The Five Skills you need to Draw
National Directory of Instructors
What do you see? (Don't worry, this isn't a psychological test.) Out of a list of things people most commonly answer people either see 2 faces looking at each other, or a vase. (this is adapted right out of Dr. Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain)
Two Faces?
If you see a vase imagine you see 2 faces: the noses almost touch in the middle, the faces both have pretty big chins, the faces are the same color as the background color (white), they're both male, they have high foreheads, aren't balding...See them now? If not, keep watching. The switch will take place.
A Vase?
If you saw 2 faces first, imagine there's a second interpretation: a flower vase. It's black, is flat on the top and on the bottom, has a large basin above the hair of the two faces; the nose, forehead, and chin all make up the middle part, the pillar part of the vase. The slope between the chins and "Adams apples" make up the base. If you don't already see it, keep watching. It'll show up.
Regardless of what you saw first, now try this...
I'm going to assume you succeeded at seeing both faces and a vase. Simple enough, right? What I want you to do now is this. On the count of three I want you to see "vase". One, two, three. See it? Vase.
Now on the count of three, I want you to see two faces. One, two, three. Oila! two faces, right? (If not, keep working at it).
Now jump back to "vase". There it is! And again: "two faces". Now on your own, snap your fingers and see "vase". Snap your fingers, and see "2 faces". Snap: "vase". Snap: "two faces". Keep going. Snap! Shift. Snap! Shift. Vase. Face. Vase. Face...
The Point of all this
See what I got you doing? Right there, what you just successfully completed, was shifting the way your brain perceived what it saw - changing what it was initially convinced was there. And, with a little of my coercion, you quickly learned to shift your interpretation at will. Congratulations. No big deal? But it is! Because if you can do that, you have control over one of the five fundamental skills of drawing. That is, you have it in you to draw. And who knows where that could take you? Think about it, let your imagination get a little grandiose, well who knows what it could make you?...the next Picasso? (Want more explanation? See.......The 5 Foundation Skills of Drawing)
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