The Practice of Seeing

Have you ever written something and proofed it carefully, only to see that you’ve been overlooking a typo, reading it as though it were correct a dozen times? We sometimes read what we know is supposed to be there, the same as we have preconceived ideas about images that we try to draw or, for that matter, about the things we encounter in our daily lives.

Upside down practice makes us look more carefully at what's really there. And the more we practice, the more the lines and spaces are loaded into our brain. The sketch above started upside down and got worked over right side up--several times. There was something about the shapes and the angle of the calf's head that I couldn't quite get so I continued to change it until I was ready to try another one.

I liked the angle of the baby's head better in the next upside-down drawing, below. (To see the reference photo, click and scroll to the bottom photo: "upside down--on purpose") So I added a little watercolor and ink. Now that I look at the image, I see that I focused on the Mom's face more with the watercolor and barely dabbled on the baby's face. A little bit of gratitude to Mom for being easier to draw? I think so. Actually, I think Mom's face is more interesting.

Fortunately, our unconscious jumps in there and does some of the work--in art, in writing and in our daily lives. I wasn't paying any attention to the composition, just working on the shapes, especially the calf. But Mom is actually the focus of the interaction in this image. And she gave me the greatest satisfaction. Somehow it shows!

Upside down--on purpose

I was working with a client recently, who was particularly upset about what she was failing to accomplish and as a result, felt a lot of self-criticism and fear. While I was listening, it occurred to me that our negative beliefs about ourselves work very much like the “editor” in our brain that criticizes our work while we try to draw, paint or write.

Learning to turn off that editor in order to fully access the intuitive, creative mind is an important skill to practice, one that expands possibilities and allows creativity to develop. Likewise, learning to change our other limiting and damaging self-critical beliefs is equally as importance to our over-all health and happiness.

And so I said, to my client, “Do you ever draw?” The answer came, “Heavens, no! I can’t draw a stick.” And that’s what she believed. “Okay, then let’s see if you are right about that.” And I suggested that she find a photograph of herself or a friend and turn it upside down, then draw the lines she saw there to see what happened. The next time she returned, she brought her drawings and expressed surprise at how much better her upside-down drawing appeared than her right-side-up attempt.

This wonderful exercise comes from Drawing on the Right side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, an insightful book that can jump start your drawing skills and disprove the myths you believe about your ability to draw.
What happened to me and happens to everyone who tries this is, “the left brain goes to sleep”. The left brain, even though this designation is over simplified, holds our rules, our order, symbols, our beliefs and, of course, our self-criticism. When you turn the picture upside down, the left brain says, “Oh, that is foolish,” and as a result, ‘beliefs’ about what the drawing should look like disappear. In the absence of expectations, self-criticism stops. And the next thing you know, you are just seeing the lines and following them around the page with your pencil.

Now wouldn’t it be nice if we could do this with all our self-critical thoughts?

Today's upside down drawing. I haven't done this in a while. I'm still surprised by the results.

I'll have to try that baby face again. Fun.