History of the Wartegg Drawing Test

The Wartegg drawing completion test (Wartegg Zeichen Test, WZT) is a projective drawing test developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s by the AustroGerman psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (Wartegg, 1939). The standard DIN-A4sized test form has eight white, 4cm-by-4cm squares in two rows on a black background (Figure 1). Each square is blank except for a small sign, such as a dot or a line, that is given as the starting point of a drawing. For example, a dot is located in the centre of square 1. Subjects are instructed to complete the eight drawings, incorporating the given sign into the drawing. Like other projective drawing tests, Wartegg’s test is based on the assumption that the content and the qualitative aspects of the drawings reflect the personality of the person drawing. For example, a higher than average number of human drawings in the WZT protocol is generally interpreted as a sign of sociability (Gardziella, 1985).