Kristina Adams

Reflections on chapter 7-9

Chapter 7 was about perceiving spaces. I liked how
it shows how to draw the negative space. You draw
the outside shape of an object. It really helps you
be able to perceive how an object really is. When I
tried this technique, it was hard at first for me. It
helped me grow to look at drawing a different way.
We drew a stool and it helped me understand how
to see the shapes in different ways. The reason
why we did a chair is because other things are hard
to perceive the detail, so we chose a simple object
to learn on and be easier for our brains to
comprehend.
Chapter 8 was about perceiving relationships. This
one was about perspective and points of view. It
tells us that if you are up higher and look at
something, it will look different than if you are just
looking at eye level, etc. We also took this
erasable board and we got a pen and looked at
something and drew it while looking at it. We drew
horizontal lines and vanishing points which helped
us pay attention to the actual object and not the
picture itself. It also helped us learn about
proportions of the object.

Chapter 9 was about drawing a profile portrait. It

helped us learn about drawing a human face. The
way our brain looks at things is different than how
we visually look at things. Our mind plays tricks on
us, but we have to be aware of what we are
actually drawing and how its perceived by our
eyes. In my first self-portrait, I used these methods
and it was very helpful in drawing myself. The
book showed the example of a self-portrait of
someone drawing their head too small. Even
Vincent Van Gough made the mistake in some of
his earlier work with drawing the facial proportions.
I enjoyed drawing with these techniques learned in
this chapter. The chopped-off skull is what I tried
to avoid doing. The chapters also showed
examples of how two different artists will draw a
persons portrait differently due to their own ideas
and visualization of that person.

Kristina Adams
Reflections on Chapters 10-12
Chapter 10 of my art book talked about perceiving
light. This chapter taught us how to see lights and
darks in a subject. In class, we drew these balloons
with some lights in the classroom off and some
lights on the balloons. The tones were different
and textures make it appear differently in the
different lights. It talked about how to see and then
draw the different shades and have it have a
balance with drawing perspectives correctly as
well. Eyes and nose perspective are width are the
same. I thought that was really interesting.
Chapter 11 talked about using new perceptual
skills to creatively solve problems. It gave the
example of cave paintings that people drew long
ago. The drawings didnt actually look like the real
object, but they drew it the way that they
perceived it at the time. They didnt have
photographs or media to see the real thing.

Chapter 12 was about drawing on the artist in

ourselves. As an artist, the way that I perceive
things is different than anyone else. The author
describes this as magical. Drawing can help us
learn how to solve things by looking at things in a
different perspective. I believe that what the
author is saying is right, that we are all artists in a
way, and that depending on many factors we can
all become better artists and bring our own unique
things to the craft.