Why Do Line Drawings Work? A Realism Hypothesis

Abstract

Why is it that we can recognize object identity and 3D shape from line drawings, even though they do not exist in the natural world? This paper hypothesizes that the human visual system perceives line drawings as if they were approximately realistic images. Moreover, the techniques of line drawing are chosen to accurately convey shape to a human observer. Several implications and variants of this hypothesis are explored.

Accepted to Perception

References in corpus (3)

• Line Drawings from 3D Models
• Neural Painters: A learned differentiable constraint for generating brushstroke paintings
• Unsupervised Doodling and Painting with Improved SPIRAL

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Designing Perceptual Puzzles by Differentiating Probabilistic Programs
• The Role of Edges in Line Drawing Perception
• Computational Scaffolding of Composition, Value, and Color for Disciplined Drawing
• SketchEmbedNet: Learning Novel Concepts by Imitating Drawings
• Neural Contours: Learning to Draw Lines from 3D Shapes