A tension exists between two schools of thought regarding the development of children's drawings. One position places great emphasis on the relatively invariant sequence in which figural differentiation comes about, and attempts to explicate the graphic logic which yields the rule-governed changes which can be observed in children's drawings. The other position emphasizes drawing conventions, and attributes great impact to the models available in the social-cultural milieu of the child. In this presentation, similarities as well as differences in figural differentiation, compositional style, and thematic content of children's drawings are examined. The cross-sectional data consist of the drawings of normal children, retarded children, and severely emotionally disturbed children, while the longitudinal data report on the development of a precociously gifted child. (RH)