This test is built on the real method of John N. Buck, the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) test, published in 1948. His idea: three separate drawings, because each object would act as a different projection screen.
- House: would evoke domestic life and family relationships.
- Tree: a deeper, more unconscious self-portrait.
- Person: a conscious self-portrait, closer to how you see yourself.
The original protocol includes, after each drawing, a structured questionnaire that in clinical practice carries as much information as the drawing itself. Our test keeps the graphic part, directly measurable or observable, plus the questions most closely tied to what you drew.
How the report works
It uses 13 real indicators: 5 are measured directly on your three canvases (house size, person size and placement, line thickness, shading) and 8 depend on you telling us what you drew (door, chimney, windows, roots, fruit, facial features, arms, clothing), since they require recognizing content. Most of these symbolic readings come from Isaac Jolles (1964), who published a detailed catalog building on Buck's system.
A canvas drawn with a mouse will never capture the nuance of a real pencil stroke, but it does capture magnitudes (size, position, thickness), which is exactly what we measure. We're not claiming diagnostic precision, and neither does the original test.
Sources
- Buck, J. N. (1948). The H-T-P technique, a qualitative and quantitative scoring manual. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 4, 317-396.
- Jolles, I. (1964). A Catalogue for the Qualitative Interpretation of the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P). Western Psychological Services.
- Lin, Y., Zhang, N., Qu, Y., Li, T., Liu, J., & Song, Y. (2022). The House-Tree-Person test is not valid for the prediction of mental health: An empirical study using deep neural networks. Acta Psychologica, 230, 103734.
- Motta, R. W., Little, S. G., & Tobin, M. I. (1993). The use and abuse of human figure drawings. School Psychology Quarterly, 8(3), 162-169.
- Kahill, S. (1984). Human figure drawing in adults: An update of the empirical evidence, 1967-1982. Canadian Psychology, 25, 269-292.
All possible results
Your House-Tree-Person Report
Thirteen real indicators from Buck's H-T-P method, each one connected to what you drew: what he and later researchers claimed about that specific value, and what the scientific evidence says today.
Read more about Your House-Tree-Person Report
John Buck published the H-T-P test in 1948; Isaac Jolles expanded its symbolic catalog in 1964. A 2022 study of nearly 4,200 participants, using neural networks on thousands of H-T-P drawings, found no reliable relationship between its indicators and the drawer's mental health (Lin et al., 2022). This report exists to show the real method, with the same rigor used to study it today, not to diagnose anything about you.
Frequently asked questions
Is this test a psychological diagnosis?
No, not under any circumstances. Even the original H-T-P test, applied by a trained clinician, isn't considered a reliable standalone diagnostic tool today. This report is informational: it shows the real method alongside the real scientific evidence about its validity.
Why does it ask for three drawings instead of just one?
Buck believed each object (house, tree, person) would act as a different, complementary projection screen: the house would evoke domestic life, the tree a deeper self-portrait, and the person a more conscious, direct self-portrait.
How reliable is this test, according to the most recent evidence?
A 2022 study of nearly 4,200 children and adolescents, using neural networks to automatically analyze the drawings, found that the H-T-P indicators studied didn't reliably predict the drawer's mental health (Lin et al., 2022).
Can I retake the test?
Yes, as many times as you want. We don't save your drawings or your previous answers.
Is it free?
Yes, it's completely free: no sign-up or payment needed to take the test and see your result.
How long does the test take? How many questions does it have?
You draw a house, a tree and a person, then answer 8 short questions about your drawing. About 5-6 minutes in total.