Child Art
Pseudorealistic Stage (11 to 13 years)
By Lois E. Wilson, Senior Scribe
Former Art Education Instructor, Miami University 

Children enter a stage in which they have developed enough intelligence to tackle most problems, but in their reactions, they are still children. They know the uses of a pencil but will pretend it is an airplane and make motor sounds as they move it through the air.  An adult doing the same would be considered strange. To adults, a pencil is just a pencil. The child’s imaginative activity is unconscious but changing to critical awareness. It is a challenge to prepare children to create in ways so that they look with pride on their work. 

In the previous stages of making art, the process involved was most important to the child. Now the product becomes most important. Some children show a clear preference for visual stimuli while others are more concerned with the interpretation of subjective experiences. The visual types concentrate more on the whole trying to depict optical effects such as light, space, and color as they are observed. Scenes are drawn as if they are spectators looking from the outside. This is apparent in the horse illustration. Non-visual types feel subjectively involved in their work and will often omit the environment around a drawing and concentrate on the emotional aspects as in the football illustration in which the player is being instructed by the coach. 

This difference is also true in the way each type depicts objects in space and the proportions of objects and figures. It should be noted that even visual types at times have emotional reactions to scenes, objects, and colors depending upon their experiences. Children are more likely to keep their positive attitude toward art if projects consider these differences and provide for them in approaches to work. The child is progressing toward critical awareness; it is important to help each bridge the gap gradually to an adult attitude.