When would-be artists learn to draw, they are; using fine motor skills, applying muscle memory, handling materials and or tools, applying theoretical information to practical applications (for example, perspective, or using the value scale) and ‘learning to see’. This last is perhaps the most complicated and simplest thing to teach, some will not need teaching at all.
‘Seeing’ like an artist is a slippery concept but is generally accepted as accurately observing and recording objects and light as they appear in the world around you. In my own early art school training the work of Betty Edwards, and her influential book ‘Drawing on The Right side of The Brain’ was highly regarded and influential. Edwards developed and tested a series of drawing exercises for her students based on a left-brain, right-brain split in functionality. This was based on brain research by Professors Jerome Bruner and Roger W Sperry and exploited the idea that the right side of the brain is creative, and that you could train yourself to engage this side, and therefore be able to ‘see’ as an artist does [Edwards: 1979]. The fact that many of these exercises work to develop good drawing skills and are used by artist teachers (and myself) to this day is perhaps testament more to their being tried and tested for many years previous to the right-side theory, than the theory itself.
The Right Brain theory has been largely debunked by the invention of the MRI machine and through studies conducted at the University of Utah by neuroscientists in 2013. Over years of drawing and my experience teaching others to draw I have developed my own theory, or set of teaching methodologies. Learning to ‘see’ requires the development of a variety of strategies of interpretation and measurement (techniques which can be taught) in addition to habits of working, muscle memory and coordination (including neurological adaptations, and perhaps an overriding of perceptual visual symbols retained from childhood [Edwards: 1979]) which develop over time through many hours of practice, critical reflection and practice again. There is no magic formula, and no short cut to ‘unlock’ your inner artist, it is a complex process which involves many factors which traditional art teaching has evolved over many years to facilitate.
One of Edwards exercises includes drawing your own version of a reference picture whilst the picture is upside down. The example used in the book is that of Pablo Picasso’s drawing of Igor Stravinsky.
Picasso’s drawings of his neoclassical period show similarities to the precision of line, and acute observation of the preparatory portrait drawings of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. These drawings show a distillation of information into the line. Form, tone and character are all concentrated into the line.
To try the exercise yourself:
Read all the way through before you start. This is a version of the exercise I have used with my own students.
Draw your own version of the the upside down portrait. It’s important that it’s one you haven’t seen the correct way up. Don’t cheat halfway through!
Take your time, 30-40 minutes if you are a beginner.
Try not to identify each element to yourself, ie “now I am drawing the fingers”, just concentrate on the line.
Look for abstract shapes between the lines. Look for the relationships and proportions of each shape and line. Proportion means keeping the size of each part of the drawing in correct relationship with other areas of the drawing. Proportions are easier to manage if you are not changing scale. So try to draw your drawing at the same size as the reference drawing. Try not to have any preconceptions of the finished drawing. Drawing exercises are EXERCISES, they are a learning process to be experienced, not a product to be produced.
When you are finished, turn your drawing and the reference the right way up.
You can see lots of versions of Picasso’s Stravinsky via this exercise on social media, and see how other would-be artists enjoyed the exercise.