Early research into children’s drawings as indicators of emotion was heavily influenced by the psychoanalytic tradition (Hammer, 1958; Koppitz, 1966). Criticism has been levied at the use of drawings as a projective measure of children’s internal state (please see the clinical and therapeutic uses of children’s drawings section). In response to this, more recent research has developed a systematic experimental approach examining the reliability and validity of inferring children’s positive and or negative affect towards the figures they draw on the basis of a range of features such as figure size (Burkitt, Barrett & Davis, 2009) or colour use (Burkitt, Barrett & Davis, 2003; Jue & Kwon, 2013).
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Bonoti, F., & Misailidi, P. (2006). Children’s developing ability to depict emotions in their drawings. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 103 (2), 495-502.
Brechet, C., Picard, D., & Baldy, R. (2007). Expression des emotions dans le dessin d’un home chez l’enfant de 5 a` 11 ans. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(2), 142–153.
Burkitt, E., Barrett, M. & Davis, A. (2003). The effect of affective characterisations on the use of colour within children's drawings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44 (3), 445-455.
Burkitt, E., Barrett, M., & Davis, A. (2005). Drawings of emotionally characterised figures by children from different educational backgrounds. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 24 (1), 71-83.
Burkitt, E., Barrett, M., & Davis, A. (2009). Effects of different emotion terms on the size and colour of children's drawings. International Journal of Art Therapy, 14 (2), 74-84.
Burkitt, E., & Newell, T. (2005). Effects of human figure type on children's use of colour to depict sadness and happiness. International Journal of Art Therapy, 10 (1), 15-22.
Burkitt, E., & Sheppard, L. (2013). Children’s colour use to portray themselves and others with happy, sad and mixed emotion. Educational Psychology, 1-21.
Burkitt, E., Tala, K. & Low, J. (2007). Finnish and English children’s color use to depict affectively characterised figures. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 31 (1), 59-64.
Burkitt, E., & Watling, D. (2013). The impact of audience age and familiarity on children’s drawings of themselves in contrasting affective states. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37 (3), 222-234.
Catte, M., & Cox, M. (1999). Emotional indicators in children’s human figure drawings. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 86-91.
Craddick, R. A. (1963). Size of Hallowe’en witch drawings prior to, on and after Hallowe’en. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 16, 235-8.
Crawford, E., Gross, J., Patterson, T., & Hayne, H. (2011). Does Children's Colour Use Reflect the Emotional Content of their Drawings? Infant and Child Development, 21 (2), 198-215.
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Hamama, L., & Ronen, T. (2009). Children's drawings as a self‐report measurement. Child & Family Social Work, 14 (1), 90-102.
Hammer, E. F. (1958). The clinical application of projective drawings. Springfield, IL: C. C. Thomas
Hammer, E. F. (1997). Advances in projective drawing interpretation. Springfield, IL: C. C. Thomas.
Hammer, M., & Kaplan, A. M. (1964). The reliability of children’s human figure drawings. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 22, 316–319.
Joiner, T. E., Schmidt, K. L., & Barnett, L. (1996). Size, detail and line heaviness in children’s drawings as correlates of emotional distress: (more) negative evidence. Journal of Personality Assessment, 67, 127-41.
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Jolley, R. P., & Vulic-Prtoric, A. (2001). Croatian children's experience of war is not reflected in the size and placement of emotive topics in their drawings. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40, 107-10.
Jue, J., & Kwon, S. M. (2013). Does colour say something about emotions? : Laypersons’ assessments of colour drawings. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 40 (1), 115-119.
Koppitz, E. M. (1966). Emotional indicators on human figure drawings of shy and aggressive children. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 22, 466-469.
Leon, K., Wallace, T., & Rudy, D. (2007). Representations of parent–child alliances in children's family drawings. Social Development, 16 (3), 440-459.
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Misailidi, P., & Bonoti, F. (2008). Emotion in children's art do young children understand the emotions expressed in other children's drawings? Journal of Early Childhood Research, 6 (2), 189-200.
Misailidi, P., Bonoti, F., & Savva, G. (2012). Representations of loneliness in children's drawings. Childhood, 19 (4), 523-538.
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Picard, D., & Boulhais, M. (2011). Sex differences in expressive drawing. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(7), 850-855.
Picard, D. & Lebaz, S. (2010). Symbolic use of size and in freehand drawing of the tree: Myth or reality? Journal of Personality Assessment, 92 (2), 186-188.
Pinto, G., Bombi, A. S., Cordioli, A. (1997). Similarity of friends in three countries: A study of children’s drawings. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 20, 453-469.
Sechrest, L. & Wallace, J. (1964). Figure drawings and naturally occurring events. Journal of Educational Psychology, 55, 42-44.
Skybo, T., Ryan-Wenger, N., & Su, Y. H. (2007). Human figure drawings as a measure of children's emotional status: critical review for practice. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 22 (1), 15-28.
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Strange, D., Hoynck Van Papendrecht, H., Crawford, E., Candel, I. & Hayne, H. (2010). Size doesn’t matter: emotional content does not determine the size of objects in children’s drawings. Psychology, Crime & Law, 16, 459-476.
Swensen, C. H. (1968). Empirical evaluations of human figure drawings: 1957-1966. Psychological Bulletin, 54, 431-66.
Tatlow-Golden, M., & Guerin, S. (2010). ‘My favourite things to do’ and ‘my favourite people’: Exploring salient aspects of children’s self-concept. Childhood, 17 (4), 545-562.
Ter Laak, J., de Goede, M., Aleva, A. & van Rijswijk, P. (2005). The Draw-a-Person Test: An indicator of children's cognitive and socioemotional adaptation? Journal of Genetic Psychology, 166, 77-93
Thomas, G. V., Chaigne, E. & Fox, T. J. (1989). Children’s drawings of topics differing in significance: Effects on size of drawing. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7, 321-331.
Thomas, G. V. & Jolley, R. P. (1998). Drawing conclusions: A re-examination of empirical and conceptual bases for psychological evaluation of children from their drawings. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 37, 127-139.
Vélez van Meerbeke, A., Saldoval-García, C., Ibáñez, M., Talero Gutiérrez, C., Fiallo, D., & Halliday, K. (2011). Validation study of Human Figure Drawing Test in a Colombian school children population. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 14 (1), 464-477.
Walker, K. (2008). Review of research: Children and their purple crayons: Understanding their worlds through their drawings. Childhood Education, 84 (2), 96-96.