The developmental stages of learning to draw

A little while back, friends of mine visited with their toddler and after lunch we got the pencils out and did a wee bit of drawing. My friend, a talented musician, is rather less confident in the visual arts and asked how to foster drawing skills in her son. At the time I had to admit that I didn’t really know, other than to just encourage him to draw and explore. As a high school art teacher, I had little knowledge about the early stages of drawing. Later that week I started reading ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards and, coincidently, she writes of the artistic development of children.

I thought I would share this for anyone that may be interested in how to foster drawing skills in their children. It is also interesting to note the journey we each took as we learnt to draw and the stage at which we stopped.

The scribbling stage

From the age of about one and a half a child discovers making marks on paper. They learn that they can make a line come out of the end of a crayon and that they can control where that line goes. The sheer delight of this can send a child on a scribbling spree all over the walls as they master this new creative sorcery (I know I did!). Often the first scribble is a circular one, as this is an easy and natural movement, which is the basis for the next stage of faces.

The symbol stage

It doesn’t take long for children to make the discovery that a drawing can represent something in the world. A child will declare that their circular mark with dots for eyes is “Mummy” or “Daddy” or “me”. A child will progress to add lines for mouths, arms and legs, and this is a universal motif drawn by infants. The circular form can be used for almost anything. With slight variations is can turn into a flower, sun, crocodile or jellyfish. The drawing is whatever the child says it is, although there is usually some sort of characteristic included to communicate their idea. My friend’s son drew a kangaroo with a long tail. Betty Edwards write in her book that she believes ‘one of the main functions of the symbolic drawing stage of childhood is to enhance language acquisition’. So it's not all about drawing!

By the age of three or four the symbols become more complex. Children start to understand that a body is attached to the head and begin to draw the arms and legs coming from the body rather than the head. They perceive more details such as buttons on clothes. I remember my sister did a drawing of my dad, depicting thick, wavy lines on my dad’s forehead. ‘What are they, April?’ ‘Oh, they are dad’s worry lines!’ Other details were completely ignored, but this is normal during this stage. A child will develop favourite images and refine them. They are memorized and are remarkably stable over time.

The narrative stage

At age four or five the child will use drawings as a way to tell stories or solve problems. A child may make adjustments to emphasize the most important part of the drawing, for example, drawing a large, swooping arm on their sister to represent how their sister was angry and hit them.

The landscape stage

By five or six, children have developed enough symbols to create their own landscape. Most children’s landscapes come with a house, a tree and a sun (perhaps the iconic corner sun). Many children position their house on the bottom edge of the paper, as the know the ground is on the bottom and the sky is at the top. This arrangement reflects this understanding.

The stage of complexity

By age nine or ten children want to see greater realism and detail in their art. Whole scenes are discarded and a greater emphasis is put on favourite subjects. Despite showing more complexity, these drawings are often less assured than the confident landscape drawings made of symbols. At this stage we see a split in boys and girls choice for subject matter. Boys draw cars, rockets, monsters and heroes. Girls tend to draw flowers, waterfalls and pretty girls with elaborate hairstyles.

The stage of realism

By ten or eleven, a child’s desire for realism is in full force. Children exclaim that their drawing won’t come out right, which means it doesn’t look real. This is usually where a good art teacher makes all the difference. Children need to break out of what they think they see (the memorized symbols from childhood) and learn to draw from observation. Many art teachers wish for children to be freer and more imaginative in their work at this stage – including myself until I read this. It appears that this is going against the natural development of drawing and we should be fostering realistic drawing skills in children when they are wanting them. What the child wants is to know about light and shadow, perspective and form. If a child cannot learn to draw realistically at this age, many will give up on it completely, thinking that drawing is a talent they don’t possess. Sadly, they will never progress onto adult drawings. Perhaps this was the case for you.

Children will naturally learn to draw if they are encouraged to do so. Provide them some tools and they are likely to explore the stages of drawing all by themselves. Talking to them about their pictures and symbols can be a great encouragement too. Of course, you could always pick up a crayon and have a go!

Until next time,

Erin