Seeing (part 3) Fixing the problem

In Seeing 1 and 2 we discovered that the way our brain is wired can cause problems when we attempt to draw what we see accurately, and that being able to see accurately is essential to improving our drawing skills quickly.  Below I have listed several interrelated concepts that you can master in a very short time.  Once these simple ideas are understood, the perceptual difficulty of seeing can easily be overcome.  I’ll list them first and then we’ll take a closer look at each one.

Measuring relationships (three kinds of measuring)

Measuring proportions, angles and vertical/horizontal relationships.

Treating Objects and Spaces Equally

Artists see the spaces between things as well as the things themselves because on a flat surface both have equal weight.  You’ve heard the term “negative space” referring to the space around objects.  I like to think of it in terms of “gaps,” or the spaces between objects

Seeing Flat

Seeing flat is the ability to see the relative sizes and spatial relationships between multiple objects simultaneously. This ability comes from learning to treat objects and the gaps between objects equally.  Once mastered, it will be like having a photograph of any scene you wish to draw, and thus the sizing and spacing of the elements can be easily established.  This is the primary skill needed for seeing as an artist.

Other Kinds of Relationships

Once you begin to visually flatten space, other kinds of relationships become apparent.

 

Lose Control Early to Gain Control Later

 If you are very loose and light with the pencil to begin with (blocking in with no details), it will pay big dividends with your final drawing. This leads to a discussion of “touch.”

 

Avoiding Names for Objects

If we go with our instinct and think of what we are seeing by its object name (i.e. thigh, tree root, vase, etc.), our left brain will try to superimpose its stored symbol memory for the actual object.  If we think of the thing we are seeing as a simplified geometric form rather than a named object, it is easier for our right brain to guide the drawing function, and we will get a more accurate drawing. 

 

Measuring

I usually start a first class by explaining the separation between the right and left brain and left-brain dominance, followed by an exercise in which I have students draw a “vase face” to demonstrate how the separation of brain function works [Seeing (part 1)].  Then, I put a plain cardboard box on the model stand and tell students to make a line drawing of the box.  Everyone can draw a box, right?

Most of the drawings look like some version of Example #12. 

The student sees this (Example 13).

 

 

But, their previously held mental construct, causes them to make a drawing something like Example #12!

 

This happens because the typical, untrained student sees the box in front of them and then unconsciously allows his left brain to superimpose his previous memory of “a box” onto the drawing he is trying to make.  This causes the distortion.

The drawing becomes an interpretation of the student’s left-brain “A Box” memory with its suggestion of dimensions even though the student’s view of the actual box and its measurable dimensions are quite different!  In a left-brain sense, this interpretation is a sound approach; the left brain carries logical, manageable, simplified memories for everything—although most are not specific.  So, if the left brain takes over, its interpretation of the object will show a logical understanding of its properties, but not necessarily what it actually looks like in its current position.

But if we measure the various components of the box and set up a proportional relationship based on a dimension, we establish by sighting the closest vertical line (the nearest vertical corner of the box), we can then establish every other dimension in relation to that vertical edge as it actually exists rather than following the easier route of completing the drawing using our imperfect mental construct for the box (Example #14).     Initially this takes more work, especially when we are learning the process.  However, if we learn how to measure it will save many hours of frustration and disappointment.        

We will now look at the measuring process

 

Measuring  Relationships

Measure Proportional Length/Width/Height

 Let’s look at what has just happened and demonstrate something called “proportional and angular measuring.”  We’ve all seen the picture of the “artist” (usually wearing a beret and sporting a pointy little mustache) holding his pencil at arm’s length and “artfully” sighting the subject of his drawing.  What he’s doing is comparing the size of two objects in his line of sight; or, comparing the width of an object to its height; or, comparing the height or width of an object to the space between it and an adjacent object.  Like this archetypal sketcher, you too can compare anything to anything using this method—and the beret and mustache are optional.  Look at Example #15. 

 

 

Notice that the artist is sighting between the top of the pencil and his thumb where he’s grasped the pencil.  Although many teachers suggest that you do this with your arm fully extended, it’s not required. As long as the pencil stays at the same distance from your eye when making the comparisons (between two objects or object dimensions, etc.) the proportional relationship will be correct.  So, for example, you might determine an object’s height is a little over twice its width or that the object’s width is about a third the size of the gap between it and the next object.   This process of measuring sizes and relationships is something your right brain does a lot better than your left brain and by doing it, you’ll be ensuring that you are drawing the objects in front of you and not substituting a left-brain mental construct.   At first, for many students, this approach seems not “artistic,” when in fact, learning to measure objects and distances for yourself becomes routine, lets you see more quickly and clearly—and, in the long run, increases your confidence as an artist and your ability to interpret more “artistically.”

Measuring is probably the most important and effective method you can use to prevent left-brain memory takeover.  

 

In the box example (Example #13), if the student had made some simple measurements for locations of vertical corners and related all the measurements to the height of the nearest vertical, then the drawing would look more like Example 14.

Measure angles

You can also use the handheld pencil to measure angles.  Sight align it with the angle you wish to duplicate, hold your drawing up and then simply scribe the angle on your page while making a visual comparison with the original angle you sighted (in the case of example 16, the roofline across the street.) 

 

 

 

When doing this kind of measuring you should ensure that you keep your pencil vertical (perpendicular to your line of sight) as there is a tendency to point your pencil in the direction of a receding line you are trying to get the angle of.  Just remember that the angles you measure must be translated to a flat surface so your initial measurement should be made with this in mind.  Deborah Rockman in her book The Art of Teaching Drawing instructs students to think of the pencil as a clock hand and estimate the time (3 o’clock the small hand being horizontal.) You are translating three-dimensional information to a two-dimensional surface and this is why you need the imaginary flat surface, like a clock face, to reinforce the necessity that your pencil remain perpendicular to your sight line during the angle measuring process, to ensure an accurate translation of the 3D visual data to your 2D drawing surface. 

Vertical and Horizontal relationships

A third use of the pencil for measuring is in sighting vertical and horizontal relationships.  This is an aid to seeing relationships in a complex form (the human figure) or group of objects, and helps us to position them correctly. (Examples #19, 19a, 19b.)

 

Measuring   By measuring angles, proportions and vertical/horizontal relationships you avoid making errors caused by the tendency to rely on faulty mental constructs.  At the same time, you are transferring an accurate, flattened view of 3-D information onto a 2-D sheet of paper.  

 

When students do the “draw the box” exercise, it is amazing how many cannot see the correct version of the box until they use the measuring technique to actually compare the dimensions – by measuring, they are disproving their incorrect mental assumptions!

 

Objects and spaces are equal

Let’s revisit the bottle, the basket, and the box. (See example #6)

 

 In this example, notice that there is a gap between the bottle and the basket and between the bottle and the box.   This gap is called a negative space.  As we have seen, the left-brain cares about focusing on objects and lining them up in a logical progression.   But it doesn’t care at all about empty spaces.  So, try this: draw the shape of the space between the bottle and the bowl.  When you do this, you are seeing both of the surrounding objects simultaneously and to do that are using the right side of your brain.  Because your left brain has no ready-made symbolic memory available for a negative space, and therefore cannot impose an image on your drawing.  As a result, your rendering should be very true to the actual shape and dimension of the space in between objects which happens to be shaped exactly like the edges of the objects themselves. 

Another way to understand this is by thinking about the “Gap” or space between two objects.  The only way you can perceive the size or shape of a space between two objects is by staring in the direction of the objects and not focusing on either object but rather allowing your peripheral vision to gage the distance between them!  You didn’t focus on either object but allowed your mind to flatten the space enabling you to see the gap accurately.  With a little practice it becomes easy for you to flip the mental switch, stare in a direction, out of focus and determine the correct relationships between multiple objects or elements of a scene and thus letting you   

Block In all of the elements before turning your attention to drawing the details of each element. 

 

 

 

Seeing Flat  

When I use this term, I am referring to the acquired ability to look at a three-dimensional scene and see its various components as if they were on a flat surface (as though you were looking at a photographic print of the scene).  You will recall that we have a very small cone of focus and that our visual depth of field is very limited, so the untrained eye tends to focus on individual parts of a scene (first the praying mantis, then the rooftop, then the mountains, and so on).  The artist’s eye can do that too, but the artist’s eye is also able to look in the general direction of this group of objects (without focusing on any single element) and see all three simultaneously!  Of course, they will not all be in focus, in fact, none of them will be in focus, (remember Example 10-11), but in this case, they don’t need to be in focus because what the artist wants (at least initially) is not a sharp image of any one object, but rather the size and placement relationships among all the objects.  

By looking at all the objects simultaneously (focusing on none), the artist can see how far apart they are (the Gaps) as well as the various linear and shape relationships that would never be apparent by looking at the objects in focus and one at a time!   This is why artists can draw a group of objects in a still life and get them all the right size and in the correct place.

And finally, remember the example of the roof line angle and drawing pad?  Take a look at example 16-17) If you tried that and compared the roofline angle with the one you scribed on the paper, then you were “seeing flat.”  The pad is three feet away, and the roofline is forty yards away.  To be able to see them both simultaneously, you had to look in the general direction, but not focus on either.  In fact, if you compared the angle of your drawn line with the angle of the mountainside you are comparing two things that are forty miles apart (in depth)!  Seeing out of focus allows you to do this.  The dominant left-brain wants to focus on individual objects and proceed logically from one to the next to the next . . . and in doing so prevents the right side of your brain from seeing the “relationships” between things.

We’ll complete the list of Artistic Seeing aides in the next installment.

Exercises

1.       Draw some vase faces.  Refer to the Examples 1 and 2 as you do it, but imagine your own unique profile.  Draw the first part from memory, and then draw the second, facing part.  Think about the different process your brain uses to draw each version of the facial silhouette.

2.      Draw some gaps.  Look at the shape of the space between two buildings or objects and make a line drawing just of the gap or space between them.  In perceiving the gap you are requiring yourself to see more than one object even while you’re seeing a relationship between objects!  A relationship you might never have noticed before.  Some call this negative space, which it is, but I think the term “gap” helps you understand the concept on a more basic level.

3.      Practice proportional and angular measuring.  To get used to the idea, set up a chair in your room facing objects on the other side.  How wide is the bookcase when compared to its height? The same?  Three quarters of the height?  How far is the wall clock from the window?  Two times the width (diameter) of the clock?   And so on . . .  If you have trouble with the pencil sighting just pinch the distance between your thumb and forefinger to make the comparisons.  With a bit of practice this becomes a part of your approach to drawing a scene or objects.