The Some Of The Bits??

The premise is simple.

"We need to reclaim our ability to see."

A habitual process of looking at our subject matter in a manner that will reveal its structure, and the structure of the visual processes that influence the way it appears, will help us reclaim this ability. So for example take a topic like negative space and examine it in its entirety. Examine it on its own as a separate issue. Look at aspects of drawing individually before recombining them. You do not need to be absolutely conversant with the each aspect of drawing before putting the parts back together again. On the contrary, make a habit of examining each element separately and then using them all combined. This is a continual process of dissolution and solution. This helps the artist develop a comprehensive way of seeing. I suggest that in the initial stages of learning the process has to be very artificial, consciously disciplined and systematic. By this I mean that the artist can choose to

1. focus on one aspect of visual perception at a time,
2. over a sustained period of time,
3. in a systematic manner.

So that the subject matter and visual influences that operate on it are

1. apprehended
2. comprehended
3. consolidated as personal knowledge
4. made accessible to the intuition of the artist
5. included in a repertoire of tools and techniques that are understood in depth and habitual in application.

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This is the beauty of journaling on a regular basis. In her article Training Your Creative Self: Five Tips for Ultra-Creativity. Booth alerts us to the idea that, the first 10 minutes of the time we devote to our creativity will be impeded by mental resistance to entering the subconscious state of perceptual receptiveness. To be able to overcome this resistance it is necessary to become aware of:

• the triggers that take us to this state
• how to befriend these triggers to enable arriving at that state more quickly

After the creativity session is over (routine investigation time) it is normal to return to other 'left brained' activities. Consciousness will lapse back to unterpreting the 'whole' in a shorthanded manner. Once how ever our knowledge of the way we see is truly consolidated into our repertoire, we will automatically use the tools and techniques we have learned and draw with an intuitive accuracy that will be surprising. I believe that 14 days is about the length of time it takes for an artist learning a new

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