While wearing eye tracking glasses, seven young people and three professional artists each donned eye tracking glasses and drew the same scene, and some interesting patterns emerged.
For the scene, live models posed as Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players. The biggest difference is time spent looking at the subject. Kids spent a lot more time looking at their work on average, while professional artists spent more time looking at the subject. This is certainly in part because artists have muscle memory around drawing and do not have to be as deliberate and focused on their mechanics as they draw. Artists also spent a lot more time focusing on proportions and overall composition, where kids seemed to focus on a specific element, then draw it, then repeat the pattern.
For those interested, the producers made their datasets available on their site.
• How Do Kids and Artists See While Drawing? | Eye Tracking (YouTube / Function)