At what age do children's drawings typically become increasingly representational?

The age range of 9-11 is significant for children's artistic development, as this marks a period when their ability to create representational drawings begins to flourish. This is influenced by cognitive and motor skills that have been developing since early childhood. During these years, children start to apply their understanding of the world around them into their art, resulting in drawings that increasingly resemble recognizable objects, figures, or scenes. Their artistic expressions typically move beyond simple shapes and stick figures to more detailed and proportionate representations.

At this stage, children also begin to pay more attention to the characteristics of their subjects, making their artwork not only more representational but also showing greater creativity and individual expression. This developmental shift reflects a deeper cognitive processing of how they see and interact with their environment, allowing them to translate those experiences into their creative outputs.