Late in his life Rodin produced many thousand “instant drawings.” He asked models to make natural energetic movements, and he would draw them at high speed without looking at his hand or paper. To help understand his “blind drawing” process, the authors tracked the eye and hand movements of art students while they drew blind, copying complex lines presented to them as static images. The study found that line shape was correctly reproduced, but scaling could show major deficiencies not seen in Rodin's sketches. The authors propose that Rodin's direct vision-to-motor strategy, coupled with his high expertise, allowed him to accurately depict in one sweep the entire model, without “thoughts arresting the flow of sensations.”

ABSTRACT Henri Matisse (1869–1954) attached fundamental importance to his drawings, in particular to the famous Themes et Variations series. These were accomplished following a precise method, starting with arduous life studies and evolving into brilliant spontaneous drawings. A 1946 archival documentary film showing the artist drawing four portraits of his grandson Gerard was shot in such a way as to allow the present author to undertake a detailed eye-hand interaction analysis of the drawing process. It was found that Matisse's temporal working rhythm and use of motor memory resulted in a more direct approach than that used by most painters. Taken together with remarks the artist made throughout his lifetime, these results provide a cognitive interpretation of his drawing method.

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.