The emergence of visually realistic contour in the drawing of the human figure

We investigated the emergence of visually realistic contour in the human figure drawing. Young children initially draw geometric and regular parts, which they combine in an additive fashion. Thus, their human figures look artificial. In one longitudinal study covering ages 6-10 years, and two cross-sectional studies covering ages 5-11 years, we examined when children draw visually realistic looking shapes, which are integrated into a figure silhouette. Both aspects, drawing of parts with a visually realistic contour and integration into a whole, gradually increased but took several years to unfold. In the most prescriptive task of Study 3, analyses of growth curves indicated that mastery of drawing contour may require either of two kinds of cognitive investment: first, gradually increasing attention to perceptual detail, and/or second, more conceptual processing when attending to the spatial layout of the whole figure silhouette.