Things I learned to improve my drawing using Betty Edward’s 5 Basic Perceptions
This article focuses on my teaching class where I focus on understanding Betty Edward’s method of teaching basic drawing. She uses the word ‘perception’ to explain how students see their subjects/objects. We all have unique perceptions of what we see and experience. Often, this is clouded by childhood representation as symbols. When we did the exercises of blind, left hand and emotion drawings, what you drew are essentially symbols or childhood representation of what those subjects/objects are. This is why drawing emotions tend to become emoticons, or when you are asked to draw a man, you draw a stick figure. Our symbol systems as children are a wonderful reminder that we are full of impressions. We learn impressions as children, and we try to express it. When you’re drawing what you see, you use these impressions to express yourself until you learn the method of seeing or method of perceiving introduced by Betty in her book.
A line tends to divide something on either end of it. There is always something on one side of the edge, and also on the other side. An edge does not have to be straight; it can be curved, broken, even very thin almost invisible. And when you begin to notice invisible lines, therein lies the differentiation between the knowledge of the word edge and line. ( I will elaborate more about invisible edge in Portrait and Figure Drawing)
Spaces refers to the areas either divided by edge, or the areas of your paper/canvas that is absent of line. What we use this word for is to understand the dimensional element in 2D surfaces that represent 3 dimensions. Our eyes see in binocular and three dimension. Our other senses such as touch and hearing also feel these spaces. So we look at these spaces and try to represent them on paper, and the way to do this is through concepts of shape, and then of form.
Shape refers to the flat area enclosed by lines. It is concerned with width and length only.
Form, however, tends to refer to this flat shape but it has been given another dimension, a dimension of depth, and this can be done using edges, contour lines, shading, colour, etc.
Geometric forms in architecture and math are pure forms, they can be measured exactly, while abstract forms in nature are more unpredictable and free form. We use our perception of spaces to express these forms.
And then we overlap that with the perception of light and shadow, or sometimes it is called value. This is the theory of understanding objects/subject in respect to light. As the day changes from light to dark, our perception of things around us changes too. Some of the changes are subtle and sometimes they are quite extreme. This spectrum of changes is often what can make a drawing look very realistic. The illusion of three dimensions express through contrast of dark and light, is a very powerful way to express forms, both geometric and abstract. Think about this from the perspective of a photographer. It is essential that they photograph lights.
The perception of relationship is my favourite out of the five perceptions. This is because it is a simple theory, easy to understand but is not well understood because our right brain tends to loose to the analytical detail oriented left brain. This perception tends to confound students who has not yet understood how to relate every line/outline/shape they make to the surrounding space.
Once you start with your first mark on your paper/canvas, you are essentially creating an anchor. This means that whatever your draw after that first mark is always, always connected to the next mark you make and so on. Everything is relative to that first mark. So this is when drawing can become frustrating, when your first mark is so-called ‘wrong’—either in proportion, size, angle or some such. It would be difficult to relate that to a correct mark afterwards until you see where the discrepancies are and correct them. As we practise drawing, I find, in my experience, that you become better at gauging your first mark, and when that happens more often, your confidence grows too.
The gestalt is the fifth perception that Betty Edwards posit as a way we can see the whole picture. It is not easy to find the example of this, but I am reminded of this article written for the auction house Christie’s about master artists paintings that was found unfinished. This is caused by death of the artist, or other natural and social causes. When we look at these unfinished works, we can see and learn so much as to how they’re constructed. At the same time, some artists purposely will draw what interest them the most, and left the rest unfinished. Sometimes unfinished drawings, on purpose or not as the article says, give the viewer an insight into process, and in the context of learning to draw, this is very very interesting indeed.
This brings me to the end of this chapter. And I can only summarize it in this way. When you are new to drawing, concepts take time to digest, and the way you can digest them is by drawing, and then drawing some more. The way I have learned over the years how to improve my drawings, is to make the activity a conscious one. This means when I start to draw something, I have a goal of what I want to focus on in that drawing. For example, I want to explore the kinds of lines Picasso makes by copying his drawing, or I wish to attempt the way curve lines are created slowly into dense shadows.
My attempt to draw Rembrandt’s self portrait sketch
Treating your reference like it is a specimen to analyse, and to give your full curious attention to is the reason why we have to learn how to choose what is attractive to us as a reference. The exercise becomes easier when the subject/object of your observation is interesting to you.
Looking at many different artists’ drawings is extremely important for beginners in drawing. You could, for example, look up old masters’ drawings such as Michaelangelo or Rembrandt and, while looking at their drawings, think about line, space, shadows, and relationship. Can you identify these concepts of edge, space, and relationships in the drawings? Analysis by drawing becomes part of the backbone of your background research, and when you attempt the drawings, you are applying your research to your own skill building.
Enjoy the process and remember—the fun has to come first.