Between 1-1/2 and 2 years old, children reach the scribbling stage of drawing when they draw for the pure pleasure of putting marks on the page instead of trying to portray a realistic drawing. After about six months, scribbles begin to take on orderly shapes -- usually circles at first -- after which children will progress toward assigning names for their scribbles.
Around 3 years of age, children begin to cultivate the ability to make a symbol with their drawings, such as a circle with vertical lines to represent a person. When children are 4 to 5 years old, they begin to tell stories about their drawings. Many children find drawing therapeutic at this time in their lives as they create pictures that tell the story of their own problems or dreams. During the pre-schematic stage, children have little awareness of space and will choose colors they feel are emotionally appropriate rather than choosing realistic colors.
When children reach approximately 6 years of age, they have definite ideas about how objects should look in their drawings, reflecting their knowledge of the world. They have also cultivated a sense of space relationships in their drawings. A typical drawing for a 6-year-old child will show a blue streak at the top of the page representing a sky with a yellow sun and a green streak at the bottom representing the grass. Children in the schematic stage may not have an understanding of size relationship or perspective, where houses can be smaller than people or flowers are the same size as animals and they all are placed on one base line.
Between 8 or 9 and 10 or 11 years old, children begin to realize there is far more detail in their world than they had previously noted. They begin to understand horizons and depth and are concerned with making their drawings more detailed and realistic, often comparing their work with peers with a critical eye. Children this age may become frustrated when they feel their drawings are not realistic enough or do not "measure up" to their expectations. Also called the gang stage, children have begun to develop more group relationships and self-awareness as they realize that art is a process that can be done well.
As children near their teen years, they become more critical in their attempts to produce naturalistic artwork. While they try to draw light and shadow and motion, some 12-year-olds will give up on the idea of art when their work fails to meet their high expectations. This stage marks the difference between young artists who continue art through adolescence and those who give up during this crisis of learning. Students reaching the crisis stage have come more concerned with the product of their artwork instead of the process of creating the work.
Once art students reach 14 to 16 years of age, they must work to improve upon natural ability as they complete the developmental stages of art. A teenager will continue to learn and grow as an artist if she pushes herself to practice and learn, but natural development is complete.