The relationship between aesthetic and drawing preferences.

Abstract

There are suggested to be similarities between what is aesthetically preferred and artistically produced; however, little research has been conducted that directly examines this relationship and its links to expertise. Here, we examined the artistic process of artists and non-artists using geometric shapes as stimuli, investigating aesthetic (how pleasing they find the shapes) and drawing preferences (which shape they would prefer to draw out of a choice of two). We examined the cognitive processes behind these preferences using eye-tracking methods both when viewing stimuli and when making drawing preferences. Drawing preference scores increased with increasing aesthetic ratings regardless of expertise. We find gaze behaviour when free-viewing to reflect behaviour when making a drawing preference as both artists and non-artists fixated on aesthetically preferred stimuli first, for longer and more often. Artists gaze behaviour when free-viewing was also influenced by what they would prefer to draw. This suggests that artists have a more fluid relationship than non-artists between images aesthetically preferred and those preferred for drawing. Overall, we demonstrate that there is a relationship between aesthetic preference and artistic preference for production, and this varies with expertise.

Enhanced Associations With Actions of the Artist Influence Gaze Behaviour

“…Brushstroke paintings were more pleasing, more familiar, and fixated on for longer and more often, despite producing congruent, incongruent, or no actions. This supports Williams et al. (2018) who found that eye movements were made towards images rated to be more aesthetically pleasing.…”

“…In addition, participants fixated for longer and more often on brushstroke paintings and reported these to be more familiar than pointillism paintings. This supports Williams et al. (2018) suggesting that gaze behaviour is driven by aesthetic preferences.…”

“…As gaze behaviour has been suggested to be driven by aesthetic preferences but also influenced by the creator behind the artwork and knowledge of their creative process (Alvarez et al., 2015; Holmes & Zanker, 2012; Ishiguro et al., 2016; Williams et al., 2018), we aim to further examine gaze behaviour towards artworks when perceivers are involved in tasks that allow them to resonate with the actions of the artist behind the artworks observed. Leder et al.…”

“…It has been shown that early reactions to pictures begin within the first 2 seconds of viewing; experiences here are influenced more by the low-level features, the pictorial elements, the style, and form (Locher, 2006, 2015). Williams et al. (2018) examined gaze behaviour to pairs of geometric stimuli that differed in shape and complexity.…”

“…There has been a great deal of research that examines what features of artworks affect the aesthetic experience, and what aspects appear to play an important role in them being deemed aesthetically pleasing. However, it has been argued that to better understand the aesthetic experience of art, research must consider the artist behind the artwork, their motivations, decisions, and actions (Dutton, 2009; Tinio, 2013; Williams et al., 2018). A link between the artist’s experience while producing art with the aesthetic experience of the perceiver has been made explicit in the Mirror Model of Art put forward by Tinio (2013).…”