Patterns of Artistic Development in Children : Comparative Studies of Talent

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Summary: Explaining Artistic Talent
Review: Based on a developmental study of children's drawings, this landmark book proposes an integrated model to explain differences between artistically talented and less talented children: Talented children ". . . see largely with their eyes rather than with their minds" whereas less talented children see primarily with their minds rather than their eyes. Because they "see" rather than think the scenes they draw, from an early age artistically talented children produce pictures characterized by greater richness, surface detail, and variety of viewpoints. In contrast, less talented children tend to repeat stereotyped pictorial formulae. This study shows how the active visual-sensorimotor adaptation to the world and the superior visual memories of artistically talented children allow them to experience continual coordination of their visual (figurative) and sensorimotor drawing procedures with their conceptual development. This superior coordination allows them to continue to develop their artistic abilities whereas less talented children, who lack this continuing coordination, become increasingly less motivated to draw as they recognize their own limited ability to depict the world. This study supports figurative hypotheses rather than the accelerated (operative) development hypotheses of artistic development.