Experiment #3
CAN YOU LEARN TO DRAW WITHOUT VISUAL FEEDBACK?
Eliminating the visual feedback loop
1st Step: By creating a visual barrier between me and my drawing I will make several hundred drawings of the same objects. What will I learn?
Why do this experiment? Drawing is hard. We spend so much time judging our drawings we don’t let ourselves truly look at the object we are drawing.
The experiment is about learning to see the objects and truly understand the series of movements that are needed to create the drawing. We learn from an early age how to move through space (proprioception). Through training I should be able to learn where my hand is in relationship to a piece of paper. The information has to go from my eyes through my spatial knowledge into my muscle memory.
Eliminating Expectations
By eliminating the visual feedback loop I am also eliminating any expectations All energy needs to go into translating what I see into movement, instead of the more common way of learning to draw where you try to match up the drawing with what you are looking at. This experiment is also about memorization and drawing the image in your mind’s eye. I have to remember what part of the objects I have already drawn at all times. The process is about learning to understand a shape, reducing a 3D object down into a 2D one, then figuring out layout and relationships between the objects. This is a process of looking and observing, something my subconscious is way better at than my rational mind.
PREDICTION
My prediction is that the drawings are not going to be of an academic nature, but a more thoughtful drawing of the essence of a form and the relationships between all the objects. The drawing will have a very self assured quality to it, as you can ‘t question a line if you lay it down blindly. These drawings will be very different from anything I would create if I was able to look at my drawing while I create it.
If I learn to draw an object by learning to move in space (proprioception) I will have internalized the shapes and am able to draw the shapes from memory at any time. If, I then want to draw the image from memory, while looking at my paper, I will probably not succeed. Once I have finished with this experiment, there will be two instances of the still life. The one that’s set up in front of me, and the one that is the accumulated imagery in my mind’s eye and saved into my muscle memory.
