Building a Visual Memory File: Height and Width

If you have not done the lessons in “It's as Easy as A, B, and C" click HERE or "A, B and C: Good Things Come In Threes" click HERE and work through those first before proceeding with this exercise or to give them a quick review.

In "A, B and C: Good Things Come In Threes" we practiced how you can "force" your mind to build a Visual Memory File, resulting in a more accurate drawing of your subject. Here, you will begin to learn how to consciously, familiarize yourself with a subject's visual information. This begins the process of creating a series of checklists. Each list gets added to your Visual Memory File.  These lists become your guides throughout the various stages of a drawing or painting.

Starting a New Visual Memory File
Staying with the bottle from the previous exercise, we will start to break down the type of information we need. First, look for a measure within the subject. One that can be used as a common ruler against the overall subject. In the left bottle below, the height is established as 3 1/3 times its width. The first piece of information for your Visual Memory File. This translates into a proportion, a long thin rectangular shape (middle bottle). The next piece, for your Visual Memory File. That rectangle can be split in half and then into quarters (right bottle). The third piece of data for your Visual Memory File.  

A good start. However, the reason we build a Visual Memory File is to become as intimately familiar with our subject as we can. Just as in any research endeavour, the more informative data you collect, the better your final assessment will be in the end.

With this in mind, the green bottle cap will be used as the measure here, showing the bottle to be 2 1/4 caps wide by 7 1/3 caps in height. This breakdown gives us new information about the placement of different elements within the bottle. For instance, the short neck of the bottle is one cap measure from the top. The curve around the middle of the bottle sits about four cap lengths down. The bottom section of the bottle lies at six cap lengths down, etc. More data for your Visual Memory File.

Four pieces of information about this bottle have been added to your Visual Memory File. They are now part of your conscious memory, not only giving you cues to build your drawing with accuracy but helping you catch mistakes earlier in the process. 

Proportion snd Recognition 
The recognition of a person or object has more to do with the correct proportions of their larger shapes than anything else. Our mind processes large shapes first when it comes to identification. Details come later in the process. If the width to height proportions are correct, you are more than halfway there towards creating recognition in your drawing. 

The recognition of your subject
has more to do with getting its
correct proportions than its detail.

For example, using the information gathered above regarding the bottle, we know it to be a long thin rectangle in its overall shape. Once we begin blocking out the bottle, we quickly become aware of any drawing problems due to inaccurate proportions, as seen below.

A Strong Begining
Establishing height and width are strong, the first steps for breaking down and understanding any subject. There are a number of other visual cues that can be applied. Different ways of gathering more information for your Visual Memory File. We will be looking at these in the near future.

In the meantime review this method with different objects and scenes. Practice working it in your mind as well as down on paper. See if you can develop other ways of assessing your subject and post them in the comments below.

Knowledge is power. Understanding how to collect and apply that knowledge is the key, especially when it comes to drawing with accuracy.