The picture-production process by the painter is not easily studied. By obtaining data about painters at work, this study explores the issues of how the acts of visual exploration and trace-making manipulation are organized into a coherent act, and how the organization evolves over time as the surface of the paper bears new meaning. On a blank sheet of paper, two painters were asked to draw a bronze figure of a foot. Both the picture on the paper and the movement of the painters were recorded by digital video camera and 3D motion capture system. Using RQA strategies, the dynamical properties of the movement of the painters were quantified. It was found that the movement of the head to shift gaze between the figure and the paper, and the movement of the hand holding a pencil was reciprocally coupled in such a way not to be dysfunctional to each other. Furthermore, as the surface of the paper progressively gets modified, the coordination between the head and hand movement evolved over time reflecting the functional demands of different phases of picture production process.
