Depth Negligence in Contour Drawing
From bib. source
[…] we need to draw only what we are able to see, not what we know is there. We know one blade of a scissors exists under the other, but we see only part of that blade—and that’s the part to draw.
As noted in 20241102174153-Drawing_qua_Sensory_Recording, what is drawn is not the abstract conception of what one is referring to, but that specific, concrete instance which is being indexed by the reference of our word. Consequently, one should avoid the common mistake of drawing what one infers, and through inference knows, from specific pieces of visual information and information from other sensory modalities.
This applies especially to depth-perception. One may know that one thing is located “deeper¨ than “another¨ in the field of vision–that is, that something exists as a fuller contiguous object further along a axis in relation to some other thing. But this should not show up in the drawing beyond what we can analogously infer for the drawing as well.
One should only draw, especially for contour drawing, what one plainly sees on the field of vision, as the information to be recorded of the object should be purely that visual and sensory available to us in that duration and location.
Qualia and rendition
Rendering v. recording
Perhaps, instead of calling drawing and other artistic practices a “recording¨ of perceptual experience (as is done in 20241102174153-Drawing_qua_Sensory_Recording), it should be called a “rendering¨ of that experience. “Recording¨ already implies that one is aiming for accurate replication of an impression or experience, which may not always be the case.
The avoidance of drawing what one knows to favor what one sees could be called, in the case of depth-perception, depth negligence, and more generally be characterized as a kind of intentional negligence.
sense-data perception social_science psychology aesthetics epistemology philosophy psychology_of_art psychology_of_space gestalt_psychology art visual_art knowledge rendering rendition record modality sensory_modality argument_from_analogy contiguity depth_negligence abstraction concept contour_drawing
bibliography
- Capp, Robbie, ed. “Problem Solvers.” In Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner, 26–27. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003.