Current beliefs about how children draw emphasize the importance of drawing from memory, rather than from observation. However, an experiment with children aged seven to nine showed that observation drawings included greater detail and complexity. More research on observation drawing is recommended. (IS)

Used two spatial and language tasks to investigate that clockwise directionality in circle drawing indicates neutral integration difficulties. Tasks were administered to 106 children, eight years of age. Data were analyzed for sex differences and circling behavior. None of the hypotheses based on Blau's theory was supported. (Author)

Describes a 10-week art unit for upper- and middle-elementary students based on the theme of the sky. Students watched movies, drew sky-scapes, depicted fanciful flying people in drawings and sculptures, made a class soft-sculpture banner of flying creatures, and did abstract paintings based on aerial perspectives. (AM)

The author explores ways in which teachers can intervene sensitively to develop children's artistic sensibilities. He discusses general principles and illustrates his ideas with reference to teaching children drawing. (Editor/SJL)

Believing that adolescents need to explore their feelings about life and their fantasies about death, an art teacher was prompted to use a human skeleton as a still life subject. The success of this art project is described. (KC)

The authors suggest using graphic dialog--an adult and child drawing together and discussing their work--as a way of developing children's graphic skill. They illustrate the procedure through case studies and note that graphic dialogs between two children can also be effective. (SJL)

A table which describes the four categories of human figure drawings of learning disabled children along with their characteristics and an illustration of each are presented. The four categories examined include developmental immaturity, aggression/withdrawal tendencies, neurological impairments, and grotesqueness or bizarreness. (PHR)

Ten dyslexic boys and 10 matched controls were asked to draw a person and write a composition. The two groups are compared on time spent on tasks, number of words written, and proportions of spelling and grammatical errors. (SJL)

Since junior high students frequently claim that they can't draw, the author suggests initiating visual expression activities through a skill they do have confidence in--their handwriting. She outlines several drawing exercises in which letters are used to express movement. (SJL)

Sixty-six first-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children were tested for their sensitivity to the dimensions of syntactic repleteness (e.g., line variation) and expression (i.e., the feelings conveyed by a work). (Author/MP)

This article gives instructions for a student art project in making an animated cartoon. The necessary equipment is described and planning, drawing, and filming phases are outlined. (SJL)

This research locates creativity in products rather than processes and maintains that it is long after childhood that creativity is even possible. (Editor/RK)

Examined the effects of race and gender on social distance in the drawings of African- and European-American children. Found that social distance was smallest for same-sex and race peers and greatest for cross-sex and race peers. African-American children placed a smaller distance between same sex/same-race dyads than European-American children.…