The second sketching class: lesson on misperceived perspectives

On my second art class I discovered what's wrong with my art: my perception of proportions in perspectives and angles is really bad. We drew the 'mechanical hand' by one of the classic European artists from the 15th centuries and kept getting it wrong. Unable to tell which portion of my sketch was messed up, I got increasingly frustrated because the piece looked oddly wrong and I couldn't tell what exactly was off. My instructor thankfully intervened and helped me fix my misconception and misunderstanding, and by fixing a totally unexpected part of the sketch, she fixed it! The risk is, she's not going to be there for me forever, or ever even, how will I fix my art when she's not there anymore? I need to learn to see the world in terms of basic shapes, and shades and their relative sizes. That's the first step to being a good artist. Perception is just as important as presentation, and my perception of the world is completely off. The angles are wrong because I don't know how they are 'right' in the real world.

It's the same thing with shadows. My instructor got frustrated having to explain how to shade correctly to give the depth and texture of materials. Just look there, she would say, can you not see how this is darker and how this is brighter, and you can present it by shading this part dark and this light? And I went...uhhh no, I can't they look all the same to me. Maybe it's my eyesight? Perhaps I'm really bad at looking at the world with an artists eye. It has to be a skill that can be learned!

Oh what a superpower it would be if I could look at the world in terms of basic shapes that can easily be represented. What a win it would be if I can draw from observation a scene in front of me in a matter of minutes, not hours. Including the shading. Oh and if I could do portraits even, how great would it be!

I need to do more sketching and drawing, thirty minutes every day, if not an hour. That improves one's attention to detail. Details were something I felt one could safely ignore until they actually mattered. Maybe it's not so. Maybe focusing on the details from the start is what makes one see the whole picture accurately from the get-go.