More Drawing with Edna
Untitled, 29″ x 23″ (73 cm x 58 cm), black Pastel on Strathmore 2 ply Bristol
Untitled, 29″ x 23″ (73 cm x 58 cm), black Pastel on Strathmore 2 ply Bristol
Untitled, 29″ x 23″ (73 cm x 58 cm), black Pastel on Strathmore 2 ply Bristol
Untitled, 29″ x 23″ (73 cm x 58 cm), black Pastel on Strathmore 2 ply Bristol
On Wednesday, February 28th, Edna and I got together at her studio for some more drawing. As before, we spent the morning warming up, had lunch (salad of mixed greens, sliced avocado, sliced pear, salad dressing, whole wheat bun. Edna brought me some Twinkies like things for laughs.) We did these four drawings in the afternoon. We’ve done probably over one hundred fifty drawings, not including the ones we’ve kept. For my part, the drawings have ceased to be abstract. The marks are very realistic. They are themselves. If the brain creates everything we “see,” and the neurons in the visual cortex create the image neuron layer by neuron layer, then I feel like I am intercepting an image at a lower level of visual processing. These are the sources for the drawing. For example, the shape in the lower left of the drawing above reads as three dimensional because of the light area to the right, the darker area in the middle, and a somewhat lighter area to the left. Those three visual clues - light, shadow, reflected light - taken together allow the brain to create a three dimensional shape. The dark running from the 7 o’clock position to the 2 o’clock dimension around the shape is nothing more than a wide, dark line. Somewhere in the visual cortex that is made into a “space” behind the 3-D blob. Cover the blob except for the right third, the 3-D illusion vanishes, almost.
This small fragment from the blob in the lower left provides a rudimentary clue to three dimensions. In the bit of picture above, the line from the lower right forms a T connection with backward “C. According to Hoffman, in Visual Intelligence, that is just one “rule” that the visual cortex uses to create three dimensions. The single line “vanishes” behind the curved line and the shape the curved line defines. Artists know this, but I don’t think artists knowingly exploit this knowledge very much.
In these drawings Edna and I have been thinking more and more about these kinds of things. How contradictory can the clues be? How far apart can clues be? How does this affect one part of the drawing relative to another part? How can space in the picture change from one part of the drawing to the other? What meanings can the viewer infer from the conflicting visual clues? Why bother? We bother because considering these problems in detail is interesting and fun. We’re putting together raw material to engage the creative power of someone else’s brain.
Posted by in 21:23:12
