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This study explored what children have to say about making art and the sense of self as they begin to make art. Thirty‐nine children, ranging in age from 8 to 11 and enrolled in a private after‐school art enrichment class, participated in this study of young artists. The study involved individual interviews with all participants, inviting them to describe the focus of their painting projects, experiences in the process of making art, what it means to them to be an artist, and what it means to be creative. Two independent raters summarized the transcribed interviews, revealing age‐related qualitative changes in skill development as well as in ‘participants’ conceptions of what it means to be an artist and what it means to be creative. The investigation further revealed that conceptions of what it means to be an artist and to be creative reflected the artistic focus, just as the artistic focus reflected conceptions about being an artist and being creative. The motivation to work hard at developing skills was clearly evident in the young artists' descriptions of their artistic focus, and in their conceptions of just what it means to be an artist.

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This study focuses on behavior associated with young art students' developing artistic talent (skills and art‐making behavior) and creativity (personal expressions of visual information). The study examines the role of personal expertise in a student's development of problem finding, domain‐specific technical skill, perseverance, evaluation, and creative ideation. The study compares 30 experienced art students' artistic processing and products with those of 29 novice art students. Both groups are 7‐ through 11‐year‐olds. The author recorded participants' behavior as they created drawings in two contexts — from imagination and from life — and three adult artists then assessed the technical skill and creativity revealed in the drawings. Multivariate analyses of the variables associated with the drawing products and processes offer evidence of the changes related to the students' developing expertise in both novice and experienced groups. This study finds that the drawing situation (life or imagination) interacts clearly with the relationships among hypothesized components of creativity, gender, and predictors of expertise. Technical skill, perseverance, modifications, and creativity in drawings from life were significant predictors of expertise. Modifications, efficient problem finding, and creativity in drawings from imagination were additional significant predictors of expertise. Gender was found to be a measurable factor in both the artistic process and the assessments of drawings from imagination. The findings are discussed within the context of three conceptions: artistic talent, developing creativity, and art education.