Creative Insight Workshops

Hi Folks

I'm very excited about a neat interactive presentation I gave a couple of days ago to an enthusiastic group of around 60 ladies and I wanted to share the experience with you.

Most of these ladies had no training or experience in Art or creativity as such, although there were three Art teachers in the group and a couple of quilters, and so I wasn't sure how the topics I was to cover would be received. I am pleased to tell you that everyone really got into the session, helped with several practical activities I had arranged for them (I don't like standing there just talking to a group, I always want them to be active participants) and the content seemed to really ignite their curiosity.

Even the Art teachers told me later how interesting it had all been for them.

We explored several key aspects of being creative, from the 5 stage process of creativity 1. First Insight, 2. Saturation, 3. Incubation, 4. Illumination, and 5. Verification, through to how the left and right brain hemispheres work. We also did some practical activities to demonstrate how the left brain really tries to control and inhibit the creative right brain and what you could do to overcome the problem.

I am happy to say that the presentation was so successful I will be starting a new drawing course with several of the attendees this week. Result!

Here's a question for you. How do you overcome the interference from your left brain when you want to be creative? Let me know with a comment below.

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

I wanted to share this video with you that explains about the 'Scaling and Sighting Kit' from my Creative Insight Workshops.

You can see more details at: Scaling and Sighting Kit.

I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think.

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Hi Folks

Realistic drawing relies on obtaining the correct proportions of a scene or subject in your drawing. This is especially true of portraiture where a good likeness is the main aim. Let’s look at a method for obtaining correct proportions in your drawings.

What are proportions?

Proportions are about size relationships. When we compare the size of one object to the size of another object we are checking the difference in the sizes of the two objects. This difference in size can be expressed as a proportion, e.g. one of the objects may be twice the size of the other.

Proportions can be expressed in different ways; we can use percentages ‘Object A is 50% bigger than object B’,  or numbers ‘Object C is twice as big as object A’, or ratios ‘Object D has a 3:1 ratio to object B’. In drawing it is usually easiest to use the numbers system (which may include fractions i.e. Object B is one half the size of object A).

Proportional relationships

From any given viewpoint, the sizes of the objects in the scene are normally fixed. If, from your chosen viewpoint, object A appears to be twice the size of object B then this relationship will usually remain fixed. From the same viewpoint, another object, object C, may appear to be one half the size of object B, in which case we know for sure that object C must be one quarter the size of object A.

These are the proportional relationships and for a realistic rendition of the scene these relationships must be transferred accurately to the drawing paper. The proportional relationships in a scene are actually a visual phenomenon based on your viewpoint and are not necessarily related to the actual sizes of the physical objects in the scene.

For example, it is quite possible for a tennis ball to be visually larger than a football if the viewpoint is sufficiently close to the tennis ball and the distance to the football is great enough.

Remember: proportional relationships are firstly dictated by the viewpoint in relation to the scene and secondly by the physical size of the objects in the scene.

Getting the proportions right

The key to obtaining correct proportion in your drawing is to choose one measure (the length, width or height of something) in the scene, or on the subject, and use this to measure everything else in the scene. This first measure is your subject basic unit (the SBU) and you find the size relationships of other objects in the scene by comparing them to your SBU.

For example, if you choose the width of a door as the SBU you can find the correct proportion of the door width to the door height by counting how many times the SBU goes into the height. For example, you may find that the height of the door is two and one half  SBUs high; this tells you that the proportional relationship of the height of the door is two and one half times its width. If we correctly draw the width of the door on our drawing paper at the size we need and in the correct position in the drawing format, we have produced a drawing basic unit (the DBU) that matches the SBU.

We can then use the proportional relationship from the scene with our DBU to correctly assess the height of the door in the drawing. We then continue to use the SBU to measure all of the other important sizes in the actual scene and transfer them to our drawing paper using the DBU. In this way we maintain the proportional relationships of the scene in our drawing; the result will be a very accurate rendition.

Cheers for now

Les

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Hi Folks

Assessing angles in a scene is one of the most important aspects of drawing in perspective but it is also one of the most difficult skills for beginners to acquire. In this article we will look at the main reason for this and how it can be made a lot easier.

Knowledge is the problem

Our perception system is so highly skilled at assessing distance and perspective in the real world that we become inhibited by these very same skills when we want to draw. The reason; we are drawing a three-dimensional scene on a flat surface!

When we see an angled line in the real world we relate it to other lines and objects that are around it and determine whether the line is in fact simply at an angle or if in fact it is a line that has one end closer to us and the other end further away. In other words, we determine if we are looking at a line in perspective or one that is parallel to our viewpoint (in which case there may be no perspective effect). Once we have decided the line is pointing towards or away from us we know it must be part of the perspective of the scene.

This knowledge makes it difficult to draw that line on a flat piece of paper because we will continue to imagine it pointing toward or away from us.

Replace knowledge with perception tools

Once your left-brain has latched on to an idea, i.e. that the line is pointing away from you; it can be quite difficult to change its opinion. The left-brain can be very obstinate when it believes it is right about something!

This makes it quite difficult, without considerable practice, to accurately assess these perspective angles in a scene and then transfer them to our drawing. What tends to happen and I have seen this many times with students, is that when we try to assess the required angle (most people use their pencil for this) we have a tendency to point the pencil into the scene leading to incorrect measures.

In fact, we must make sure that our pencil, or other assessment device, is held in such a way that it remains parallel to our point of view (parallel to your face is easier to remember). In this way we are measuring the angle as it needs to be on our paper. That is, we are measuring on the imaginary picture plane of the scene.

Try this: take two rulers and hold one horizontal in front of you. Hold the second ruler in contact with the first and use it to measure the angle of a perspective line in the scene in front of you. However, point the second ruler into the scene as you align it with the line. Note the angle. Now, measure the angle again but this time make sure that both rulers remain parallel to your face (do not point either ruler into the scene) and note how different the angle is. Normally, pointing the ruler into the scene produces a smaller angle than you really need.

Making it easier

Assessing angles is much easier to do accurately if you use a device especially for the job. You could hinge two rulers, or other straight edges, together at one end so they form a calliper like tool with movable arms but it would be much better to take a look at the 'angle buster' exclusively available from Creative Insight Workshops.

To use the 'angle buster' you hold it at arms length and parallel to your face to measure angles in the scene. Once an angle has been measured and the 'angle buster' set, you transfer the angle to your paper simply by placing the device itself on the paper surface using a fixed reference point already on your drawing (say one end of the required line) and lightly draw the line using the device.

Finally, draw over the line freehand to make the final line more natural. Easy! The 'angle buster' is a powerful tool for overcoming the left-brain issues associated with perspective angles!

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

Many newcomers to drawing struggle to know how to begin a fresh drawing and often find it very difficult to overcome the left-brain issues this brings up. In my classes I introduce students to a useful mnemonic that can help with this problem. I call this the PSST! (As in the sound we make to attract someone’s attention e.g. ‘psst! Come over here’) Method.

What is the PSST! Method?

The simple mnemonic PSST! gives students a useful, and I believe logical, way to remember how to a begin drawing an object. By memorising the meaning of PSST!, you are less likely to be distracted or make the mistake of drawing something in detail (a common mistake) before you have other more important aspects of the object in place first.

The meaning of PSST!

PSST stands for: Position, Size, Shape, and Tone. These are the four fundamental characteristics of an object you need to establish for a realistic rendition.

Firstly, you need to know the position of the object both in relation to the drawing format, i.e. the edges of your drawing, and also in relation to the other objects in the scene. If this is the start of a new drawing, you need to establish the position within your drawing format of the first important object. Use the edges of the drawing area as reference to locate the position of the object to be drawn. For subsequent objects you use both the drawing edges and the position of the previously drawn objects to establish the location of each new object to be drawn.

Next, you need to establish the size of the object. Every object will occupy a certain amount of ‘space’ in the scene and on your drawing paper. A useful technique is to imagine each object surrounded by an imaginary bounding rectangle and to lightly draw this rectangle accurately on your paper. This will help you check both the position and size. Since the size of the first object you draw will determine the scale of the drawing, which in turn will affect the size of all of the other objects in the scene, it is vital to get it right. This is because all of the static objects in a scene have a fixed relationship to each other in terms of position and size from your chosen viewpoint. A common mistake is to draw the first object either too big or too small with the obvious consequences. Establishing the desired scale is a crucial first step for a new drawing.

Thirdly, you need to perceive and draw an accurate shape for the object. The overall shape of an object, the arabesque, changes (except for a perfect sphere) as the viewpoint changes or the object is moved around. Therefore, it is very important to really draw a good rendition of the shape you actually see and not some memorised symbol of the object. Drawing the shape of an object needs you to use the drawing skill known as the perception of edges (this name is credited to Dr Betty Edwards author of the best selling ‘Drawing on the right side of the brain’). If you have lightly drawn the bounding rectangle as mentioned above, this will help you draw the shape by using the method of negative space drawing (Dr Edwards calls this the perception of space)

Lastly, once you have the position, size and shape of the object established the final important aspect is tone. This is where you bring an object to life by shading using various tonal values to capture a good rendition of the light reflected from the object. This aspect of drawing is called the perception of values by Dr Edwards and requires good observation skills.

Use the PSST! Method to help you with your drawing and I am confident that you will find it much easier to work logically through your next drawing.

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

Normal thinking, which we all do on a daily basis, can inhibit our ability to see clearly when we want to draw. Why does thinking prevent us from seeing clearly in the way an artist must to be able to draw realistically?

The two modes of perception

It is a well established medical fact that the human brain has two distinct halves or hemispheres. It is also established that each hemisphere predominantly processes particular types of information (although there is also some overlap or sharing of tasks).

It is also known, although in less depth, that we process information on two main levels: the conscious and the subconscious. At the conscious level we are able to be aware of our information processing and to control, to a greater or lesser degree, how we react to that information. The information processing that takes place at a subconscious level we normally have either no control over or at best only a little control (although the level of control can usually be increased with specific training).

Since we have two main modes of processing information it should be clear that we perceive information in different ways.

Information processing

How we receive various types of information generally depends on which of our five senses are used. Once information has been gathered it is then interpreted by which ever hemisphere is best suited to the task. This is where things start to get difficult for people wanting to draw.

For drawing or painting, the majority of the information we require is received through our eyes; it is visual information. However, since our left hemisphere tends to be more dominant than the right hemisphere, it is the left hemisphere that takes on the job of sorting out the visual information coming through our eyes.

Unfortunately, the left hemisphere is not particularly well suited to visual information processing, even though it thinks it is! It is the right side of our brain that is best suited to handling and interpreting visual information and it is this side that, as artists wanting to draw or paint, we need to use most.

Thinking prevents seeing clearly

Since we do most of our conscious thinking with our left brain (that little voice we all have talks incessantly), when we come to draw we need to be able to stop our left brain from adopting the task of visual processing; which it does quite badly. We must be able to consciously engage our right brain so that we can see the visual information as it really is and not as our left brain misinterprets it.

Since our left brain uses mostly symbols for things it recognises, these symbols are what we draw rather than drawing the real visual information that was received by our eyes. This is why too much thinking, i.e. using our left brain, prevents us from seeing properly which leads to adults drawing like children.

The reality is: the more you think, the less you can see to draw!

Cheers

Les

PS Let me know what you thought of this article with a comment. You can also get updates of new articles by subscribing to the blog. Thanks!

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Hi Folks

Blind contour drawing is one of the most powerful techniques you can use to kick-start a creative drawing session. Read on to discover what it is and how you will benefit from it…

What is blind contour drawing?

In a nutshell, blind contour drawing is a method of calming your overly talkative left brain hemisphere in order to gain access to your right brain hemisphere; your very own artist within! It is the specific skills of perception used by the right brain that we need if we are to draw well. Blind contour drawing is probably one of the most powerful methods we have available to us for making the cognitive shift from left to right brain mode.

Contour drawing is when you draw the outside shape of an object. The shape of a contour is determined by both the object and your viewpoint. Change your view of the object and the contour will usually change too (except for a perfect sphere whose contour looks the same from all angles).

Many people mistake contour drawing for blind contour drawing; they are not the same and achieve different results. Contour drawing is used to obtain the outer shape of an object when drawing; blind contour drawing is used to assist with the cognitive shift from left to right brain. Blind contour drawing also records your pure perception of an object as you draw.

Now we know what blind contour drawing is let’s find out how we do it.

How do we do blind contour drawing?

The obvious reason why it is called blind contour drawing is because you do not look at your drawing paper as you draw! Find an interesting object with lots of detail on it: a piece of tree bark, a textured rock, or use the wrinkles of your non-drawing hand.

Fix a sheet of paper to your work surface so it cannot move when you draw. Hold your pencil normally and locate it over the paper in a position that gives plenty of room around this start position. You don’t want the pencil to run off the paper when you draw.

Now turn your body and head away from your paper so that you cannot possibly see the paper (not even from the corner of your eye!) Hold your object in your other hand or place it on a convenient surface so that you can closely observe all the fine details it contains.

Now choose one point on the outside edge of the object and lower your pencil to the paper. This is your starting point. Now, simply stare at this starting point on the object (do not look at your paper at any time!) for about 15 seconds. Then, very, very slowly start to move your eyes along the edge of the object AND at the same time and with the same slow pace move you pencil and start to draw.

DO NOT LOOK AT THE PAPER AT ALL!

As you observe the edge of the object, try to see every tiny little change in the edge itself and move your pencil exactly the same way. If the edge dips in draw that dip. If the edge bulges out, draw that bulge. Do everything very, very slowly. You are now doing blind contour drawing!

What you will experience

Blind contour drawing throws up some interesting experiences and sensations that nearly everyone notices. The first will probably be a mental conflict as your left brain protests wildly at having to do such a silly task. “How can you hope to draw if you can’t see what you are drawing?” it will repeat to you. “Look at the paper” it will tell you.

Ignore these protests and after a couple of minutes you should find yourself starting to relax. This indicates that your left brain has decided to let you get on with it. Now your right brain can actually take over the job and it is at this point you may actually feel the shift in cognition from left brain to right brain.

After a couple of minutes more of slowly observing and slowly moving your pencil to follow the contour of the object, you will really begin to enjoy seeing all of the fine detail that this object has to offer. At this point, you have achieved the goal of blind contour drawing; to help you make the shift into your artistic mode of seeing!

After 20 minutes of drawing, look at your results. The ‘drawing’ may look like a mass of irrelevant squiggles but in fact it is a record of your pure perception of the contour of the object and has a ‘beauty’ all of its own.

If you see examples of so called blind contour drawing, and the drawing looks quite like a real object there is a good chance the person cheated and looked at the paper whilst drawing; so don’t be fooled!

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

There is an old saying “You never stop learning” and this is so true when it comes to developing your ‘Artists Eye’. As with most skills of value, developing your ‘Seeing’ without appropriate help can take a very long time and so, when learning drawing, it is better to have a quicker method.

The ‘Artists Eye’

What do we mean when we say “with an Artists eye”? Usually, we use this expression to differentiate between the normal, day to day, looking at the world (which all normally sighted people do) and that special way of seeing the world that creative artists from all mediums use.

When you look at the world through your artists’ eye you see much more than you do when simply going about your daily routine. This is because a trained artist has learned how to really see the world around them in terms of: light and shadow, forms, shapes, lines, colour, proportions, perspective, negative space, and the whole gamut of visual perception tools.

With our artists eye we see the world in all of its glory!

How to develop your own Artists eye

The problem when learning drawing is that it takes time to understand and then control the role of our dominant left-brain and its affect on our ability to see in that special artists way. Another issue we have to contend with is how we actually see our surroundings. When we look at a scene we do not take in the whole scene at one go (like a camera does when making a photograph) but instead gather the visual information in smaller units. These parts are then assembled in our mind to form the full impression of the scene.

Our eyes actually use a method of rapid movement called saccadic eye movement; your eyes constantly scan the scene to gather information from the various parts to form the whole picture. This is perfectly natural and essential. However, for an artist wanting to draw a scene or subject it is necessary to concentrate our attention on a limited part of the scene, the area within our format limits, and gather the information necessary to make our drawing.

Part of your development as an artist needs to be focussed on increasing your observation skills. Learning to really see the world; and not just look at it.

The best ‘Artists Eye’ tool

In my experience of teaching art subjects, and drawing in particular, I have found that the single most powerful aid to developing your artist’s eye (and your ability to concentrate on the essential part of the scene) is a viewfinder card.

A viewfinder can be the simplest and cheapest tool you will ever use. The viewfinder is simply a rectangular (or square) piece of thin black card with a rectangular hole in the middle. The viewfinder card can be any size (I use a piece about 10×8 inches for drawing and a smaller 4×3 version for practice purposes) with an appropriate sized rectangular aperture in the centre. Try the 10×8 inch card with a 5×4 inch aperture in the centre (whatever size of card you use you need a fairly wide black border around your centre aperture).

To use the viewfinder for developing your artist’s eye, simply hold it about 12 to 15 inches in front of an open eye (close the other eye) and carefully compose a pleasant scene within the aperture. Move around to change your viewpoint and explore various subjects and compositions.

You will be amazed at how this simple device helps you concentrate on what is important in the composition and exclude everything else outside the scene. The viewfinder works because the black border isolates within the centre aperture just the area of the larger scene that you want to include in your composition.

Once you have practiced with the viewfinder for a short while, you will begin to see things that you hadn’t noticed before. This indicates that your powers of observation or your artist’s eye are developing.

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

Perspective in Art is a subject that has been studied, written about, and debated since it was first codified. Although you could study the theoretical aspects of perspective it really isn’t necessary for successful drawing (Phew, that’s a relief!).

However, for the budding artist there is one crucial aspect of perspective that must be grasped…

The crucial thing to know…

Is to forget all the theory and books on perspective, they are not necessary! What is necessary is that you fully grasp what controls the perspective in a scene and how you can reproduce that perspective in your drawings. Listen carefully…

Perspective is controlled only by viewpoint!

Did you get that? If not, read that sentence again. Nothing else affects the perspective in a scene.

Perspective and viewpoint

Let's assume that you have a scene in front of you. Now, without moving your head, close one eye and observe the shapes, angles of lines, and relationships between objects in the scene.

This is the perspective from this single viewpoint (the position of your open eye).

Now move yourself 4 or 5 paces to the left or right and look again at the scene. Note the changes that will have taken place: the angles of lines will have changed, the relative positions of the objects will have changed, etc.

You are now viewing the scene from a new viewpoint and you are seeing a new perspective. The perspective you see from the second position is totally different from that of the first position.

Les’ perspective game

Try this little game, close one hand into a fist and extend your first finger. Point this finger upwards and hold it about 6 inches (15cms) directly in front of one eye.

Close the other eye; we only want one eye open.

Now use your other hand, with a finger pointing upward, held at arms length and lined up behind the other hand so that you cannot see the distant finger at all (it should be hidden behind the finger close to your eye).

You are seeing a perspective where the finger close to your viewpoint, your open eye, is hiding the other finger.

Now, without moving your head, simply close the open eye and open the closed eye (change which eye is open). You should experience a dramatic change in the perspective between the two fingers you are seeing.

Flip back and forth between eyes to see how the scene changes with even this small change in viewpoint!

Once you have trained your ‘Artists Eye’ to be aware of perspective and how it changes when your viewpoint moves, you will begin to really appreciate the subtleties to be found in even the simplest of scenes of subjects.

Cheers

Les

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Hi Folks

The ability to perceive contours is arguably the single most important first skill of learning drawing. Let’s see why you need to develop this skill…

Contours and shape

Every physical object that occupies space has its own physical shape. The physical shape is often the first thing that allows us to identify an object. Each object also has a contour. The contour is the extreme outer shape you see when you look at the object.

The difference between an object’s shape and its contour is that the physical shape is normally constant (assuming a solid, non-malleable object) whilst the contour can change.

Contours and viewpoint

The contour of an object is determined by the original shape of the object and by your chosen viewpoint. If you look at a static object from various viewpoints you will see a differently shaped contour from each unique viewpoint (the exception to this is of course a perfect sphere).

The same applies if your viewpoint remains fixed but you move or rotate the object. Therefore, the contour usually only remains the same if neither the object nor the viewpoint change.

Why are contours important?

Contours are important in learning drawing because the contour defines the limits and shape of the object on your drawing surface from your chosen viewpoint. The contour provides the bounding shape of the object as it appears in your drawing.

If you correctly perceive an objects contour when drawing you will render that object correctly in your drawing.

Keep in mind that the contour of an object changes with viewpoint; this allows you to overcome your left-brain’s tendency to concentrate on the known physical shape of the object rather than on the actual shape seen from the viewpoint. When you correctly perceive and draw an accurate contour, the object seems to become much more real in your drawing. This is understandable since if the contour isn’t right, it tends to be quite obvious to our eyes (which are very good at spotting illogical perspective).

Concentrate on, and draw, the contour as seen from your drawing position (your viewpoint) and not on the physical shape of the object!

Cheers

Les

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