Children's Creative Intentions: Where do the Ideas for their Drawings Come from?

The process of drawing is a creative endeavor, often beginning with ideas of what to draw. This exploratory study aimed to explore these creative intentions of pupils from mainstream schools (tending to focus on observational, imaginative, and expressive drawing), and from Steiner schools (tending to focus on imagination and expression). Fifty-seven children (age 6-16 years) drew a single drawing at the request of the researcher. Before and after drawing, children completed a semi-structured interview about the content of their drawing. This interview was first analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis to describe where children got the ideas for their drawings from. Four key themes were identified: (a) content from immediate surroundings, (b) content from memory, (c) representational content with element of imagination added, and (d) intention to express a mood or message. Content analysis was then used to quantify the interview responses and compare them between the school types. This indicated no difference in the frequency that mainstream and Steiner pupils referred to ideas based on real-world referents or imagination. However, Steiner pupils talked more about expressive ideas. The results suggest that children use a wide range of sources when generating ideas of what to draw, including their educational experiences.