Malayas Drawing Analysis

Allie Smith
Michelle Livek
Art for Children: Red Block
March 4, 2015

Every child is an artist, Pablo Picasso once said. A couple weeks ago, I got to know a
more about my little sister, Malaya, as a young artist. Malaya is a first grader at Randolph
Elementary School and attends art class every week. When given the task to draw a self-portrait,
a picture of her family, or a picture of nature, Malaya chose to
draw a picture of her family. Based on her drawings
characteristics, her spatial representations, and human
representation characteristics, Malaya follows in to the early part
of the Schematic Stage of development.
According to the Brittain, a child in the schematic stage of
development might have a specific drawing characteristics such as
a piece that has bold, direct, flat representation and a piece that
shows concept, not perception (Brittain, p. 48).These two things
that I noticed are present in Malayas work. As she was drawing, Malaya gripped her pencil tight.
She drew clear and distinct lines when drawing the outline of the bodies and clothing. When I
asked her about the lines in her paper, Malaya stated the shapes of the bodies are important and
thats why she pressed down real hard so they would stand out. She knew that those features
needed to be distinct and clearly made perhaps because those are the features have structure to
them and dont change. When she drew the hair on each of the people, she had a looser grip. She
didnt give those features as much structure as she did with other features. I asked Malaya about
this. She confidently stated, Your hair is soft and it moves, Allie! See, as she shook her hair.
She continued by saying this is how you make it look like that. Malaya continued to draw her
picture in the brown colored pencil. Once she was finished, I asked her if she wanted to add
some other colors to her artwork. She shook her head no. Malaya said that it was perfect the way
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it was because we were together. This shows me that she is more focused on lines and the
message that she is conveying rather than the colors that she is used. These are two examples of
her drawing characteristics that correspond with the schematic stage of development.
Brittain also describes the schematic stages spatial representation characteristics, which
are consistent with Malayas artwork. One way that it matches the description is the fact that her
artwork has little to no overlapping figures. Other than the arms touching, Malaya had no
overlapping figures. This made me think back to when she was drawing the image. She would
carefully place each line and make sure that she had enough space to fit each of the details.
According to the article Learning to Draw: Nurturing the natural, this is referred to as the
Territorial Imperative Principle because the child allots to each its own inviolable space
(Learning, p. 60.) This shows that Malaya has a great spatial reasoning and tries to make her
drawing reflect that.

Brittain also describes the spatial representation characteristic of the placement of the
objects, which is present in the schematic stage. Malaya started her family portrait by pointing at
the center on the paper and saying there is where Im gonna start. When I asked her way there,
she said because everyone looks at the middle first. I proceeded to
watch her draw. After she completely finished the person that was in the
middle, she pointed at the little girl and excitedly said, Thats me! She
continued to say that she was in the middle because it was her family.
The placement represents her ownership and connection to the drawing
itself and the relationships that are represented in this piece, according
to Art Experience Develop Visual Perception (p. 9). This shows her intentional organization and
placement of objects, which is a characteristic of the schematic development stage.
Another aspect of the spatial representation is in the schematic stage of development and
Malayas artwork was the creation of two-dimensional organization of objects (Brittain, p. 48).
When she first pulled out her drawing notebook pad, she immediately went to
draw the outlines of every single body. She said that her art teacher told her that
you are supposed to build the bodies of people first. After Malaya created the
outlines, she built on the details of each of the people. For example, she drew a
mouth that was smiling then built on the lines of the lips to make the mouth look
more two dimensional. She did the same thing once she created the other features
such as the noses and eyes.
The final piece that is consistent with Brittains description of schematic stage of
development is the human representation aspects in Malayas artwork. According Brittain, a

person might see an exaggeration, omission, or change of schema shows effect of experiences
in a childs artwork, when they are in the schematic stage of development (Brittain 48). Malaya
was so excited when I first told her about this project because she wants to draw her family and
give it to us. She drew herself, our mom, and me. Then, she stopped. I found this particularly
interesting because she chose not to include certain people in the image. She left out her family
and our older sister, Kate. When I asked where these people were, she said they were gone.
Malaya said that it normally is just us so thats what she drew. This drawing showed how her
experiences affect the change of her schema of what a family looks like and why she chose to
omit those people.
Another aspect of human representation that is found in the schematic stage of
development is that proportions depend of emotional value (Brittain, p. 48). In Malayas
picture; I noticed an exaggeration of facial features on the picture of me and her. When I asked
her about the exaggerated lips and eyes, she initially stated that they
those features were hard to draw small. Malaya continued to say
that she also made the features on our faces larger than the ones on our
moms face because we always do make-up together. This is a piece
she exaggerated because of our experiences together, which
reflects the point that the proportions of a childs artwork depend on
emotional experiences. These are some examples in her work that
correspond with Brittains description of what might be reflective in a child in the schematic
stage of development.

After examining Malayas artwork, I learned about the different characteristics of the
schematic developmental stage. I also learned that there are several educational benefits that
spring from a teachers understanding of childrens art development. As a future teacher, I know
that looking over a students art work can be a wonderful way to get to know your students. You
can learn about how they see themselves and the world. Teachers can also use art as a way for
their students to reflect and make sense of the world around them. For example, a teacher can use
art to formatively assess students prior knowledge and identify what misconceptions the
students might have. A teacher then could use this to tailor lessons in a way that makes sense to
them as well as address and clear up the misconceptions that students have. A teacher can also
learn about what the student values and appreciates, like I did by analyzing my own sisters
work. Then, the teacher can relate the material that they are learning to their values. Without
having this knowledge and experience, teachers can miss out on a lot. They might not be able to
the fully understand the childs schema and perceptions of things. In addition to that, teachers
might not be able to fully choose age appropriate teaching strategies and content for the units
for their students (Luehrman, p. 66). These are some things that educators can gain by integrating
art into their classroom and taking the time to examine student work.

Works Cited
Art Experience Develop Visual Perception. Board of Education of Baltimore County, 1974. P. 9.
Brittain, W.L. & V. Lowenfeld.(1970) Creative and Mental Growth. New York, NY.
MacMillian Co. P. 476.
Learning to draw: Nurturing the natural. (2015). In LTC 4240: Art for Children (p. 60).
Columbia: Mizzou Publishing.
Luehrman, M., & Unrath, K. (2006, May 1). Making Theories of Children's Artistic
Development Meaningful for Pre-Service Teachers. Art Education, 66-66.