Oil and Vinegar
When I began the journey of painting, I thought that learning to paint would be more about how to apply the paint as a physical or technical skill. I reasoned that hand-eye coordination and learning all the different strokes, much like learning scales on a musical instrument, were what was needed to learn to paint well. My coach shared the secret of learning to paint with me, it was learning to see. I thought I could already see. As a part of my process of practicing psychiatry, I'm a trained observer of human behavior and I spend all day looking for minute changes in peoples' faces and posture. I thought since I'm a trained observer that I could already see well and thus could skip a step.
It took me awhile to realize that just because I could observe, did not mean that I could also see. I know that sounds confusing, so let me explain.
In medical school and residency, I learned to observe people. People, as a rule, move. We are breathing, our heart is beating, we respond to stimuli in our environment, we make tiny adjustments to our posture even when sitting/standing still, etc. I was taught to observe, note, and evaluate these tiny movements. During my internal medicine rotation, I learned to observe how a person breathes, which muscles they use to breathe to assess how much, if any, respiratory distress they are in. In psychiatry residency, I learned to observe the tiny changes in a person's expression and whether or not that corresponded to what they were also saying. Because of my highly developed skill in observing, I thought I could 'see' to paint.
In the first several months of learning to paint, I struggled with creating a basic likeness of the still life onto canvas. I thought it was a technical difficulty on my part. It wasn't until I realized it was a seeing problem, did my ability to capture the still life onto canvas improve. It took me a bit to realize that observing and seeing are actually two very different skills. Observing is largely noting either change across time (something in motion) or we mentally compare what we are seeing to a 'normal' or 'typical' construct in our mind. This is an excellent skill for a physician to have, but not the best for an artist.
Seeing is looking at something that is generally still or trying to capture a moment in time of something that is moving (waves). Seeing is taking in all aspects of the object in a moment in time. Sometimes your brain plays tricks on what you are seeing (it still happens to me). Seeing is taking in what is before our eyes in as accurate form as possible. Seeing is NOT comparing what is before you with any previous or future moment in time or with any preconception of what we think normal or typical is or should be. Seeing involves no comparison to any other object or any other moment. Seeing does involve comparing the value from one part of the object to the value of another part of the object. This is intra-object comparison. For instance, the artist would compare the cast shadow of the apple to the highlight on the apple to get a relative understanding of how those two colors and values compare. The artist never compares one apple to another apple.
Seeing is looking at something, a still life set-up, a person, or a landscape, and seeing what is before you without filters and without (hopefully) your brain 'adjusting' the image to what it thinks you should be seeing. Seeing, is quite hard, but not impossible. Learning to see takes practice, some guidance at times, and more practice.
Harold Speed in his book, Oil Painting Techniques, discussed the problem with our vision. He points out that we primarily use vision to determine if our environment is made up of solid objects or not. This was an interesting idea. He discusses how as we learn to walk, we are also bumping into things, and our eyes quickly become attune to distinguish solid from not solid. It is much more important that we learn to distinguish the solidity of the table from it's cast shadow. We will not bang our head on the table's shadow, but could wind up with a lump or worse if we hit the table. We do not need to accurately see the colors of an object to safely avoid running into it as we learn to walk.
For instance, think about a lemon. What color is a lemon? If you said, lemon yellow or yellow, then you are only partially correct. Our brains sees the lemon, recognizes the general color and shape and 'fixes' the image in our brain so that we see a yellow lemon. In actuality, only a small part of the lemon appears to be yellow, or lemon yellow. the rest of the lemon is made up of darker or lighter shades of yellow. The shadow side of the lemon may even be a light brown and where the light is hitting the lemon may appear to be almost white. The color of the lemon changes drastically from the shadow side to the light side, and only the part of the lemon that is near the shadow side appears to be the actual color of the lemon.
Learning to see is learning to use your eyes and not allowing your brain to 'correct' or fix the image to what it thinks it should be. This takes time and practice. It takes many, many hours of staring at still lifes and trying to render them using paint. Once you learn to see, then you can paint anything that is put before you.
How do artists learn to see? One way is to simply practice looking. That sounds a little dorky to say, "just practice looking," but that is a big part of it. When was the last time you actually looked at someone? For instance, where are/were the wrinkles on your grandmother's face? What is the color of your grandfather's eyes? What colors were in the last sunset or sunrise you saw? We go through life glancing at people and things around us, but we rarely ever see what is right before us. Simply looking with intention is a good start.
Drawing what you see also helps to train your eyes to see shapes and forms better. Doing color or value studies helps you to see more accurately. Many artists train their eyes to become more sensitive to value, color and temperature through studies.
After time, practice, and more practice, you will begin to see more accurately. Then you begin to notice the subtle beauty of the world around you. This is where you will find joy and beauty in unexpected places all around you. Your life will be enriched beyond compare or measure by simply learning to see.
Go outside and look. Look around your house at objects and look at them with intent. Set up a still life and begin to paint. This is the way to learn to see. Practice, practice, practice. Once you learn to see, the world opens up to you like a flower opens up for the first time.
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