Drawing Stages in Children’s Artistic Development

Developing creativity in today’s digital world is more important than ever. There are less and less things we need to find solutions for because we have all kinds of technology help. Creativity and creative thinking starts with drawing.  Drawing is always a time well spent, because it is not just fun, it helps children express their emotions, personality, imagination. It it also very important for fine motor skills and coordination. Every child develops differently which is influenced by motor skills, experience and provided opportunities. Nevertheless, there are several basic drawing stages when we talk about children’s artistic development.

Drawing Stages

• Scribble drawing stage (1-3 years)

At this stage children start getting to know the notion of drawing. They enjoy scribbling and even though those drawings have no recognizable shapes the fact they are leaving marks and traces on paper, furniture or walls gives them pleasure. Random hand movements start turning to symbols after some time, usually circular. Children at this stage use their whole arm to draw and they use their whole fist to hold the pencil.

With Boya crayons the whole surface of the crayon is a tool and there is no incorrect grip. Image @nokoncept

• Symbolism stage (3-6 years) – pre-shematic and schematic stage

At this drawing stage children start connecting their drawing to things they are familiar with. Their main motifs are people, houses, flowers, cars. They still don’t have the sense of space so drawings are scattered all over the paper. Artistic expression is the mirror of their imagination and relationship towards things that surround them and it should not be evaluated as successful or unsuccessful.

• Emotional realism drawing stage (7-10 years)

This drawing stage is often referred to as the golden stage of children’s artistic development. Drawing is based on observing what surrounds them. Understanding spatial relations between objects is more advanced but drawings are still filled with imaginative world and relations between objects are emotionally based – what they find important will be the biggest.

• Visual realism drawing stage (11-15 years)

At this stage children are familiar with proportions and spacial relations, but emphases is on technique and not on originality and creativity of artistic expression.

Encourage children to draw, talk about their works of art and don’t correct their shapes because they don’t look quite right to you. Offer them different supplies and techniques and of course, try Boya crayons!

Show us your kid’s drawings!”Send us your drawings to boya.social@gmail.com, post to our fb page or your IG with a hashtag #weheartboya. We will publish our favorites and we just might send some of you some Boya crayons!