Drawing from observation is a complex intellectual and practical process. In the drawing lab we bring the scientific method and knowledge of cognitive psychology to bear on questions concerning how this process unfolds in the expert and how the process is taught to and learned by novices in an educational setting. During the course of our first studies and by virtue of their exposure to unfamiliar terminology, concerns, methods, constructs, the laboratory’s founders (Raymond Klein from Dalhousie University’s Psychology Department and Bryan Maycock from NSCAD University) and the laboratory’s first manager (Dr. Geniva Liu) were continually learning from each other. Likewise the trainees, recruited from both Universities were exposed to a unique multidisciplinary collaboration and, as much as they learned from their mentors and from the drawing research itself, their mentors also learned from them. The fruits of this collaboration of art and science can be gleaned from the links to our studies. Reflections on the collaborative process as experienced in our first study can be found here: Maycock, B., Liu, G. & Klein, R. M. (2009). "Where to begin? Eye-movement when drawing." Journal of Research Practice, 5(2), Article M3.

​Research at the NSCAD Drawing Lab is made possible through project funding by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Our Studies: