A Painter's Eye Movements: A Study of Eye and Hand Movement during Portrait Drawing

Abstract

The mental processes that al-low an artist to transform visual images-e.g. those of his model-into a picture on the canvas are not easily studied. The authors re-port work measuring the eye and hand movements of a single artist, chosen for his detailed and realis-tic portraits produced from life. His eye fixations when painting or drawing were of twice the duration of those when he was not painting and also quite different from those of novice artists. His eye-hand co-ordination pattern also showed dif-ferences from that of novices, be-ing more temporally consistent. This preliminary work suggests that detailed and quantitative analy-sis of a working artist is feasible and will illuminate the process of artistic creation.

Look little, look often: The influence of gaze frequency on drawing accuracy

“…Thus, the present experiments demonstrate that gaze frequency is an important contributor to drawing accuracy. The results of the present experiments contradict the conclusions of Miall and Tchalenko (2001). Recall that Miall and Tchalenko proposed a negative relation between drawing accuracy and gaze frequency.…”

“…Therefore, any differences in drawing accuracy found in the present experiment can be related to that literature, the likes of which do not exist for other stimuli. Third, because Miall and Tchalenko (2001) used faces as stimuli in their study of portrait painter Humphrey Ocean, the results of the present experiment will be comparable to those of Miall and Tchalenko's study. Finally, it is common practice for art professors to teach students to render portraits (i.e., faces) upside down.…”

“…An extensive case study by Miall and Tchalenko (2001) provides some support for the negative relation between drawing accuracy and gaze frequency. Miall and Tchalenko tracked an accomplished artist's (Humphrey Ocean) eye movements over the course of creating several portraits.…”

“…However, more tests are needed to confirm this. (p. 38) In contrast to the views of these select artists and the findings of Miall and Tchalenko (2001), the literature addressing eye movements in natural tasks suggests that a positive relation should exist between drawing accuracy and gaze frequency. In particular, Ballard, Hayhoe, and Pelz (1995) provide evidence that people naturally use frequent shifts in eye fixations to compensate for the limited capacity of working memory (WM).…”

“…I focus on this behavior for two reasons. First, there is some evidence that drawing accuracy is related to gaze frequency (Miall & Tchalenko, 2001), though this evidence is anecdotal and preliminary. Second, this behavior is both directly observable and controllable, thus lending itself to experimental manipulation.…”