When Does a Kid's Art Start Looking "Good"

It depends really, on the individuals artistic abilities. My daughter at age 4 could draw things better than I ever could or will and she just keeps getting better.

Completely normal in my experience. My daughter is 5. Sometimes she draws something and it looks wonderful. Other times she draws something and, to me, it just looks like scribbles.

I'm 49. I'm still waiting for my art to look good.

It is so common-- 'interpretive art', ha ha. Let him enjoy art for his own sake-- he's still learning so much. My son is five and has some very neat little representational pictures (you can totally tell what he's drawing) and others that just stump me.

This is when we smile at them and say "SO! Tell me about your picture!"
Let him tell you what's important to him, and unless he asks for a critique, let him just enjoy his 'scribbling'. Remember, scribbling will lead to writing. Kids have flashes of brilliance, but unlike adults, they have no 'edit' filter, so instead of only showing their best work, they show us everything. (I was previously married to an artist and he did a lot of fairly loose and 'crappy' sketches... he also did some very neat, great work, too.) And girls will do this too.... it's not always a gender thing.

Picasso said it best:
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
The beautiful thing about children's art is that it's pure and true. Embrace that. Creating abstract art, in my opinion, takes much more abstract and intelligent thought, and imagination than just copying, imitating. Encourage creativity!!!

Fine motor skills do take time and practice and exercises.
If a child on their own sits down to draw.. it will usually be very different than when an adult instructs a child to draw.. Or makes a suggestion of what to draw.

I loved when our daughter would disappear for a while and them come into the room with a drawing.. They were always way more creative and interesting than if I asked her to draw a picture of our house.. Or a picture for grandma..

So yes, still very normal.. And your version of "looking good" vs.. what anyone else thinks.. is also totally different. but very normal.

At this age our daughter was into movement.. Dancing dragons, dancing bunnies.. She would cover an entire piece of paper with intricate drawings of them in movement.. She has always been artistic.. even just graduated with one of her degrees in Studio Art. She even observes the world, differently than we do..

What to look for, are the details he has in his pictures.

How complete is the face. ..Or the hands.. The tree details. details of a car.. he will begin to notice the details..

Our daughter refused to draw 4 fingers and the thumb until l she was about 8.. She "just did not like the proportion". - Her own words..

I have sticky note art in my cubicle. People come by and see it, I say my daughter drew them. They say awwww, yeah, not really, she was 18 when she did it!

She used to work with me except in the evening so I would come in to sticky note art.

Don't get me wrong I cherish my art but I can assure you, most assume it is my eleven year old that drew them and even then they think it was when she was five.

Nope, some kids, they never get good. My sons on the other hand are amazing.

I think that in general, boys are behind girls in fine motor skills like drawing... it is the case in my house, however I have a very artistic daughter who LOVES to draw (showed and early interest and talent for it) and practices all the time, and a son who draws occasional and is getting better... at 7.

But with both of them I have always shown great interest in whatever they've done. My son, though his art is not as recognizable as my daughters, does have his own style of filling the entire page, using lots of color... I love his art just as much as my daughter's. When he was younger I would ask him about what he had drawn if I didn't know what it was.... I would say " Ohh, I like how you drew this part blue and green... can you tell me more about your picture? " He would go on and on about what it was, what it "did" His creativity was/in in telling stories and creating pictures with his words rather than his hands.

I think that kids' art looks "good" when it's filled with their enthusiasm for what they are creating, not if it resembles something I can recognize.

I run a preschool from my home and I have an almost 4 year old that cannot even draw a circle properly and a child who is just 4 months older who can draw people, complete with dresses, eyelashes, hair and shoes. I have found that boys lag behind the girls in drawing and coloring skills but this is not always the case. It varies so much, but the kindergarten standard in CA is that they can draw a person with discernible body parts, even if those body parts are simply a circle for the head, square for the body, a face and sticks for the arms/legs. I would say your little guy is perfectly fine and even ahead of the game. :))

Art is always subject to interpretation. Any child's art is a treasure to be kept and valued and loved forever. "Especially with boys?" Recall to mind the Renaissance.

I agree with Molly. I think it is a lot to due with natural ability and also amount of time spent on drawing and art. We are an "art" family, I am an artist so there is never a shortage of art supplies and we regularly schedule art time at my home. My youngest is 4.5 and is just starting to draw quite well, I think that is about the time my older 2 started to as well. BUT don't stress, like I said, we do a lot of art projects and I think they might have some natural talent for it. I have seen skills all over the place with that age. It sounds cool that he is being creative and imagining some creation that he drew. I would keep encouraging him to draw because it is relaxing and a good motor skill builder, but don't worry if it doesn't look recognizable at this point yet.

I have always felt my childrens art projects were all worthy of a wall hanging!!

If it is something they enjoy or are interested in drawing, they will take more time to do it. If you ask them to draw something they don't really know how to, or aren't interested in, then it's scribbled. However, at your son's age, it is very normal.

Just have fun with it. I am sort of an art buff, and have framed some of my son's pictures. As he gets older, they mature, and get so much more detailed. It's wonderful to see the change from when he was younger to now.

I always was able to draw trees, and landscapes very well. My son, at age 5 saw me drawing them, and wanted to draw them too. I showed him how, and it was so much fun to see him sit there, and draw so carefully.

Showing him how not to rush, and to take time with something is always a good lesson. You can always draw things with him, and lead by example.

Ok, I had to laugh when I read this. My oldest son is 18 and his art still doesn't look "good", lol! He's a good sport about it, and yes, we are a horrible family and tease him about his awkward stick figures! He laughs right along with us though. My younger son, however, is an artist and can duplicate anything he sees and create his own designs as well, so go figure.

A kid's art will look good either at the point where the inborn natural talent shines through, or after lots of intentional practice to acquire the skill.

Some kids/adults will never produce good-looking drawings.

I am artistically "challenged" and my 3 1/2 year old has already matched most of my artistic ability... lol. :) So for some people, even if they are creative (which, as it happens, I am not) that whole art projects looking "good" thing just doesn't happen.

It's common with all kids that age. Male or female doesn't matter. Once in a blue moon you'll get a kid that's really good at drawing, but that's not the norm. Also, the child has to be interested in drawing. Some kids just aren't. I'll admit to having a mommy/son drawing time when my son was younger. It started out as me teaching him how to do basic drawings, then he just took off on his own.....Looking at my art books and copying them...to drawing his toys. It's funny how the media always mentions about reading to your child, but never mentions about doing anything else. When my son was younger I made all sorts of excuses to have mommy/son time....There was drawing time, exercising time, playing outside time, reading time, just plain old talking time, etc. We had a blast! As he got older we'd draw "Yu-Gi-Oh" artwork together. I think parent/child/family time is always important and helps the child to develop quicker.

He is a little boy-they really do not like to draw in my experience. Its just not that fun for them so they do it fast so that they can get on to the next thing. Once my kids hit school with a real art teacher they really made some terrific things.

Maybe you could have him do something more abstract, like painting or clay that's fun to work with and he can be proud of his creation. Or next time you read a book together, talk with him about the style of the illustrations.

There is a huge difference between my son's drawing ability and his art ability. (He is 10 and has dysgraphia). He will occasionally draw a stick figure without a face, or a diagram of a machine he wants to invent. He does OK with copying shapes or letters for practice, but just isn't interested in drawing.
But he makes some very interesting art of other forms. For example, a porcupine made out of styrofoam studded with screws, an oil painting on wood cut into a puzzle on the scroll saw, a paper bookmark with yarn sewed on decorated with watercolors and stamps, a life sized creature made out of logs and drawer slides, and my favorite that I had framed was chalk and spray paint(using sand as a stencil) on textured poster paper.