Any art teachers out there?

Well, not officially, but almost an art teacher! Anyway, I have a lot of experience. My now grown son was so shy, and so ANGRY when he had to go to kindergarden; he brought home a picture that he drew that day where he drew 3 black circles inside an otherwise pretty picture and he colored those thing to death..the black circles that is. They had been heavily colored, and I knew he was expressing anger. Now my other kid would overdo the paper like you just described all the time, at age 3, cause she was enjoying the process so much. Your kid is probably doing both, expressing how good it feels to hold that crayon and really feel it do something. Cool. Plus, he may be doing some worrying while he is at it. Every child has worries, about falling to sleep, or anything, really...the world is scary to a small child. I would continue to offer him art supplies and let him do anything he wants to with it. My kid like that would work paint until it was all brown, and then still worked it. She was a stressed-out 3 year old with mild autism. I think the time spent doing art really helped her (we did not know of her diagnose at that age) because she is a thriving adult now. I did a lot of art with my kids, which is why I want to be an art teacher... I almost have a BA in art education, and it turned out to be therapy, in retrospect, for my two. I would give your guy a lot of play doh, you can make your own, and sand, and mud. Give him a pile of small sticks and anything that is really tactile. I'll bet he loves sidewalk chalk, and colored chalk...very, very messy but very tactile.

I also suggest you post this in the teacher/education/preschool categories, others might also have some good suggestions.

I would not have thought 3 year olds have the hand eye coordination to understand they are supposed to color more and control it - look up child development time lines.