Pictorials are representations, not reproductions. Young children draw what they know, not what they see.

Children interpret their pictorial drawings differently from adults. Often, they describe their drawings by how it turns out rather than by what they had in mind, for they do not start out drawing any one particular thing.

 

This child of six years has obviously moved into the pictorial stage as he draws age-appropriate representations of a house, tree and person.

In the drawing of buildings, for instance, children usually try to combine rectangular shapes instead of copying a building from reality. The relevant features of the building, in most cases only consists of a door in the centre and at least two windows.

Children will eventually try to put figures together to create a scene. In this case, size and colour will not be realistic. The more important the object, the bigger.

Objects are placed on the paper in a rather random fashion and each object is portrayed as a separate entity. It will be visible that there is no baseline, and the objects are most likely free-floating in open space.

 

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