Traditionally, two theories have been proposed to understand realistic drawing: (a) a bottom-up perspective emphasizing accurate perception achieved by suppressing perceptual constancies and other sources of misperception, and (b) a top-down view emphasizing knowledge-facilitated selection of information important for object depiction. This study compares the predictive validity of the two. Artists and nonartists completed tasks measuring the ability to suppress shape and size constancies, a limited line-tracing task measuring visual selection performance, and a freehand drawing task assessing realistic drawing ability. Evidence is reported that shows both bottom-up and top-down factors are associated with drawing accuracy. Artists outperformed nonartists on drawing and limited-line tracing accuracy and made smaller size (but not shape) constancy errors; drawing accuracy was positively correlated with limited-line tracing and negatively correlated with size-constancy errors in a depth cue condition. We propose integrating the two traditional approaches into a unified perspective emphasizing visual attention, rather than early perception, in explaining drawing accuracy.

To test a venerable explanation for artists' drawing ability, superior skill at visual selection, artists and nonartists traced a photograph of a face using 70 pieces of tape-not enough to depict everything. Artists and nonartists judged the drawings on accuracy. A mixed-model analysis of variance yielded a reliable advantage for artist drawers, no main effect of judge group, and a strong interaction, in which artist judges' ratings distinguished artist versus nonartist drawers, but nonartist judges' ratings did not. Thus, artists appear to make superior decisions about what to include in drawings and are also more sensitive to others' decisions. In a second study, using the same task, nonartists drew upright or inverted faces. An interaction was found in which artist judges rated faces drawn inverted as more accurate than faces drawn upright, but nonartist judges' ratings showed no differences. Results are discussed in terms of reconciling top-down and bottom-up accounts of skilled drawing.

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