A study on creative drawing strategies based on the human head features in children's realistic figure drawings

Abstract

Creative strategies used in drawing practice determine the visual effects of drawing. Drawing strategies reflect children's understanding, association, and summarisation of the visual features of objects. In the case of the human head, visual features are composed of positional, contour, and structural features. This study assessed the creative strategies of children aged 7–12 years based on their drawings of the visual features of the eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and neck in realistic figures. Children's strategies for creating visual features of the human head were classified into four types: hidden, abstract, summarised, and realistic. The results showed that most children used abstract creation strategies to represent the visual features of the nose and mouth in their drawings. Most children expressed the visual features of the eyes and neck using summarised creative strategies. A few children applied realistic creative strategies to draw the visual features of eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Children used simplified structural features as a strategy to understand the visual features of the human head before creating their drawings. Most of the children tended to express the overall features of the human head with less curvature or number of contour lines in their drawings. Children regard the eyes and mouth as the major elements when drawing the visual features of the human head. Children regard eyebrows, noses, and ears as secondary elements expressing human heads. Accordingly, teachers need to educate children to understand and summarise the visual features of these secondary elements. Teachers also need to guide children in converting the visual elements from their understanding to the graphical elements in drawings.