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Do Artists See Differently?

February 13, 2014 By: Paul25 Comments

Bamboo painting by Okubo Shibutsu.

Debbie is walking past her living room. She is struck suddenly by the shadow of a plant, cast on a glass door.

She stands enraptured for a moment, then rushes to find pencil and a sketch pad, so she can catch this fleeting moment that has impressed its beauty on her consciousness.

What is it about Debbie that privileges her with this wonderful moment in her day?

She experiences it because she is an artist. By artist, I mean anyone that draws regularly. If you do, then you have my permission to call yourself an artist.

So here’s my hypotheses:

As artists, we see things differently.

We see the same things, but we see different things in them. Through learning to see, we see more.

I don’t mean we’re particularly special, or that we’re born with a different way of perceiving the world. The kind of seeing we employ is learned. It’s at least partly – possibly mostly – that we habitually focus our attention more on what we see, and partly because we’re actively looking for different things.

The art of seeing

Seeing is not the same as looking. We look at things all the time, passively, barely taking them in.

Seeing is something we actively participate in. Seeing is an act.

I came across a great example of this recently in a book about Japanese painting, written by a western aficionado of Japanese art in the early part of the last century. It relates the experience of a noted Japanese artist, Okubo Shibutsu – famous for his ink paintings of bamboo.

The author writes:

It is said that the full moon casts the shadow of the bamboo in a way no other light approaches. The learned Okubu Shibutsu first observed this and the discovery led to his becoming the greatest of all bamboo painters. Nightly he used to trace with sumi such bamboo shadows on his paper window.

Now, this passage struck me because it forcibly reminded me of something I’d read very recently.

Debbie, a member of our practice community, had been working on one of the exercises that the community is based on. This particular exercise involves negative shape drawing – a method of drawing that emphasises drawing the shapes around an object rather than the object itself. If you’ve ever tried it, you know it amounts to a different way of seeing.

Here’s what Debbie posted on the forum:

As many of you know your life and art intertwine on a daily basis. Well today as I was walking past my living room one of those moments occurred!

The shadow from a Mandevilla I have hanging by my front door was casting a beautiful shadow on the glass of the door.

I drew a sketch picking up on the interesting shapes and spaces I was enjoying. It was both meditative and fun to sketch from life in this session. Don’t you just love it when learning and inspiration come together serendipitously? I smiled and was grateful for this nice moment this morning.

Here’s a photo Debbie took of the visual effect that arrested her so much:

Shadow of a mandevilla on a door

Here’s the lovely sketch she made, from life, in the moment, of what she saw:

Debbie's drawing

So do artists see differently?

My answer: Yes, artists do see differently.

But I don’t believe that this is an inborn gift. I believe it’s a skill that develops over time.

I’ve seen it with Creative Triggers members, who talk about finding themselves rapt by visual phenomena that they might have missed had they not been involved in daily practice of their art.

Would our Japanese artist have been so taken with the shadows of bamboo if he wasn’t already engaged in drawing it? I don’t think so.

So we do see differently, yes.

It’s part of the enrichment we find as practising artists (and anyone who draws regularly deserves that title, remember – that means you too). It comes with the territory. And it’s one of the benefits that makes regular involvement in visual art worthwhile. We come to a closer relationship with the world around us through a broader and more penetrating perception of it.

So what do you think?

Do artists see differently?

Do you?

Let me know in the comments.

Best wishes, and thanks for reading,

Paul

P.S.

Debbie has just started a blog dedicated to these “Small Pauses”

You can see more of her work on her Fine Art Shop.

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About Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you along on
yours.

Comments

  1. 1

    Julie Douglas says

    February 13, 2014 at 9:41 am

    yummy!

    Reply
  2. 2

    Paul says

    February 13, 2014 at 9:56 am

    Thanks Julie 🙂

    Reply
  3. 3

    Jan Hart says

    February 13, 2014 at 11:14 am

    I loved this post, Paul. It’s those moments that take you out of the humdrum and stress of every day, and make life worthwhile. I plan to keep looking and try and draw more.

    Reply
  4. 4

    Maria Vitória says

    February 13, 2014 at 11:42 am

    Agree! happens a sheet of torn paper, saw countless flags and only one in focus.

    Reply
  5. 5

    Paul says

    February 13, 2014 at 11:43 am

    Thanks Jan. Definitely one of the best reasons for drawing!

    There’s a few tips for getting into a regular drawing habit in this post.

    Reply
  6. 6

    Paul says

    February 13, 2014 at 11:44 am

    Great example Maria Vitória!

    Reply
  7. 7

    Heino says

    February 13, 2014 at 1:27 pm

    For me it started out with the desire to create things from my imagination. I just wanted to draw characters, monsters and weapons and that went on for many years before I really changed my mindset. With changing my mindset, I mean ‘forcing’ myself to see the things around me.

    To really focus on the presence a tree takes up in its surrounding. I became entranced by detail and that spilled on over to colour, shape and so on.

    Nowadays I’ve noticed how much of a difference good perception makes to your art. The one influences the other I think.

    The more you draw and pursue to desire to become a better artist, the more you start seeing the things around you. You go out of your way to ‘see’.

    It’s actually an amazing journey.

    Reply
  8. 8

    Paul says

    February 13, 2014 at 2:08 pm

    >The one influences the other I think.
    I absolutely agree Heino!

    >It’s actually an amazing journey.
    Agree with that, too. Very much so.

    For the record, when I was a kid I was obsessed with drawing Spiderman. Then I grew up and started drawing Judge Dredd instead.

    Reply
  9. 9

    Melissa says

    February 13, 2014 at 3:17 pm

    I agree! I have found the more I make the effort to show up for daily practice the more “naturally” this seeing happens, so that I see things all the time all around me. It’s learned and cultivated, this seeing, but now it feels effortless. I never lack for inspiration.

    Reply
  10. 10

    Anne Wright says

    February 13, 2014 at 4:05 pm

    I had a similar moment today while looking at a glass of water on a table and noticing the orange reflection from a neighbouring biscuit tin through the water onto the left hand side of the glass.
    Odd what you notice, even when you aren’t even really concentrating.

    Reply
  11. 11

    Steve says

    February 13, 2014 at 5:58 pm

    A few months ago I was taking a quick break from my work, looking out the office window whilst sipping my coffee.

    A colleague stood alongside and asked what I was looking at. I said how I was taking note of the way the upper branches of a nearby tree are angled upwards, those in the middle outwards with a slight raise at the tips and the lowest were just starting to yield to gravity under their weight but never pointing downwards (what would be the point, it’s purpose is to capture the sun and rain).

    He just grunted “nutter” and went back to his desk. Two years ago, before my introduction to the world of art I’d have totally agreed with him.

    I’m glad to be in this asylum and looking forward to expanding this ‘seeing’ skill as much as possible.

    Reply
  12. 12

    Franchina says

    February 14, 2014 at 1:04 am

    This is a great post and it made me think of the imagist poem by Ezra Pound:

    In a Station of the Metro

    The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
    Petals on a wet, black bough.

    I must agree that art has been the most amazing journey. Not even my training as a photographer has taught me about seeing in the way that learning to draw and paint has. “Rapt with visual phenomena” is the right way to put it.

    Reply
  13. 13

    Paul says

    February 14, 2014 at 6:24 am

    Hi Melissa. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s a skill, and one that, like any other skill, develops with use.

    Interestingly, too, when we’re practising something mentally by simply running through it in our heads, we engage the same parts of our brains to almost the same extent as if we were actually doing it.

    So if you find yourself in one of those moments, visualise the picture you’d like to make of what you see in your head – and your effectively praactising!

    Reply
  14. 14

    Paul says

    February 14, 2014 at 6:26 am

    Thanks for sharing Anne – that’s exactly what I’m talking about 🙂

    Reply
  15. 15

    Paul says

    February 14, 2014 at 6:30 am

    I’m really glad you’re in the asylum with us too Steve! My opinion? Your mate in the office is the nutter 🙂

    Perhaps that’s one of our jobs as artists – to notice these moments, be moved by them, and attempt to communicate them by making something beautiful out of them.

    Your description put me in mind of Mondrian’s tree paintings, which I’ve always loved. As someone pointed out to me the other day, they’re a ver good example of negative shape drawing too.

    Reply
  16. 16

    Paul says

    February 14, 2014 at 6:36 am

    Thanks for sharing that Franchina. I haven’t come across that poem before, it’s a strong visual image.

    Really innteresting what yu say about drawing giving your seeing more depth than working with a camera. I would have thought that photography would work in a similar way. But I wonder if the act of physically making something brings you into a closer relationship with your subject?

    I wonder tis when I see my 4 yr old son doing jigsaw puzzles. He has real physical ones, and virtual ones he does on a tablet. I have a feeling that the physical ones result in more cognitive development for him than the virtual ones, and not only in the area of fine motor control. I don’t know what it is, but I think there’s something qualitatively different about the experience.

    I wonder if it’s the same with drawing?

    Reply
  17. 17

    Kathy G. says

    February 15, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    It’s so startling to read this post this morning. Before sitting down to open my email, and while I was making breakfast, just had to go get my camera to take a pictures of the way the slices of cut orange were arranged in a haphazard way on my cutting board. The morning light was raking across at a low angle and my blue coffee cup was just at the perimeter of the board. I was hungry but had to feed my ‘eyes’ first! Don’t know if it will be a painting but really stopping to ‘see’ it was a gift.

    Reply
  18. 18

    Paul says

    February 15, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    Thanks for commenting Kathy.

    >really stopping to ‘see’ it was a gift.

    Nice that these things are free gifts too – at least, all they cost is practice and time 🙂

    Reply
  19. 19

    helen ingouville says

    March 17, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    how wonderful to exercise our eyes and use them to their full potential.

    Reply
  20. 20

    Paul says

    March 18, 2014 at 7:02 am

    I agree with Helen – with two small caveats, if you don’t mind 🙂

    I think skills like this kind of seeing have no ceiling for development. So we can never really reach our full potential. I prefer to look at it as continual development – today I see better than yesterday because I drew something. tomorrow I’ll see better than today.

    The second caveat is that the seeing part actually happens in our brains. I don’t think there’s much we can do to make our eyes physically better (although I’m no biologist and could very well be wrong about that) but we can certainly improve the functioning of our brains, whatever our age – and whatever commonly accepted beliefs would have us accept.

    Reply
  21. 21

    John Kay says

    March 21, 2014 at 4:27 pm

    I have been trying all my teaching and demonstrating to openpeoples’ eyes to the abstract qualities of what they see.
    Unfortunately in our present society we have so much exposure to very detailed photographic images that the individual tends to regard meticulous and precise detail as the only way to judge visual excellence.
    Skillful arrangement and composition passes most people by. Only by using the Betty Edwards technique of projecting a photograph upside down can I show the underlying construction of a good piece of work. That way I am able to point out the major shape and tonal areas which demonstrate balance and good arrangement.
    Once the need to identify is overcome it becomes possible to appreciate the actual structure of a statement.

    Reply
  22. 22

    Paul says

    March 24, 2014 at 6:10 pm

    That’s a really interesting way to approach it John, and makes perfect sense. Being able to see the picture as a collection of shapes – as design – instead of a representation must really help.

    Although much of the focus of the Betty Edwards book is drawing accuracy, I think quite a few of the exercises are very useful for developing design skills too. Negative shape drawing is a good example (although Betty Edwards didn’t invent that, of course).

    Reply
  23. 23

    George says

    April 5, 2019 at 10:20 pm

    I started drawing animation in the second grade kids made fun of me due the fact I watch and draw cartoon and my drawing was basically based on cartoons I wat hove the years I couldn’t stop drawing and at a point I am now I got better not the best but I got better

    There are time an image can pop up In my mind and I keep drawing it in my heard line by line…. Till I get a paper and put it down.

    Something a realized is that when I get an idea I pick a pencil and paper, sorry this might sound weird but… There are time where I start to draw and I just recently notice is that I stop breathing with with my nose and start breathing with my mouth things just come idea etc just come to me.

    Reply
    • 24

      Paul says

      April 8, 2019 at 7:49 am

      You’d be surprised how many contemporary realist artists started out drawing cartoons when they were kids! I did too 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. AC+UAL PLACE: Moldova | says:
    April 29, 2016 at 2:44 pm

    […] REFERENCES: Daniel Chamovitz – “Researcher argues that plants can see”, Steve Mirsky reports, June 26,  2012 (source) David Gutierrez – “Plants can see, hear, smell, and respond to threats” article, May 27, 2015 (source) Paul – “Do artists see differently?” article, February 13, 2014 (source) […]

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Hi, I’m Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you on yours.
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