Analysis of Selections from “Teaching Talented Art Students”
Chapter 2:
This is a book for teachers and administrators on identifying, teaching, and guiding “talented art students”. This includes everything from misconceptions of a “talent” to a curriculum to actually employ. More importantly is the second chapter, where the authors discuss identifying said students.
It outlines a test called the Clark’s Drawing Abilities Test which requires the participant to create four specific drawings of specific scenes, and these are ranked by his/her art teacher as “below average”, “average”, and “above average”. Unfortunately the criteria for these ratings are not listed here, but I did find them in another paper. The tasks and their criteria are:
1) Draw an interesting house as if you were looking at it from the across the street. (perspective, texture, size, recognition of detail)
2) Draw a person who is running very fast. (action, body proportion, recognition of detail)
3) Make a drawing of you and your friends playing in the playground. (receding space, grouping)
4) Make a fantasy drawing form your imagination. (imagination)
This test appears to be best administered to children, though it was tested on college-level and down while establishing its validity. I say this because the author himself makes a comment about how the tasks fit well with younger children because at this age, they are trying to gain realism in their drawings and not work toward creative derivatives.
Such a test would serve well as a normalization factor or opening exercise to a future user study. Borrowing from Gardner, it’s also just a good idea to have the participants of any user study drawing AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
This test can also not be a standalone assessment of an individual’s ability. First, the author has a blatent disclaimer not to use CDAT as a means of qualification or cut-off. Second, he also says that scores, while maintain a normal distribution, will vary by school, county, state, etc. and that an individual’s background, age, personality, and values.