Special talents and defects

I. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF DRAWING

Manuel, who has made a careful psychological study of talent in drawing, defines drawing as follows: “The term drawing designates a process of causing, by means of pencil, pen, brush, or other instrument, certain lines or areas, or both, to appear on a given surface.” This definition we may accept, if we add that the lines and areas are intended or can be interpreted to signify something. We should not agree, for instance, that the lines and areas which are caused to appear on the ground by the scratching of a fowl should be included within the definition.

Having been thus defined, drawings may be classified into many kinds, in accordance with the technique employed and the meaning conveyed. These kinds are (1) copying, (2) representative drawing, (3) analytical or diagrammatic drawing, (4) impressionistic drawing, (5) symbolic drawing, and (6) caricature. This classification is exclusive of other forms of graphic or representative expression, such as painting, sculpture, and paper-cutting (used in the art of cutting silhouettes).

These various kinds of presentations differ as to the psychophysical equipment constituting talent for them. It is therefore impossible, as psychological study has proved, to discuss talent for drawing, without specifying what kind of drawing is under consideration. Talent for painting, sculpture, and cutting silhouettes has been little studied, so that we are not in position to discuss these at the present time, either as processes in themselves or as related to drawing.

The term copying is self-explanatory. By representative drawing is meant a drawing having visual realism, which “looks like” that from which it is drawn. Analytical (diagrammatic) drawing is logical. It may violate features essential to visual realism, stressing only aspects from certain points of view, or abstracting a general principle. For instance, the plan for the ground-floor of a house, or a schema of arterial circulation, would be analytical. Mechanical drawing comes under this category, as does also, in a sense, conventionalized drawing, for in conventionalized drawing some general principle or pattern is abstracted from concrete instances, and is made the basis of the design. A conventionalized bird does not look like any particular bird ever seen by anyone, but, on the other hand, it looks like all birds. It is a non-existent, composite, typical bird. Impressionistic drawing conveys an idea without much attention to visual realism. A curve stands for a cloud, two vertical lines suggest trees, a few zigzag marks indicate grass and flowers. In symbolic drawing one thing is drawn to represent another thing, as a crown is drawn to represent royalty. Symbolic drawing does not, perhaps, deserve separate classification, in a study of abilities, but for the present it seems best to differentiate it. To originate symbolic drawings may call for capacities not included in the other forms of graphic presentation. Finally, caricature is drawing that catches and exaggerates individual peculiarities, most often with a result which is humorous or satirical. The art of cartooning depends very largely on caricature and symbolism for its effect. Cartoons interpret life. The successful cartoonist, therefore, combines talent for drawing with a high degree of general intelligence.

When we speak of drawing in the schools, there is a tendency to think only of those performances which are taught and executed during the time set aside for instruction by the teacher of drawing. But a little reflection will show us to what an extent drawing ramifies through the curriculum, and forms an element in achievement.

In geography map-drawing is required. In nature study, notebooks with drawings of natural objects seen are frequently kept. In sciences taught by the laboratory method drawing is an important element in success. Zoölogy, physiology, and botany are especially taught through drawing. In mechanics, and in engineering, drawing plays a prominent part. Thus it comes about that school marks in all these subjects depend to some extent on drawing of some kind. If psychological study shows capacity for drawing to be largely or utterly dissociated from general intelligence, the use of drawing to so great an extent, as a method of recitation in the sciences especially, may be undesirable. The belief that drawing used in this way fails to meet the need of many pupils, otherwise apt in science, led Ayer to undertake the interesting investigation to which it will be necessary to give our attention in detail, throughout this chapter.

III. PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF TALENT IN DRAWING

It is quite interesting to notice that the analysis of ability in reading, spelling, and arithmetic has been approached largely through studies of the particularly deficient, while in the case of drawing and music the approach has been through study of the gifted, to a greater extent.

The psychographic study of individual talent in drawing was preceded by many investigations of what children draw, at what ages various details appear in drawings, how the drawings of one group compare with those of another, and what people say about the drawings they make. These studies, up to 1915, have been brought together by Ayer, and are so well summarized by him in relation to the study of aptitude, that there is no need to summarize them again. Those who desire to become familiar with the whole literature of the psychology of drawing will do well to consult Ayer’s work.

Several analyses of ability to draw have been undertaken, some through study of the particularly deficient, some through study of the conspicuously talented. Meumann thus states the causes of inefficiency in drawing:

(1) The will to analyze and to notice forms and colors has not been stimulated.

(2) The intention to analyze may be aroused, and yet the individual may find the analysis too difficult. This is a matter of innate talent.

(3) The memory of that to be represented may be deficient. It may be incomplete or vague in form or in color. The memory of spatial relations may be inadequate. This, too, is a matter of innate talent.

(4) There may be lack of ability to hold the image during the act of drawing. This capacity is innate.

(5) The memory image and the perceptual image may not be coördinated with the movements in drawing. This capacity is innate.

(6) The sight of the drawing in its imperfection as compared with the memory image may disturb the image.

(7) The drawer may lack schemata on which to found his drawing.

(8) There may be failure to comprehend how one may project space in three dimensions upon a plane.

(9) Manual skill may fail.

(10) There may be no artistic sense.

(11) Inability to draw may arise from a combination of various of these deficiencies.

Manuel has offered the following analysis, after study of persons especially talented:

The following characteristics, each an independent or partially independent variable, seem closely related to ability in drawing:

(1) The ability mentally to note a visual form, and, by certain lines and areas, to reproduce it or significant features of it.

(2) Ability to observe.

(3) Ability to select from a complex visual situation the most representative and the most beautiful aspects.

(4) Memory for visual forms.

(5) Ability mentally to manipulate visual forms.

(6) Ability to control hand movements in accordance with visual percept or image.

(7) Ability to invent, to bring together into new artistic combinations the elements of different visual experiences.

(8) Ability to judge the beautiful in line, form, color, and composition.

(9) Ability to discriminate differences in color.

(10) Ability to discriminate differences in visual magnitude.

(11) Acuity of vision.

(12) Interest in the act and products of drawing.

(13) General intelligence.

These two analyses may serve as samples, since they include practically all the elements suggested by any other investigators. Jones has recently furnished us with additional evidence that memory of objects visually perceived and perception of perspective are probably important contributors to drawing ability. Among 264 school children in the seventh and eighth grades of the Evanston public schools, a correlation was found of .83 between visual memory and ability to draw. Perception of perspective and visual memory yielded a coefficient of .85.

As a result of administering more than twenty tests to 19 individuals gifted in drawing, Manuel concludes that, “Persons talented in drawing exhibit great individual differences in their psychophysical characteristics.” Nevertheless, tests devised to measure status in the traits listed in the analyses which have been made, would be expected to yield, finally, a psychograph of talent in each of the various kinds of drawing. Persons approximating these psychographs could then be identified as talented in drawing, and those deviating widely from them could be classified as deficient in ability to draw. The invention and standardization of such tests is a matter for further research. At present we have no means of gauging talent in drawing except by grading a finished product on a scale of drawings, like Thorndike’s “Scale for Measuring Achievement in Drawing.” Such a means does not always adequately separate talent from training.

The hope that psychographs of ability to draw may be platted in future does not mean that psychologists expect to find complete similarity among those talented in drawing. Individuality is as intrinsic in drawing as it is in handwriting. As a signature can be used for identification in the hands of experts, so a picture bears the mark of the particular psychophysical constitution that produced it. The ordinary reader of current fiction knows, by inspection, whether a given illustration has been made by May Wilson Preston or by Tony Sarg, without seeing the signature. The drawings of Clarence Day are inimitable.

IV. RELATIONS BETWEEN APTITUDE IN DRAWING AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

As long ago as 1903, Fischlovitz studied 350 high school freshmen, to obtain the correlation between ability to draw and ability in other high school studies. Correlations were computed between grades in drawing and in other subjects. The conclusion was that, “Ability in drawing is correlated to a greater degree with some of the subjects than with others, but in no case is the correlation very strong, and that ability in drawing is more of a special ability.”

Some years later, Elderton obtained a correlation of .416 between grades in drawing and grades in classics, for one class, and of −.313 between the grades in the same studies, in another class. The subjects were here 19 boys in each of two classes in an English public school. Ivanof found among Swiss children a tendency for the able in drawing to include somewhat more good all-round pupils than were included among the pupils at large, and an opposite tendency among those poor in drawing. The figures show, however, many pupils strong in general work listed among those poor in drawing. Ayer obtained a correlation of .66 between grades in drawing and other subjects, for 141 normal school students.

As Ayer points out, these methods are very crude as means of determining to what extent drawing is a special ability. In the first place, since drawing is used as a form of recitation in various school subjects, we are obtaining to some extent a self-correlation in subjects like science and geography. In the second place, grades in drawing do not specify what kind of drawing is graded. In the case of Ayer’s normal school students, special inquiry showed that the grades in drawing were computed from heterogeneous factors, including (a) ability in representative drawing, (b) ability in designing, (c) ability in artistic discrimination, (d) ability with color, washes, shading, etc., (e) attendance, (f) discipline, (g) vocational interest. School marks do not, therefore, isolate ability in any one kind of drawing, from a medley of other relevant and irrelevant factors, the mark being bestowed upon the total composite of factors.

Much more reliable as a method of research is the method of tests. In Simpson’s data, already quoted, it is seen that drawing lengths shows very slight coherence with other abilities. Other similar fragmentary suggestive facts may be found, scattered through the literature. In 1916 Ayer undertook a well-planned investigation to determine how two kinds of drawing, (1) representative drawing and (2) analytical drawing, are related to (a) ability in verbal description and (b) achievement in school subjects on the whole.

A turkey feather was drawn representatively, drawn analytically, and described verbally by 51 high school pupils. Twenty-four hours after the analytical drawing, the pupils were again required to make a diagram of the feather and to answer questions about its parts. The results of these various efforts were then scored by ten competent judges independently, to obtain a final score for each pupil in each test.

The table, from Ayer, on page 149, shows the rank obtained by each pupil in each kind of performance. The pupil who stands first in memory stands thirty-eighth in representative drawing, and so forth down the series, for each pupil.

In the following table, from Ayer, we see the coefficients of correlation found between the various functions tested, as computed from the ranks listed in the table on page 149.

The correlation between representative drawing and verbal description is practically zero. From knowledge of ability in one of these functions, among high school students, no inference can be made concerning the other. Ability in diagramming (a kind of analytical drawing) is also not correlated with representative drawing. On the other hand, the processes of diagramming and description exhibit a slight tendency to positive coherence, as do description and retention. Analytical drawing and retention have a decided tendency to cohere, with a coefficient of .433.

In order to check his finding that school marks in drawing correlate well with school marks in other subjects, Ayer correlated the scores of these 51 high school pupils in representative drawing, with their school marks and found an absence of relationship. “Ability in representative drawing is not correlated with achievement in school subjects, when it is isolated from the other factors of school drawing.”

Ayer concludes that different kinds of drawing are differently correlated with general intelligence, and that it is necessary to isolate the various kinds in determining the relationship. Analytical drawing is a better indication of a pupil’s general grasp of subject matter than is representative drawing. He recommends “that the device of representative drawing shall be supplanted in laboratory teaching,” since it appears to be a highly specialized function.

The question of the relationship between general intelligence and ability to draw has also been investigated by Manuel, who took the IQ of each of his talented subjects by means of Stanford-Binet. These were pupils in elementary school, high school, and college. This means of measuring general intelligence was ill adapted to its purpose in the case of the college students and, also, probably in the case of many of the high school students among his subjects, as the scale will not measure the intelligence of very superior adolescents and adults. Because of its limitations, the most intelligent adult in the world cannot show an IQ of more than about 120 on it. Therefore some of Manuel’s older subjects may have been much more intelligent than appears on the record. The range of intelligence among those talented in drawing may be even greater than the record shows. The tests as they stand show that superior ability in drawing may accompany any degree of general intelligence from very superior to very inferior. “We conclude therefore that a certain elementary ability in graphic representation, such as is required for success in elementary school drawing, is independent, or partially independent, of general intelligence.”

It should be stated that presence of talent in drawing in the case of these individuals was determined in part by testimony of teachers of art, and in part by two tests, (1) the drawing of a house from memory, and (2) the drawing of a wooden cart from the object. Both of these would be classified as representative drawings.

Where representative drawing has been isolated for study in relation to general intelligence, no results contradictory to the conclusions stated above have been reported. Earlier investigators had declared that great talent for graphic expression is closely connected with good intellectual endowment in children, but that “the reverse of this does not hold true.” This conclusion will probably be shown to be well founded in future researches carried out by modern test methods. “Great talent” includes much more than mere ability to “see and make” an object. As Manuel says, “Before one gets very far in art expression, a great number of supplementary factors must be brought to the support of the ability to represent graphically simple objects. Even the technique itself becomes progressively more difficult.... General intelligence conditions the ability of drawers (a) to acquire the advanced technique into which conceptual factors enter, and (b) to create original drawings of merit.”

Manuel also gave tests of linguistic ability in the course of his study and found no essential relationship between ability to draw and ability to manage words. “Linguistic ability is no index of ability or lack of ability in graphic representation,” but linguistic ability correlates well with general intelligence (as has been previously emphasized in this volume).

For purposes of educational and vocational guidance we now need especially studies of the relationship between general intelligence and kinds of drawing other than the representative. We require studies of the extent to which copying, analytical drawing, symbolic drawing, and caricature are correlated with general mental capacity. It may be predicted with some confidence that research in unselected groups will finally show copying and representative drawing to be slightly correlated with general intelligence. Analytical and symbolic drawing are probably significantly correlated with general intelligence, while caricature is doubtless very closely correlated with intellectual capacity.

We need also researches bearing upon the relationship between ability in painting, sculpture, and pattern-cutting, and general intelligence. To what extent are painters and sculptors of high repute also gifted with superior intellectual acumen? Popular opinion would have it that the “artistic mind” is antagonistic in its organization to the “scientific mind.” Probably here as elsewhere uncontrolled speculation leads to false conclusions. Probably those who achieve eminence in the arts are, on the whole, as highly endowed with general intelligence as are those who win eminence in other kinds of careers. Greatness in graphic portrayal almost certainly results only when there is a rare combination of highly specialized capacity for representative drawing, and very high IQ, in the same individual.

Fortunately for all, modern life calls for all forms of talent in drawing, in all degrees of combination with general intelligence. Sign painters, copyists, designers, draughtsmen, architects, illustrators, and creative interpreters of human faces and of human life are all needed. Persons skilled in drawing are essential to mechanical and industrial development in society, for everything made must first be drawn, from the motor of an airplane to the fancy buttons on a child’s coat.

V. THE COLOR-BLIND

Between 3 and 5 per cent of boys, and apparently fewer girls, inherit a special defect of vision, called “color blindness.” A color-blind child may be gifted in drawing, except in color drawing, but he will be incompetent as a painter.

There are several forms of this special defect. Very rarely it may happen that no discrimination among colors is possible, the world appearing, as in a photograph, to consist only of light and shade. In the late evening, or in any sufficient dimness, color is not perceived by ordinary eyes. Those who are blind to all colors do not see color with the brightening of the light, as ordinarily happens.

The most common form of color blindness is, however, that in which only red-green sensations are absent, other colors being distinguishable. There is no disease present in such cases. The defect is hereditary, and consists in deviation from the typical in structure of the retina. The eyes of color-blind persons are as healthy and normal as those of others, in respect to functions other than acting as receptors for certain waves of light.

A few cases of blue-yellow color blindness have been reported, these resulting from pathological causes.

A color-blind child does not, of course, know from his own experience that he is so. He supposes that everyone sees what he sees, until informed by test or disaster of his deviation from the usual.

Color blindness seems to bear no relation to intelligence, so that in drawing where color is used teachers will find a certain percentage of generally very able children producing absurd results. A color-blind child with a great gift for drawing, may succeed in etching or in black and white work of various kinds, as has been shown by the actual rise to eminence of etchers who are color-blind.

VI. ILLUSTRATIVE CASES

The facts which have been set forth in regard to ability in drawing will be further illuminated by concrete cases. In Figure 19 we have reproduced the psychograph of a child in the elementary school, E 1, showing talent in representative drawing combined with very inferior intelligence.

E 1 was a pupil in the sixth grade, at the time when this psychograph was made. She was nearly 14 years old, and therefore distinctly retarded in school status. In spite of her general incompetence, her drawing teacher placed her near the top of her grade in native ability to draw. The child is described as not original. “She can follow better than she can originate.” “Apparently her talent for drawing is inherited. Her father is a tailor. He enjoys drawing and lettering. Her mother takes great interest in the children’s drawings, and an aunt has made paintings of some interest. An older brother of E 1 is reported as very good (original and true) in drawing. She has also two younger sisters and a younger brother who are good in drawing.”

Figure 20 shows a copy of a man’s portrait, done by a 14-year-old boy, of IQ near 70. This boy was incapable of normal progress through the school curriculum. Being “left back” repeatedly, he became a truant and otherwise delinquent. His ability for and interest in drawing are highly specialized. Figure 21 shows drawings of movement (not copied) by the same boy.

The special ability in paper-cutting of a feeble-minded man, “Dick,” is illustrated in Figure 22. At the time these silhouettes were cut, this man was 28 years old, strong and healthy, with a mental level of 6 years 4 months, and IQ 39 (Stanford-Binet). He has been an inmate of an institution for mental defectives for seventeen years, as his general intelligence is insufficient for any kind of unsupervised career. He has never been able to learn to read or write.

This man is greatly interested in animals, and after being taken to the circus sometime ago, became a nuisance in his preoccupation with what he had seen there. In cutting the silhouettes, he merely takes a sheet of paper in one hand, a pair of scissors in the other, and cuts absolutely “free-hand,” without reference to any preliminary patterning or draughting, either from memory or from a model. The performance is accompanied by many naïvely vain remarks, calling attention to his skill and the quality of the product. He can also draw, as is shown in Figure 23. He has never had any special training so far as known.

For the sake of contrast, we have presented, in Figure 24, the attempts of two university professors to cut an elephant from paper, as did “Dick” in Figure 22. These two professors are both doctors of philosophy, distinguished in their respective fields for research. Yet they are greatly surpassed by “Dick” in ability to cut silhouettes.

VII. INHERITANCE OF TALENT IN DRAWING

A comprehensive study of the inheritance of talent in drawing is yet to be made. Manuel took the family history of the pupils studied by him, and found artistic ability of some kind among close relatives in almost all cases. The gift showed itself in early childhood in these talented persons, and there is every reason to believe that it was bestowed by the conditions of near ancestry.

VIII. GENERAL SUMMARY

It is clear that talent for representative drawing arises from a happy combination of a great many variable functions; and that this combination may occur in persons of superior, average, or inferior intelligence. Likewise, conspicuous lack of this talent is compatible with intelligence of almost any degree. Therefore, many children considered by their teachers of drawing to be pupils of ability, will be rated as but mediocre, or as inferior, by other teachers. This will be true especially to the extent that drawing as a subject of instruction is limited to representative drawing.

Since superior students of science may or may not have ability to draw, it is probably undesirable that success in elementary courses should be made to depend largely on drawing.

Distinguished achievement in analytical, symbolic, and interpretative art is probably as incompatible with native stupidity as is distinguished achievement in any other field of technical endeavor. Persons who can draw, but are nevertheless generally dull, should probably not be guided toward the career of designer, architect, cartoonist, or portrait painter.

All persons possess in some amount each and every one of the capacities, which in rare and happy combinations constitute talent in drawing. The typical child possesses them in typical degrees, so that the majority can draw moderately well. Since in after life most children will enjoy the drawings of others more frequently than they will themselves draw, probably it would be of value to devote a relatively greater part of the curriculum in drawing to forming acquaintanceship with pictures. Interest in drawing, painting, or sculpture may be present without talent, but probably keen interest and talent are most often combined.

At present educational psychologists have before them the task of extending research, so that the word “probably,” so often used in this discussion, may be replaced by “certainly.” The accomplishment of this task will call for the coöperation of artists, in particular.

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