A study done in Norway by Stine Vogt and Svein Magnussen compared how artists and non-artists ‘looked’ at 16 images, tracking their eye movements. The image on the left shows the eye movements of a non-artist, and the image on the right shows the eye movements of an artist. It’s interesting how a non-artist takes in the essence of a picture (the face and some of the reflected sunset); while the artist visually dissects it, taking in the entire image, looking at patterns & colour. Notice how there’s a strong diagonal line across the middle of the image going over again & again where the blue & red reflections in the water are divided, as well as taking in individually the shapes of the red ripples? It’s not really a surprising study, but interesting.
You can read the entire article here at Cognitive Daily | Artists Look at Things Different