In his book, Keys to Drawing, Bert Dodson
points out the importance of our having faith in the authority of the eye. No matter the genre of our painting, it is the eye that gives to us our clues that determine the outcome of the work.
The trick is for the artist to allow the eye to inform the mind rather than bend to the mind advising the eye. Look at these two views of an
acoustic guitar.
How can an image made primarily of curves be drawn correctly with mostly horizontal and vertical lines?
The eye has no problem with that, but the mind does. For the image on the right, the mind will tell you those angles should be
curves. If you obey your mind, your drawing won't appear to be lying down, but if you obey your eye, you will draw it so that it translates in the position we see in the photo.
In Figure Drawing I at UGA back in the early 60's, I had a back view of a standing nude figure. The instructor looked at my drawing and commented, "Buttocks are not round." It was
in that moment that I first became aware of the influence my thoughts were having on my eye.
On closer examination, looking for tilt of angles rather than the curves within my viewpoint of that figure, I saw what my mind had blocked me from seeing. Where the mind has said
"long", my eyes saw short, where my mind has said "curve", my eye saw straight edges tilting.
- Place a spoon on a surface at the eye level similar to that shown in this photo.
- Do a quick line drawing of it.
- Now, change your view point to the one shown here:
- Following how your eye sees it rather than what your mind is telling you, do a quick line drawing.
Did you notice how your mind argued with your eye? That's right--those argumentative thoughts you were having came from your mind trying to take authority away from your
eye.
THAT one tendency is a big reason why so many people have trouble with drawing.
Enjoy an authoritative eye weekend!
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