This video presents a simple yet transformative two-step drawing exercise aimed at helping artists overcome perfectionism, sharpen observation, and achieve a creative ‘flow state’.
Central Theme: The exercise combats the common artistic struggle of self-judgment and stress by shifting focus from the analytical brain to observational and memory-based drawing, fostering enjoyment and freeing creativity.
Key Components of the Exercise:
- Step 1: Blind Contour Drawing (2-3 minutes):
- Focus entirely on the subject/reference, drawing its contours without looking at your paper.
- Purpose: Activates the visual right brain, enhancing direct observation and bypassing the critical left brain, thus reducing self-judgment.
- Step 2: Memory Drawing (5-10 minutes):
- Turn the paper over and redraw the scene entirely from memory.
- Purpose: Strengthens visual recall, reveals what elements were most impactful to you, and encourages artistic license to fill memory gaps, teaching that imperfection is acceptable.
Key Arguments & Benefits:
- Achieving Flow State: The exercise is designed to hit the ‘sweet spot’ of challenge, inducing a flow state where creativity and productivity peak.
- Bypassing Perfectionism: By making it impossible to judge the initial drawing (Step 1) and relying on imperfect memory (Step 2), the exercise disconnects the artist’s tendency to self-critique excessively.
- Holistic Brain Workout: It engages observation, memory, action, and interpretation.
- Developing Artistic Voice: Encourages embracing one’s unique perception and style that emerges from memory and invention.
Conclusion: This two-step process offers a practical method to build mindful presence, free oneself from the fear of imperfection, enhance visual skills, and ultimately find more joy and authenticity in the creative process. It’s presented as a technique that fundamentally changed the presenter’s own approach to art.
Source: This Drawing Exercise Changed My Life (It Could Change Yours Too)
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