look over someone's shoulders Does "look over someone's shoulders" in this context mean "to learn painting by looking at the hands of other artists while they are painting" or " to learn painting by looking at the paintings of other artists"? Context; My ability was self taught, I never took more than one art class in college … My artwork was spontaneous because I didn’t have any hangups brought on by any earlier (training). I just looked over [the other combat artists’] shoulders a lot and learned how to work with all types of medium.