TECH: Nanowrimo Notes #7: Learning to look

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

aka Being a better artist in one easy step

Interesting bit on one of the shows here in Japan recently. There's an artist who apparently is also an academic researcher who has come up with a new way to help people learn to draw. First he has them draw from a life-size picture of a model. The results are . . . the normal mix of bad proportions and such. Then he does one thing, and has them draw the model again. Their second picture is almost always a significantly improved rendition -- and apparently the effects carry over somewhat.

What does he do? Very simple - he turns the picture upside down.

His explanation is that we are all conditioned to see the model through our preconceptions. For example, we know that a mouth is a certain shape, no matter what our eyes tell us. Similarly for the clothes (he pointed out that the original drawings almost always have clothes that aren't really what the model is wearing). And so forth. The simple act of turning the picture upside down forces us to really look at what's in front of us, rather then depending on our preconceptions and expectations. And by looking, we become better artists.

Now how can we learn to turn our characters, plots, and other bits and pieces of writing upside down?

Look, listen, experience everything afresh -- and write about it!
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