Knowing how to look predicts the ability to draw realistically

Abstract

Some young children are able to create stunningly realistic drawings resembling those of adult artists. What perceptual abilities underlie this talent? This study examined two candidate skills on which adult artists excel: the ability to segment a complex form mentally (measured by the Block Design Task) and the ability to see hidden forms (measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test). Sixty-seven 6- to 13-year-olds with a wide range of drawing abilities completed these tasks as well as an IQ test and an observational drawing task. While children who scored high on drawing realism outperformed those who scored low in drawing realism on both perceptual tasks, only detection of embedded figures predicted drawing realism. This occurred independently of age, gender, years of training, and verbal and non-verbal IQ. There are certainly many contributors to this complex ability, but one component appears to be the tendency to see things more as they really are and thereby recognize the continuous contour of an object despite interference from other overlapping objects.

How Do We Explain ‛Autistic Traits’ in European Upper Palaeolithic Art?

“…Most of us can attain a certain level of drawing realism through modest ability, training and practice when there is time to carefully observe. However differences between trained and 'natural talent' are still very much apparent (Drake, 2014). Spontaneous drawing from memory of those without exceptional natural talent will lack realism whilst those who are naturally talented at realistic depiction can realistically and accurately depict what they have seen with ease.…”

“…Spontaneous drawing from memory of those without exceptional natural talent will lack realism whilst those who are naturally talented at realistic depiction can realistically and accurately depict what they have seen with ease. Exceptional talent is rare and is also usually evident in childhood (Drake et al, 2010;Drake, 2014). In fact precocious artists begin to draw realistically by the age of two, whilst even a year later typically children are still drawing only in abstractions and only begin to draw three-dimensionally at around eight years old .…”

“…The expression of exceptional talents in realistic depiction depends on a certain level of motor skills (Pring et al, 2010) as well as cultural support and motivation but the underlying talent is based on a unique cognition. What marks out individuals with a natural talent in realistic depiction as different is their abilities to observe hidden forms and to segment a complex form mentally (Drake, 2014). In effect they are unusually able to observe and mentally represent three-dimensional forms.…”

“…Talent at realistic drawing is determined by this trait irrespective of gender, age, IQ or level of art instruction or practice (Drake et al, 2010;Drake, 2014). The effect of how a local processing bias determines the realism of drawings made by a child naturally talented in realistic depiction can be seen in figure 2.…”

Object- and View-Specificity in Agreement: The Case of Embodied Perspective

“…Children can draw visually realistic objects if they know how to focus on just the embedded object contour [1][2][3]. Especially boys focus on the contour of figure silhouette [3,15].…”