Narrative Account of Child's Art Making
For my narrative account of a child’s art making I chose to observe my cousins, DJ and Corey during the Thanksgiving break. DJ and Corey are only one year apart in school yet the only thing they have in common is their red hair and freckles. DJ is the youngest of four children and through the years has come up with a variety of creative ways to get noticed. He is a ten year old fifth grade boy who loves to participate in sports. He attends the Catholic school right across the street from his house where he is on their football and basketball teams. DJ is a confident kid who does well in school. He participates in the Christmas play every year and never seems to be nervous performing. During school he can be a bit of a troublemaker, but because of his good sense of humor he never gets into much trouble from his teachers. He is a very outgoing and friendly kid who gets along with everyone. Due to this he has a lot of friends and often would be out the door en route to a friend’s house as soon as our lesson ended.
In contrast Corey is a much different kid. Corey is the second youngest in the family. He is twelve years old and in sixth grade. He was held back a year in school and this is his first year being mainstreamed into classes with his peers. Everyday he gets on a bus and goes to the public school in his district. Corey only has one friend outside of school that he plays with. This friend does not live within walking distance so it is hard for Corey to play with him often. Corey spends a lot of his free time playing video games or watching television with his cousin who is in college. He also loves to play cards and is known to win money from his older cousins when playing poker. He also loves bowling and spending time with his family. Over Thanksgiving Break I learned a lot about DJ and Corey while observing them making art.
On my first visit with the boys I planned on having them work with watercolors to paint a picture from the Polar Express. I began the session by talking with them about the Polar Express. Both of them had read the book but neither of them had seen the movie yet. I read the book out loud to them, stopping to discuss some of the pictures. When I was done I told them that we were going to paint a picture from the book using watercolors. DJ immediately said that he had never used watercolors before while Corey explained that he had used them tons of times at school. I then explained that first we were going to sketch our drawing using a pencil and then we were going to paint. After explaining this, Corey turned to DJ and said, “I love to sketch, it’s like an outline.” He then drew some lines on a scratch piece of paper to show DJ what he meant.
Corey then asked if he had to draw something from the book. I told him that he didn’t and he immediately began to start drawing without even looking at the book. Corey knew exactly what he wanted to draw even before I read the book. He had it in his mind that he wanted to draw a car as soon as I told him what we were going to do that day. DJ on the other hand, skimmed through the book but could not find anything he wanted to draw. We discussed him maybe drawing something with a Christmas theme but he decided to draw a turkey instead. His older sister, who is a sophomore at the nearby Catholic high school, suggested that he trace his hand to make the turkey. He thought about it for a moment and then decided that tracing his hand was a good idea. After tracing his hand he added a beak, some eyes, and feet to the picture to make it look more like a turkey. Although DJ used a common method of drawing a turkey he put a lot of effort into making it his own turkey. In the Article Meaningful Children’s Art Zurmuehlen states, “…Stereotypes are so damaging. They deny an individual the opportunity for finding personal meaning in his experience” (Zurmuehlen, 1974). He then sketched some grass on the bottom of the paper and said he was ready to paint. His mom then suggested that he add more detail so he added a spoon, fork, and knife besides the turkey. In Zurmuehlen’s article she asks, “Did the idea originate with the child or with the teacher? Who made most of the decisions about the work?” (Zurmuehlen, 1974) With DJ, the decision to make the turkey was his own but how to draw it was his sisters. He did though make the final decisions about how to color the turkey. In the Zurmuehlen article she says that the person making the choices is the one that is learning and I think DJ did learn something from his art.
While working with Corey and DJ I noticed that Corey seemed to be more comfortable with the materials because he had worked with them before. Corey told me that he really likes his art class and often draws on his own. At the Catholic school where DJ attends they rarely have art class and at first DJ looked to Corey to see what he should do. According to the article Transforming Curriculum in the Visual Arts, “Children who seem to be the most competent in art of those who have had the most opportunities to explore and inquire into art processes, materials, and ideas at home or in school” (Thompson, 1995). I could tell that Corey has had more art classes then DJ by what they decided to draw and how comfortable they were with the materials. Corey was much more comfortable with the materials then DJ. Corey loved that he was more knowledgeable than DJ was about art and this seemed to really increase his confidence.
On my second visit with the boys I decided to make the lesson less structured and allow them to decide what to do. I brought with me a bunch of computer paper, construction paper, scissors, glue, and tempera paints. I instructed them to create what ever they wanted using the materials I brought with me. DJ and Corey both grabbed for a pair of scissors and began cutting. After DJ was done cutting his third piece of computer paper into shreds he noticed that the last piece of paper he cut looked like a mask. He immediately started to paint the mask using yellow, orange, and red. He painted it so that both sides were identical and then poked holes in the side for string.
DJ liked that his mom had hung his first picture in the window for the Thanksgiving party so I think that is why he created another Thanksgiving themed picture. Out of the two pictures that he created he seemed to really admire the mask he made. I often saw him glance over and look at it. Out of the three pictures DJ drew thus far the mask was the one that did not follow the Thanksgiving theme. He came up with the image completely on his own and that is why I think he liked the mask the most.
When presented with the supplies Corey also began to cut out shapes from construction paper. Most of the shapes Corey cut out were varying sizes of ovals. He was baffled at first about what he was going to do with all these shapes that he had cut out but after playing around with them for a while he came up with a great idea for a picture. He placed the smaller oval in the middle of a bigger oval and noticed that it looked like a football field. He explained that the outer oval was where the fans sat and the smaller one was the field. He glued the two ovals together and then glued those onto another piece of paper. He then drew goal post on both sides of the field and lines on the field. He also drew and cut out an oversized football to be placed next to the field.
I was surprised that Corey had decided to create a football scene for his picture because he told me he doesn’t really like football. I think he decided to create a football scene because it was familiar to him. He had spent the last few months watching his brothers numerous football games so the image of a football field was fresh in his mind.
Corey likes to create images that are personal to him. He takes things that are ordinary and puts his own special features on them making them unique. It is so great! It is so interesting to hear him talk about his drawings because he is so passionate about them. I think when Corey was creating the turkey he was reluctant to be as creative as maybe he wanted to be because his brother was there.
On the third and final day I decided to have the boys use crayons to create a picture. I brought along with me a huge box of crayons and white construction paper. I explained to the boys that we were going to create a picture by using crayons in a way they hadn’t before. I told them that first we were going to cover the whole paper with different bright colored crayons and then color over the whole piece of paper with black crayon. When we were done we would use a sharp edge to etch an outline of a picture.
After explaining the directions DJ began working right away. Corey waited awhile and watched what DJ was doing first. He then proceeded to grab a handful of crayons from the box and began to draw. As they colored in the paper they worked pretty silently. Halfway through the coloring of the paper DJ did turn to Corey and told him he needed to press harder. DJ and Corey both stopped a few times in between saying that their hand hurt from pressing so hard.
This was my least favorite art project I did with the boys. While working the boys did not seem to be having as much fun as they did while working on the other projects. I think this project was too structured and left little too the imagination. They both complained that their hands hurt from pressing so hard on the crayons and when they were done they seemed relieved rather then excited.
DJ and Corey were pretty consistent with the artwork they created. Corey liked drawing cars and tried to stick with that concept throughout his art projects. This holds true for a lot of young children. According to Thompson, “Young children tend to modify their ideas for visual expression by creating series works on a single theme” (Thunder – McGuire 1994). Corey and DJ both were flexible with what they were creating. They often changed their original sketch idea if they saw something else in the picture. When drawing Corey paid more attention to detail while DJ looked at more of the big picture. They both did an amazing job and I had such a great experience creating these projects with them. When they were done I asked them what their favorite art project was and they both said that it was when they got to paint using watercolors. I think they both enjoyed this project because for DJ, it was new and exciting. I think Corey enjoyed it as much as he did because it was familiar to him.
I learned a lot from doing theses art projects with my cousins. I am glad that I worked with both of them because it helped to see two different creations stemming from the same idea. Going into my classroom I will take with me that children need to be given choices. Choices allow for an authentic learning experience to take place. They were more involved in the projects where they had the most choice. Children need the opportunity to choose what they want to create to learn the most out of the experience.
Bibliography
Thompson, Christine. (1995) Visual Arts and Early Childhood Learning: Changing
Context and Concepts. NAEA: Reston.
Zurmuehlen, M. (1974) Meaningful Children’s Art. School and Community, March, p. 12-13, 33.