Eye-Hand Coordination in Portrait Drawing

We investigated with the help of an eyetracker, movement sensor and close-up video filming a well-known painter, Humphrey Ocean, drawing portraits (Miall & Tchalenko, 2001). In the present study we report on a further study of this data concentrating on the painter’s eye-hand coordination. We observed that, in general, his eye closely followed the drawing hand, with fixations on, or very near, the line being drawn. But there were also frequent exceptions to this behaviour when the artist’s eye departed from the drawing hand to fixate other parts of the drawing or turned to the model. Examples are presented for each of these cases, illustrating the process of visual memory fading and refreshing, and the possible action of a motor memory component in the drawing method of this painter.

The Eye Control project (2001-2004) from which this research originated, was a Wellcome Trust funded project comparing visual search strategies in art (e.g. in observational drawing) and in medicine (e.g. in X-ray diagnosis). It was undertaken jointly with Imperial College Computing Department whose role was confined to providing eye track equipment and processing the medical part of the data.

In parallel to addressing the specialist, our main emphasis was to generate enthusiasm amongst a younger generation of potential scientists and artists. This was achieved on the science side with the Royal Society exhibition display (see 1.1) which was voted as the 2nd most popular display of the show. On the art side, we were invited by David Hockney and Alan Jones to exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show 2004 examples of free-eye drawing (drawn with the eyes alone) by four international artists.

"My approach to research is guided by two principles. First, that there is a clear distinction between subject of research and method of investigation. Whereas the former must be sharply focused within a particular field of knowledge, the latter must be free to explore and use whatever disciplines and tools seem the most appropriate. Since 1990 my subject of research has been artistic creativity and my method of investigation has made use of biomedical and psychophysical techniques. The challenge is to combine the rigour of scientific studies, where research means advancing a well-defined subject in a verifiable way, with artistic investigation, where progress takes place in domains beyond the purely rational and measurable observation.

Second, that research must result in two parallel and equally important modes of output: peer-reviewed (journals, conferences) and popular (exhibitions, films, media). This is not only because, as a professional and public individual I have an obligation to communicate in both constituencies, but also because the effort required to operate simultaneously in these two modes benefits the advancement of the subject under study.

A unifying thread throughout my research is a strong reliance on visual observation. By closely observing a phenomenon, and if necessary, by inventing tools to aid in the observation, fundamental underlying truths may be discovered. In virtually all fields of investigations involving the world around us these truths are there to be grasped if our observational skills are sufficiently advanced. My present work consists in observing how people draw and paint, using scientific tools to monitor eye, brain and hand behaviour, and the results are beginning to throw light on the process by which the brain transforms the external visual world into the artist's picture, i.e. on artistic creativity." - John Tchalenko, 2006

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