How Our Eyes See: Part 2

If you have not read "How Our Eyes See: Part 1" please click HERE first.

Now that we have some practical insight into how our eyes function, the next step is to incorporate that understanding into our work using what we have learned about Integrated Observation. 

The Focal Point
The Focal Point of a drawing or painting is the targeted area where we want to direct our viewer to go. It is usually the main subject or area of the artwork. Selecting this point is based on how our central acuity works, that small 5° area of our vision where everything comes into focus. Understanding Integrated Observation, helps us to select and plan for what the Focal Point of our drawing or painting will be. Here the values will have more contrast, the colours be more intense, and the edges the sharpest. As our subject moves into our peripheral vision, those areas are rendered with less value contrast, less intense colours, softer edges, and less detail. Resulting in a picture that has an overall visual harmony where everything works together as an "integrated" whole in the same way that our eyes see.

Segmented Observation  

Segmented Observation is what I refer to as the natural tendency to quickly shift focus around our environment, in a partitioned way. We are not even aware of it because it is so natural. It is like when we walk down a street. Our eyes are continually moving, shifting focus from people to cars to buildings, then back again. We are looking at "segments" of the street scene using our central vision, causing us to think that everything is in focus. This spills over into how we view any subject when drawing or painting, whether from life or a photographic reference. Unfortunately, we see it with Segmented Observation.

Segmented Observation Into Integrated Observation

Look below at the coins from Part 1. Everything appears to be in focus. Look again, now be aware of how your eyes naturally move from one coin to the next refocusing in order to create that illusion. This is Segmented Observation.

Now, concentrate on the coin with the hole. It is a different visual experience. Only that coin is clear and distinct while the rest become more indistinct. This is Integrated Observation. This area, that you are concentrating on, is the Focal Point.

Creating Integrated Observation From Segmented Observation  
Below I have simulated Integrated Observation to the same coins by applying the concepts discussed here and in Part 1. Note how this treatment directs you to one specific coin, the one with the hole. I achieved this by keeping sharp edges and stronger value contrasts at that spot. Moving out from the Focal Point, we see the edges getting softer, the colours looking slightly less intense, and the value contrasts becoming less with the remaining coins. This is the type of manipulation we want to consciously, create in our drawings or paintings.

Image by Uwe Baumann from Pixabay

Whether consciously or unconsciously, people respond to drawings and paintings that portray their subjects in the same way that our eyes see them. Bringing this understanding into your drawings and paintings will help move your work to the next level.

Continue to hone and develop this important foundational skill in both your daily observations and your drawings and paintings. 

How Our Eyes See: Part 1

Many times I tell my students "It is not about how to draw, but how to understand what you see." It is critical to know how our brain processes and evaluates everything we observe. The brain has a lot of power, especially in the area of sight. When we are born, our eyes naturally see everything upside down. Over time our brain is able to flip that so we can process things right side up. Yet your physical eyes are still seeing upside down, even as you read this!

How the Camera Sees
Contrary to popular belief, eyes do not function in the same way as the camera lens. They are much, much more complex than that. The camera lens sees everything in focus from left to right and top to bottom. The photographic images we see in magazines, books, movies, videos, television, computers, digital phones, and tablets have been taken through a lens of some manufacture. Cameras do create other distortions, but we will save those for another time. Photography has become the ruler that most people use to measure realism. 

How Our Eyes See
Our eyes are quite different from a camera lens. They have both central and peripheral vision or acuity. Our central vision observes what we are looking at directly with clarity, focus, and contrast within a small area of about 5°. Moving out from our central vision, our peripheral acuity covers the remaining 175° or so, seeing larger shapes, movement, and general colours but observes no detail or strong contrasts. 

Integrated Observation

What I term "Integrated Observation" is, in essence, seeing the forest AND the trees in their proper visual relationship in terms of how our eyes see. It is being conscious of how our central, and peripheral vision works together to understand the subject in front of us. Seeing the overall picture as it were. The task at hand is then to translate that understanding to create a visually comprehensive drawing or painting.

A Practical Exercise
Look at the photo of the coins below. Due to the camera lens, this whole image is in focus, from left to right and top to bottom. Now concentrate on the coin with the hole in it. Keep your eyes fixed on that point and observe what happens to the rest of the coins. Even though they are close in proximity, you cannot read the text or clearly make out the images on the surrounding coins. Shift your focus to another coin, now this one becomes clear and distinct but the clarity you had on the first coin is lost. This is how our eyes see. This is Integrated Observation. 

Image by Uwe Baumann from Pixabay

Seeing The World Through Integrated Observation

Now, observe this effect in the third dimension. Place eight or ten coins on a table, and walk through the above exercise again. Repeat this with everything around you, everywhere you go. Remember to stay focused on a single point of whatever it is you are observing. Look at a bookshelf, a street scene, a landscape, the dishes in the sink, people in a group, etc. Take note of your experiences and think about how this could influence your work. 

In Part 2, we will expand on what we have learned here and look at how to apply this practically to our drawings and paintings.   

Pay Attention To The Signs

Squinting your eyes is a beneficial way to observe your subject matter. It helps to simplify its main elements while eliminating unnecessary details. It enables you to concentrate on what is important, especially in the early stages of blocking in a drawing or painting. Larger shapes can be broken down more easily. Even in the later stages, squinting helps to keep you focused on what is important for your work.  

Methods of Squinting
While viewing your subject, close one eye, leaving your other eye open to squint down with. Some find it easier to squint using both eyes. The advantage of one eye being completely closed is that your binocular vision is shut down. This has the effect of flattening out the scene before you. When using the one eye method always close the same eye, don't switch back and forth. Please note that squinting in this way is something to be done at regular intervals throughout the drawing or painting process, not constantly. 

Visual Simplification
Squinting helps simplify the values, colours, and forms of what you are observing, enabling you to focus on the overall appearance of your subject without being distracted by the details and translate that information more accurately into your drawing or painting.

Squinting in Practise
Below, the left-hand image of the heron is slightly blurred to simulate the effects of squinting. Note how the feather and foliage details have now "disappeared" leaving only the larger shapes and values for you to work with. Squint at the right-hand image of the heron to see how your eye simplifies visual information. There is a difference between your eye and a camera.

Practice the art of squinting daily. Do it as you observe people, objects, and scenes, so it becomes more and more natural when you are drawing or painting.

Squinting has been used for centuries by artists to aid them in more accurate drawing and, it is a great technique to add to your sketching skill set. 

Art Materials on a Budget

Every artist knows that supplies and materials can be expensive. However, there are alternatives for helping to keep some of those costs down. One is keeping an eye out for sales. Another great resource to consider is thrift stores. While they will never replace your local art store in terms of selection and availability, they can help fill in some holes or downright surprise you with a big-ticket item for next to nothing. This ongoing series will highlight some of the treasures to be on the lookout for when visiting your local thrift store.

Art Storage and Presentation
Portfolios are a great way to manage your drawings and paintings. There are basically two types. Both vary in price, depending on size and style, from $20.00 to $200.00 or even more when store bought. The first is essentially a large zippered "file folder" with handles that you place your work into for storage or protected transport. The second type has a set of binder rings added so that it can hold insert pages into which your artwork can be placed and viewed as a book. These are called presentation portfolios.  

Two portfolios I recently acquired are of the presentation type. One is an 8.5" X 11" size book, that came without the insert pages, costing a mere .50¢. The second, 11" X 17" in size, came with ten unused insert pages for only $1.50. To all appearances, they looked new. The 11" X 17" still had some original tags attached. Both were found in the stationary section, alongside piles of three-ring school binders, even though this thrift store has an area dedicated to art materials and supplies. Over the years I have picked up six or seven portfolios of varying sizes and types all for under $20.00! 

Be on the look out next time you are in a local thrift store. Remember, on top of getting a good deal you are usually helping a great cause.

The lesson here is to look for items in unexpected places. Get familiar with where a particular store places those items, then keep a lookout when you visit.

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.