my 5 year old is drawing people sideways?

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My son has recently started drawing people, however he draws them from a sideways perspective. to clarify, instead of drawing the faces and bodies towards him, he does it sideways... what does this mean?

he is diagnosed with autism... very verbal but has echoalia and does not speak correctly, usually one or two word phrases. makes good eye contact, affectionate, not sensitive to loud sounds, bright lights or touch. has repeatitive behavior, likes routine, obsessive over certain activities, detail oriented, and lacks social skills.

Last edited by Jenvi on 10 May 2010, 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I guess it means, that he likes people when they're sleeping, because they can't hurt or bug him, than.

Seems like it's kind of an imitation of actual writing, in picture form.

wow that is super interesting! however, he hates writing, he gets angry when i tell him to write letters and numbers, he would rather draw pictures instead. he also does not like identifying letters and numbers, he would rather identify animals, colors, shapes.

Maybe they fit better on the page that way.

Perhaps he's recalling a past life as an Egyptian tomb painter.

Maybe he just finds it easier to draw them this way? Honestly, I wouldn't read too much into it.

I'm an artist, and I'm willing to bet it's just easier to draw people sideways.
It's easier for me, at least, which is why I draw people falling or crouching, but rarely standing up haha. Not an ASD thing, it's just harder to plan out proportions when something is tall, because we write horizontally, not vertically.

a good one!

IMO sideways would be an example of noninteraction i.e. the subject of art does not interact with the artist. artist likes to observe but not to interact?

Interesting. Makes a lot of sense, actually...

I know that the first time that I drew someone from the front was in the final weeks of third grade when the art teacher made me. You have piqued my interest a bit... perhaps it is an aversion to faces or an attempt to de-emphasize the face, or perhaps drawing someone from the side emphasizes the activity being depicted and de-emphasizes the face/identity of the individual.

I had to be forced to draw people and never drew noses and evently I stopped adding eyes and mouths. If teachers or "therapists" insisted I add them I would snap, "I never draw noses!" or "I don't like faces." If the persisted I add a nose or whatever, I usualy had a meltdown. My teachers rarely learned to pick their battles. As an adult, I NEVER draw or paint people although I paint all the time.

My kiddo had a hard time drawing upright....many things were slanted or sideways. A lot of it had to do with his midline. Crossing his hand over his midline was difficult and resulted in slanted or sideways pictures. We worked a lot on midline activities and had him practice copying a drawing step by step. Now that he is older, he fixes it himself with a little reminder.

Maybe he wants to fill the whole sheet of paper.

what is sideways perspective? Types of perspective: one, two, three, zero point, etc. I wish people would take more care over their descriptions that way we have more chance of answering. What I am getting from you description he draws their profile rather than facing the viewer. Is that correct?

After reading this, I re-read the original post and I think you're correct.

If this is the case, then we can stop looking too much into it.

A) this is a child, I doubt he's doing it for deep, meaningful reasons.
B) Profiles are easier to draw for a lot of people (myself included).