Abstract :
This study focuses on behavior associated with young art
students’ developing artistic talent (skills and art-making
behavior) and creativity (personal expressions of visual
information). The study examines the role of personal expertise
in a student’s development of problem finding, domainspecific
technical skill, perseverance, evaluation, and creative
ideation. The study compares 30 experienced art students’
artistic processing and products with those of 29 novice art
students. Both groups are 7- through 11-year-olds. The author
recorded participants’ behavior as they created drawings in
two contexts — from imagination and from life — and three
adult artists then assessed the technical skill and creativity
revealed in the drawings. Multivariate analyses of the variables
associated with the drawing products and processes offer
evidence of the changes related to the students’ developing
expertise in both novice and experienced groups.
This study finds that the drawing situation (life or imagination)
interacts clearly with the relationships among hypothesized
components of creativity, gender, and predictors of
expertise. Technical skill, perseverance, modifications, and
creativity in drawings from life were significant predictors of
expertise. Modifications, efficient problem finding, and creativity
in drawings from imagination were additional significant
predictors of expertise. Gender was found to be a measurable
factor in both the artistic process and the assessments of drawings
from imagination. The findings are discussed within the
context of three conceptions: artistic talent, developing creativity,
and art education.
