Overview texts

The sources listed below provide excellent overviews about various developmental aspects of children’s drawings. Included in the list are key early works such as those by Kellogg and Luquet and more recent critical reviews of perspectives towards and research evidence regarding children’s drawings, such as those authored by Cox (2005) and Jolley (2010). Other key sources include collections of edited works with in depth specialist chapters for example, by Milbrath & Trautner (2008).

Cox, M., V. (1992). Children’s drawings. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Cox, M., V. (1993). Children's drawings of the human figure. Psychology Press.
Cox, M., V. (2005). The pictorial world of the child. Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, N., & Cox, M. Eds. (1985). Visual order: The nature and development of pictorial representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Golomb, C. (1992) The child’s creation of a pictorial world. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
Goodenough, F. L. (1926). The measurement of intelligence by drawings. New York: World Books.
Jolley, R.P. (2010). Children and pictures: Drawing and understanding. Wiley-Blackwell.
Kellogg, R. (1955). What children scribble and why. Paolo Alto, N.P. Publications.
Kellogg, R. (1969). Analysing children’s art. Palto Alto, CA: Mayfield.
Kellogg, R., & O’Dell, S. (1967). The psychology of children’s art. New York: Random House
Luquet, G.-H. (1927/2001). Le dessin enfantin [Children’s Drawings]. Paris: Alcan. Trans. Costall (2001). London: Free Association Books.
Malchiodi, C. A. (1998). Understanding children’s drawings. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Matthews, J. (1994). Helping children to draw and paint in early childhood. London, Hodder & Stoughton.
Matthews, J. (1999). The art of childhood and adolescence. London: Falmer Press.
Matthews, J. (2003). Drawing and painting: children and visual representation. London: Paul Chapman.
Milbrath, C., & Trautner, H. M. (Eds.). (2008). Children's understanding and production of pictures, drawings and art: Theoretical and empirical approaches. Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe & Huber.
Oster, G. D. (2004). Using drawings assessment and therapy. 2nd Edition, Routledge.
Parsons, M. J. (1987). How we understand art: A cognitive developmental account of aesthetic experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rubin, J. A. (2005). Child art therapy. Wiley.
Willats, J. (1997). Art and representation. New principles in the analysis of pictures. Princeton,NJ: Princeton University Press.
Willats, J. (2005). Making sense of children’s drawings. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.