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Keaton Adams
Art for Children
Professor Livek
February 23, 2015

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Walker Campbell, the six-year-old phenomenon, created a

masterpiece. Scribbles, loops, and spirals, oh my! The subtle
imperfections are what make Walkers craft a masterpiece. Itd be safe
to say that many would look at his work and not acknowledge the
prowess of this mighty performer. Instead of seeing scribbles one must
adjust their vision and perspective to that of a progressive transition.
The twenty basic scribbles are the building blocks of art, and they are
important because they permit a detailed and comprehensive
description of the work of young children. (Kellogg 15). How accurate
is this appreciation of effort from our young Da Vincis! There are quite
a few of these signature scribbles that emerge in Walkers labor.
Overall I find much hope, effort, and creativity from this boy who
simply drew what he saw and I plan to investigate the artistic
meanings within the lines.
The parchment used was a regular old piece of paper. A blank
piece of paper is the beginning of the creativity. Im enamored by the
past and timeline of the blank sheet. From epic novels to impressive
doodles the sheet of paper is the start of a revolution of boredom and
dullness. The setting in which this paper sat was a table where there
were some fruit items and his father sitting at the table across from
Walker. He started with the table. This table in reality had four legs, but
before I positively critique his penmanship Id like to acknowledge the

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environment where he drew. Sitting with his father, like mentioned
above, we asked him to draw whatever he wished. He did so. With
three year little sister throwing stuff left and right and her proudly
vocalizing her thoughts may have distracted young Walker.

Mrs. Campbell was preparing dinner as we briefly watched Walker

eloquently illustrate his perspective of the room. His weapon of choice
for the sheet was a black ballpoint pen, we did have a couple crayons
but he didnt want to mix pen and crayon, which I understood. Walker
seemed stressed for time as does every six year who would rather be
playing with his sister or running around the house causing mayhem.
Most tables have four legs as the support but when drawing two
dimensionally its clearly not simple to specifically show the other 2
hind legs, especially from the horizontal view of the art. In the booklet,
five to seven year old drawings have a wide variety of formations. Most
animals have four legs, yet you cannot see each leg in the some of the
drawings. Most of the sketches actually have four drawn out legs but
not all. This is where Walker relates. He either simply does not know
how to draw the other remaining legs or wants his dad and me to see
his art from an angle. Interestingly enough, this angle supports his
sketch of the items and people at the table. This way he was able to
give us more detail as to what he wanted to depict to us. Space
seems to surround child (Lowenfeld 48). The draft doesnt specifically

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shape around Walker but is key to point that Walker is the only thing
shaded and is first at the table. I appreciate this self-perspective. He
drew himself after the table and started with other items and people
next. Distortion and omission of body parts is clear here as well as he
is clearly in the Preschematic stage of human figure representation. He
didnt want to include any hands or feet. I do realize now that his
shading shows emphasis of color that his shirt is navy since he was
wearing a darker shirt than his father. The other parts of the sketch are
just as intriguing!

Walker, Mr. Campbell, chair (with high chair), and a cup

respectively from left to right represent this sketch. The characteristics
of the pattern stage are palpable in Walkers piece (booklet 53). Lines
and shapes are combined to form... objects. This is the beginning of
developing personal symbols (Booklet 53). His visual of his father
shows there are aspects of his dad that he attempted to show the

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person seeing his work.

The hat his father wearing is

square-ish shape, legs are represented as small rectangle, and his

upper body is an imperfect circle, also known as scribble number
twenty. His sisters chair in addition to the supplemental high chair
shows he cares for her sister by including a part of her. It is interesting
to notice that the high chair is the only thing that intersects lines.
Although accidentally he intersected the right leg to the table but this
has no purpose for Walker. Yet it does show development needed. It
must denote height over the table; this gives us the reader of this
sketch another vivid angular perspective. What a genius! By merely
seeing this art form, it makes me envious for a follow up or a monthly
timeline of his work similar to that of Heidis horse.
Potentially, I could see many parts of a where Im from poem
being displayed just through this planned doodling. Possibly through
more artwork one could grasp Walkers evolution as a artist. Evolveto develop gradually (Silverstein 7). Is this not the goal of art or
history or even education? Without evolving students will never be able
deepen understandings or build upon such practices. Silverstein and
the Heidis horse video correlate so well in the development feature of
art. A school of life video gave our class several points as to what is art
for. One of them was that art helps us appreciate things. Walker openly
appreciates his dark shirt and his cup of water along with his dad with

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his hat. The specific detail on his father indicates love and appreciation
(The School of Life video).
Walker seemed to have no explanation for his work. Either he
was shy or he was bluntly honest. Both are viable options. I did not
want to push his thoughts for I want him to express freely his art. When
his father and I asked why he chose the table, just because was his
quick answer. He was able to spit out what item, though few, was
which. He was very dominant that I knew it was his dads Chiefs hat in
the drawing. I could tell by the way he glanced at his dad when
drawing he looked up to him and followed his interested almost
identically. So amazing how you can see respect just through a couple
squiggly lines.
My findings proved matching with the booklet in relation with the
scribble section. Without development of artwork, there would be no
progress and no enhancement. Its a shame classrooms work on a
project then move to the next. I wish students could critique and go
over or redo some parts of their effort as they go from project to
project. In the every day classroom, Id encourage to have a first day
and last day drawing of either the same moment or two differing parts
they loved about the semester/year. The same drawing would show
how much they learned; the different items could be drawn to show
what values were important to them at the beginning and now at the
end of the year. I highly recommend elementary education majors to

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support conversation as they work with young artists. This way
students can join speech, thought, and art together and engage each
side of the brain. Pink really pushes for the right brain experiences. As
he should! The potency of the two sides working together strenuously
is dangerously incredible stuff. The bottom line is that if students
cannot show development in artistic stages like Self Expression or the
Age of Reason then odds are the students didnt develop much
progress in other core classes. I hope they did, but its difficult to
fathom such a hypocritical situation. Its almost a joke how little I didnt
want to incorporate art in classes. I was scared of my own work!
Everything to do with art isnt drawing; most students become
instantly more creative when trying to express their learning
advancements outside of words. Mind Maps, collographs, and
complimenting selfies with art are just a few of the resources that Ive
experienced that will be transitioned into my future classrooms!

References
1) BoardofEducation,O.(1974).Artexperiencedevelopvisual

perspective.1,2,3,41,2,3,4.

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2)Kellogg,R.(1970).Readingsindevelopmentalpsychologytoday.
PaloAlto,Calif.:CRMBooks.
3)Lowenfeld,V.,&Brittain,W.(1964).Creativeandmentalgrowth
(4thed.,pp.474479).NewYork:Macmillan.
4)Pink,D.(2006).Awholenewmind:Whyrightbrainerswillrule
thefuture.NewYork:RiverheadBooks.