colors. I see that you mixed some of those colors into the dots that line the top and side of your page.”

2. Simple Images (In this stage, children age 5-7, are able to use logical thought and have more organized minds. They tend to paint in general categories initially and then later add sub-categories such as gender. Indicators are additionally added to scenes that determine if they are depicting an indoor or outdoor scene.)

Description and Analysis: This child painted a blue sky, a yellow sun, yellow grass, and a brown and black leopard. The grass is made up of tall, parallel, vertical, yellow lines. The sky is made up of blue zig zaggy lines. The head is a square; the ears are small circles, the body, legs and tail and rectangles. The black spots are pretty evenly spaced throughout the animal.

I put this painting in the simple images category because the painter painted the “the essential parts of an object, relating them to the basic graphic elements they have learned (circle, rectangle, line, and dot) and assembling whole symbols…” (Page 59)

Possible motivation: What is your favorite animal?

Comment to painter: “I see you drew an animal with spots. It has a long tail. The sun is in the center of your painting. It’s very big and yellow.

3. Richer Symbols: Friends, Workers, City Streets (In this stage, children 7-9, have a larger range of interests and know about more things and places. They are hungry for knowledge and do not necessarily paint in perspective.)

Description and Analysis: This child painted a red dragon with orange fire coming out of its mouth. It is standing in front of a gray/blue/green castle with a small red flag on the top on it. They obviously mixed their own colors, creating an olive/yellow green, a pinkinsh red, and the previously mentioned gray/blue/green.

I put this painting in the Richer Symbols category because the painting is not in perspective. “In the representation of space children are still indifferent to the convention of perspective; nevertheless they design the whole paper as a unit of space.” (Page 77)All of the choices made in this painting appear to be deliberate and that the artist was clear about the object, in this case a dragon in front of a castle, they chose to paint.

Possible motivation: Paint animals with tails.

Comment to painter: “I see you mixed some of your own colors in this painting. What colors did you use to make the light green color? You used a lot of detail in the dragon, with the black lines on the wings, the horns, the fire, the blue eyes, and the arms and legs.

4. Metaphors and Styles: The Den of a Wolf, A Cat on a Cushion (In this stage, children age 9-11, begin to use metaphors in order to depict emotions or concepts. They show interest in specific styles of painting, shadowing, cartoons, and have a heightened awareness of perspective.)

Description and Analysis: This child painted a scene with two artists: a painter and a dancer. There is a sky-line with a vibrant choice of firey colors. The painter is in the front center o the pager and had facial attributes that depict contentment or happiness. The dancer is in the left side of the page and is in a familiar dance pose.

I put this painting in the Metaphors and Styles category because the painter clearly depicted emotion in the artist they painted. There is clearly a heightened sense of perspective that can be seen with the size of the easel in relation to the painter, as well as the smaller size of the dance that appear as though they are supposed to be more in the background. The fiery use of colors in the sky is vibrant and gives off a warm and inspiring feel.

Possible motivation: What is your favorite hobby?

Comment to painter: There is a lot of detail in your piece. The designs in the sweater, the paint colors on the easel, the highlights in the painter’s hair, and the vibrant colors of the sky.

5. Luna’s Painting Exploration

Description: Luna, age 3, used orange, black, red, green, purple, white, and yellow in this painting. The colors remained relatively separate. She painted the colors in thick horizontals lines on top of each other. The orange line surrounds the entire pile of lines. On the left bottom corner, she made orange dots that are slightly overlapping.

I put this painting in the second sub-category of the first stage of learning the elements because she used a vaiety of colors and similar shaped lines. “Often they try to keep the colors separate,” (Page 24) which she chose to do.

Motivation: I presented Luna with a new set of paints. Instead of giving her an idea of what to paint, I demonstrated a process of painting with different colors. First I dipped the paint into a specific color, painted with it, put the brush in water, dabbed it with a wet paper towel, and then chose a new color with the clean brush.