Scratching the Surface: Practice, Personality, Approaches to Learning, and the Acquisition of High-Level Representational Drawing Ability

Research suggests that expertise typically is acquired as a result of deliberate practice and a flexible approach to strategies for learning. Representational drawing is a complex skill which underpins performance in many branches of the visual arts and has the characteristics of other domains of expertise. It is therefore likely that approaches to learning and certain types of practice characterize the development of expertise in this domain. The current study aimed to investigate how differences in the acquisition of representational drawing skill could be explained by individual differences in personality, approaches to learning, and practice. A cohort of art students (n = 682) completed questionnaires about their artistic ability, personality, and approaches to learning. A subset completed tasks of drawing ability (n = 301), the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test (ROCFT), and an IQ test (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices). Drawing ability related to time spent drawing and use of drawing techniques, with additional independent effects of the copying and recalling a complex geometric figure. Personality predicted approaches to learning, which in turn predicted differences in the outcome variables: practice, use of techniques, and drawing ability. Personality did not directly predict drawing ability when approaches to learning were taken into account. Surface learners spent more time drawing, learned fewer techniques, and acquired a lower level of skill and strategic learners acquired a higher level of drawing skill. The resulting model of drawing ability development can be applied to expertise in a range of creative and noncreative domains.