The development of children's drawings is a fascinating journey that reflects their cognitive, emotional, and creative progress. From the initial scribbles of a toddler to the more detailed and complex artworks of an older child, the progress in children's drawings is an important indicator of their overall development.
During the early stages, typically between the ages of one and three, children engage in what is known as scribbling. These scribbles may appear random and uncontrolled, but they serve as a way for young children to explore their motor skills and experiment with how to hold and manipulate drawing tools. These early marks are often accompanied by a great sense of excitement and joy as children discover the magical connection between their movements and the traces they leave behind. In terms of composition, this phase is characterized by random repetition and palimpsest of visual elements, leading to what is known as unbound composition, where the format is not yet constrained in any direction.
As children enter the preschool years, around the ages of three to four, they begin their first attempts at representing reality or interpreting it in a more symbolic manner. Basic shapes such as circles, squares, and variously oriented lines start to emerge. This phase is called the pre-schematic stage of symbolic drawing and random realism, as children often depict themselves and others as simple figures with big heads and small bodies (stick figures). They also incorporate elements from their immediate environment, such as houses, trees, and animals, which they can label and name. During this period, a clear distinction between figure and background appears. We still refer to it as unbound composition, but various centers start to organize within it.
As children progress into elementary school, around the ages of six to eight, their drawings become more detailed and complex, entering the stage of schematic symbolic drawing. They begin to understand the concept of proportions, adding more details and body parts to their figures. In this phase, children's drawings often reflect their developing observational skills and their ability to depict objects more accurately. The relationship between shapes and the format itself becomes apparent. The format is closed at the top and bottom, and a baseline appears on which shapes are placed, often without overlapping or gradation. Children tend to arrange these shapes in strips, leading to the emergence of strip-bound composition.
Further development of children's awareness of composition and pictorial space, which culminates in adolescence, leads to the formation of clear concepts about the visual nature of space. With teenagers, typically between the ages of nine to eleven, children's drawings continue to evolve and become more realistic and refined. This is the stage where some children develop specific interests or styles in drawing, exploring different techniques, themes, and media. It is a period when some children show a talent for visual arts and engage with it more seriously. Children become aware of perceptual constancies such as overlapping, gradation, and foreshortening and can apply them in their drawings. The format is closed on all sides, opening up drawing space and giving the child the opportunity for infinite manipulation in their drawing.
In my thesis, I explored the art composition in children's drawings. In the theoretical part, I discuss the concept of drawing space and composition, compositional characteristics and types, and when they occur. In the second part, I explore the stages of children's drawing development and the specific characteristics that help determine the stage at which a child is. In the empirical part, through the analysis of children's drawings, I researched how art composition is shown in children's drawings and how it changes at different stages of children's drawing development.
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