01-24-2014, 04:38 AM
I was thinking it was a some what ambiguous question to ask or perhaps its explained poorly. I'll try explaining it differently. Its been proven that imagining yourself preforming a task, imagining your body preforming each motion, is practically the same as doing it in reality. Basketball players who visualized themselves practicing basketball while they were not at the court progressed at the same rate of players that actually practiced more. Now drawing is different from basketball in that it takes more coordination to preform a layup than to draw a circle. But just being able to make a layup wont allow you to win a basketball game. And just being able to make a circle wont make you able to depict 3D objects convincingly.
In regards to Doolios hypothetical experiment. I think if guy A, whos only practicing in his head, was imagining fully fleshed out images in his mind after practicing this for many years, he would be a better artist than you think. And if guy B, who physically practiced, only practiced mindlessly and never thought critically about what he was creating, his art would still be very lacking even after all his work. The difference would be that guy A has trained his intention while guy B has only trained his hand to preform his intention.
In regards to Ursula, I think that is an excellent point you've made. Art is a form of communication after all. Everyone knows what looks realistic and what doesnt naturally. We even have symbols for things in real life, like a graphic symbol of an eye. Part of learning to draw an eye realistically is not thinking about things as their symbols but seeing them as we see them in reality and translating that to a page. Someone who hasnt realized this may spend a very long time attempting to draw an eye realistically and failing without learning what they're doing wrong. So practicing wont help them until they change the way theyre thinking about it.
In regards to Doolios hypothetical experiment. I think if guy A, whos only practicing in his head, was imagining fully fleshed out images in his mind after practicing this for many years, he would be a better artist than you think. And if guy B, who physically practiced, only practiced mindlessly and never thought critically about what he was creating, his art would still be very lacking even after all his work. The difference would be that guy A has trained his intention while guy B has only trained his hand to preform his intention.
In regards to Ursula, I think that is an excellent point you've made. Art is a form of communication after all. Everyone knows what looks realistic and what doesnt naturally. We even have symbols for things in real life, like a graphic symbol of an eye. Part of learning to draw an eye realistically is not thinking about things as their symbols but seeing them as we see them in reality and translating that to a page. Someone who hasnt realized this may spend a very long time attempting to draw an eye realistically and failing without learning what they're doing wrong. So practicing wont help them until they change the way theyre thinking about it.