Recognizing the Child

Gifted and Talented in Visual Art

by Mary Codd

While many people recognize gifted children as those who excel in language arts and mathematics,
the identification of students with potential or demonstrated talent in the arts has been included in
federally legislated definitions of giftedness or talent since 1972 (Marland, 1972). In its definition of
the gifted and talented the government specifies that these children are to be identified by
professionally qualified persons as being capable of high performance in the visual arts.
Unfortunately, neither "high performance" nor "qualified persons" are easily defined.

The recent report from the U.S. Department of Education, National Excellence: A Case for
Developing America's Talent (1993), includes the following definition of students with outstanding
talent. "Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performing at
remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience or
environment. These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative,
and/or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields.
They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools." Once again, "high
performance" is not defined.

In an effort to clarify what "high performance" means when speaking of children with outstanding
talent in the visual arts this web page presents the findings of research on the behavioral traits and
characteristics of visually gifted children's artwork, and on the artistic perceptual/cognitive processes
of talented students in the arts.

A study conducted by Marion Porath, addressed the question

of the ways in which gifted young artists are the same as or
different from their average peers by investigating artistic
ability from a developmental perspective.

Children in the study produced drawing which were judged

by three practicing artists who are also art educators. The
judges based their determination of the outstanding pieces of
artwork on the following characteristics:

 design and composition;

 technique, including tonal development,
 representation of movement and elaboration of
form;
 advanced schema for human figure,
 a strong sense of individuality; and inventiveness.

A thirteen year old's wire sculpture uses

simplicity of line to express movement.

In her report Porath also included the findings of research conducted by other researchers. Those studies showed
that age-related trends were apparent in the central spatial structures used by young gifted artists, and
developmental patterns also were evident in color use, composition, and core elements in human figure drawing.
Artistic giftedness includes qualitative differences from the norm, such as: expressive use of line and shape,
originality in composition, and sensitivity to line and color. Gifted young artists may demonstrate accelerated
ability to deal with perspective. Depicting perspective and artistic abilities appear to be different from spatial
problem solving abilities. Some children gifted in the visual arts demonstrate advanced development, while most
attain new levels of development at approximately the same time as average children, but apply their new
capabilities more flexibly, extensively, and deeply.

Elaboration and accomplished technique (tonal development, representation of movement) and visual maturity, or
detailed representation of objects, were qualities demonstrated by young visually gifted children which are typical
of older children or adolescents.

Gifted child artists can demonstrate their talents in different ways, and it is important to realize that not every
product they produce will be outstanding. The use of multiple criteria for identifying gifted children is important
because students of different ages and backgrounds may respond differently to artistic tasks.
Educators who identify gifted children using Renzulli's "Three-Ring Conception of
Giftedness" look for children who demonstrate, or have the potential for demonstrating, above
average ability, creativity, and task commitment. Hurwitz believes that for the visually gifted child
three aspects of intelligence come in to play: intellectual, creative, and attitudinal, which sounds
very much in line with Renzulli's definition. However, Hurwitz goes on to say that he believes "high
visual ability, rests largely on intensity and commitment. Whatever most children are capable of
accomplishing, the gifted surpass in quality, love of work, and amount of time spent."

Characteristics of the Visually Gifted

Two sets of characteristics are associated with visually talented children: behavioral traits and
characteristics of their artwork. It is not likely that a child will have all of the characteristics listed
below, but a child who possesses special talent in art will probably exhibit many or even most of
them.

Behavioral Traits

 Early Evidence
Children who are gifted in art usually begin
young.
 Emergence Through Drawing
Drawing dominates for several reasons: the
accessibility of the media, because it can convey
detailed information about a subject, and because
it is a more difficult task to perform with a
paintbrush.
 Rapidity of Development
The gifted child often traverse the stages of visual
development at an accelerated pace.
 Extended Concentration
Visually gifted children stay with an art project
longer than other children, and they see more
possibilities in the task they have selected or been
assigned.
 Self-Directedness
Visually gifted children often prefer drawing to
other forms of entertainment and have the drive
to work on their own.
 Possible Inconsistency with Creative
Behavior
Although risk-taking is a characteristic typically
associated with creative people, gifted students
are often hesitant to experiment in a new area if Talent is evidenced at an early age, usually
they have achieved a certain level of mastery in an through drawing. This almost five year old's
idiom. attention to detail and use of mixed media is
 Fluency of Idea and Expression unusual in a child so young.
From middle elementary age on, visual and
conceptual fluency is a particularly significant
characteristic because it is closest to the behavior
of a trained artist.
 Calculating Capacity
This term, coined by Howard Gardner, is a
superior ability to utilize past information in new
contexts. For instance, a visually gifted child who
has achieved a certain level of mastery in figure
drawing can use that ability to render figures in
other situations.
Characteristics of the Artwork

 Verisimilitude
Children gifted in art develop the desire and the ability
to depict people and other subjects from their
environment at an earlier age than other children.
 Compositional Control
The elements of composition, color, space and
movement are handled with greater sensitivity by
visually gifted students.
 Complexity and Elaboration
Intellectual development is connected to the ability to
relate information and observations about objects.
Sensitivity to detail and the use of memory are directly
related to complexity and elaboration.
 Memory and Detail
Even young gifted children are interested in detail and
are more inventive in their drawings and sculpture than
other children.
 Sensitivity to Art Media
The visually gifted child is more likely to explore and
experiment with media, and achieve technical control,
which results in a more elegant finished product. This is
especially noticeable from upper elementary age on. A collage by a 12 year old utilizing
 Random Improvisation the elements of composition:
Doodling and improvising with the effects of lines, texture, shape, placement,
shapes, and patterns are a favorite activity of the pattern, and contrast.
visually gifted child. The gifted child uses her ability to
invent, depict, and describe to create meaning.

Note: Giftedness need not be demonstrated in every product for

a child to be identified as visually gifted.

Students with artistic talent exhibit above average ability in the following artistic
perceptual/cognitive processes:

Artistic Thinking Skills

 Perceptual Discrimination:
the ability to perceive and differentiate through the senses with
acute awareness.

Perceptual Discrimination Artistic knowing begins with fine-tuned

sensory awareness. Young visual artists view the world with acuity,
aware of dimensions of space, color, and textures unseen by those
who simply look.

 Metaperception:
the perceptual/cognitive process of internally manipulating
perceptions with expression.

Metaperception is the artistic parallel to metacognition, a term used

to describe mental monitoring in cognitive thinking. This artistic
knowing or intelligence, has been referred to as thinking with an
aesthetic sense, qualitative responsiveness or qualitative
intelligence.
A thirteen year old's drawing
of a model from life in a
 Creative Interpretation:
the process of reworking and refining metaperceptive decisions figure drawing class shows
resulting in a unique, personalized statement. an understanding of proportion
and the relation of wholes
As a student works metaperceptively through an art medium, the to parts.
artistic interpretive process ultimately unfolds. The more the
student reworks and refines her work in the arts, the more artistic
the interpretation.