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Memory Drawin Perceptual Training and Recall
Darren R. Rousar
Memory Drawing:
Perceptual Training and Recall
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Memory Drawin Perceptual Training and Recall Darren R. Rousar
Velatura Press LLC, Publisher
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA 3
Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall by Darren R. Rousar First published in 2013 by Velatura Press LLC www.velaturapress.com | www.memorydrawing.com | www.studiorousar.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, scanning, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the expressed written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Copyright © 2013 by Darren R. Rousar ISBN-13: 978-0-9800454-4-4 ISBN-10: 0-9800454-4-4 First Printing, 2013 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rousar, Darren R. Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training for the Representational Artist / by Darren R. Rousar. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-9800454-4-4 ART028000 ART / Techniques / General ART052000 ART / Techniques / Life Drawing ART010000 ART / Techniques / Drawing Library of Congress Control Number: 2013932243
Velatura Press
TM
4
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
For my wife, Kathleen
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Thank you, Linda Crank. You are a gentle and patient editor in addition to being a wonderful artist. This book would not be what it is had it not been for your input. http://lacrank.com Thank you as well to the other eyes on this project: Kirk Richards - http://www.kirkrichards.com Matthew J. Collins - http://matthewjamescollins.com
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Table of Contents •
Introduction
9
History
15
Science
33
Process
41
Shape
45
Value
71
Color
91
Advanced Memory Drawing
99
Sculptural Memory
105
Appendix I Sage Advice from Père Lecoq
111
Appendix II Harold Speed: The Visual Memory 115 Appendix III Curves or Facets?
121
Appendix IV Copying Old Master Drawings
125
Glossary
129
Index
133
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Introduction •
I have discovered that it is of some use when you lie in bed at night and gaze into the darkness to repeat in your mind the things you have been studying. Not only does it help the understanding, but also the memory. -Leonardo da Vinci
At the outset the reader should note that throughout this book I will use the term memory drawing to mean both memory drawing as well as memory painting. For those so inclined, this would also include sculpture (see the chapter on sculptural memory).
W
hy should an artist bother to train their visual memory, and what does that even mean? Can’t I just paint what’s in front of me, or from a photograph, or from my imagination? These are the kinds of questions I get from students when I bring up the subject of memory drawing. This book answers these questions and provides a curriculum for training your abilities to perceive as well as to remember.
Lest We Forget Clearly an artist’s ability to recall something previously seen gives that artist a distinct advantage. That advantage is all the more when the artist’s subject is no longer in view. If you think about it, all life drawing and painting is at some point being done from the artist’s memory, even if that memory is only a few seconds old. Every time the artist takes their eyes off of the model or scene and looks at their paper or canvas, their visual memory is involved. What if that artist’s visual memory was highly trained? That artist might need the model for a shorter period of time, or might have a more productive time when the model is in pose. He or she might be better at painting all of the fleeting effects that nature throws at one when we are landscape painting en plein air.
See and Perceive In Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock Holmes comments to Watson that he sees but he does not observe. This is in reference to Watson’s bafflement at Holmes’ deductive abilities. “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.” 9
Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall
“Frequently.” “How often?” “Well, some hundreds of times.” “Then how many are there?” “How many? I don’t know.” “Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.”1 Whether the goal is drawing, painting or sculpting, memory drawing begins with an intentional effort to visually observe the subject. How well the subject is remembered is directly related to how well it is observed. In other words, artists need to become expert observers in order to have exceptional visual memories. This is true for many fields and very often the memory skill of experts is geared towards their expertise.2 In a sense, they expect to see what they are trained to see. They look for it. As the subtitle states, this book is as much about learning to perceive what you see as it is about memory drawing.*
The Right Sort of Education Memory-drawing training for art students reached its peak during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. However, even back then its prominence in arts education had begun to wane. Kenyon Cox (1856-1919), an American art student of Carolus-Duran and Gérôme, who was also an influential arts commentator, had this to say about the state of memory drawing in his day: I think in almost all modern training in art there is a lamentable neglect of the training of the memory. I have frequently been astonished to find that artists of great ability have apparently no visual memory and are unable to do anything without the immediate presence of the model. This seems to me to be a patent evidence of a lack of the right sort of education. . . I should feel that half the value of a sound training in drawing was lost if it were not made to include a training of the memory as well as of the eye and hand.3 The prevalence of photography and the rise of non-representational art seems to have nullified the usefulness of training one’s visual memory just as the practice was beginning to be formalized. However, as useful as photographic reference is for some artists, in many respects it is a pale substitute for a trained visual memory.
*Cognitive psychologists (those who study perception, memory and the brain) tend to prefer the terms perceive and perception over observe and observation. Since they are synonymous, for the most part I will do the same.
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Introduction
R. H. Ives Gammell and Richard F. Lack R. H. Ives Gammell was arguably one of the last, direct links between French nineteenthcentury picture-making and today.4 He taught many American art students and a number of them went onto teach others. Some, like Charles Cecil, Thomas Dunlay, Paul Ingbretson and Carl Samson are still teaching today. Part of Gammell’s instruction included memory drawing, and he recommended that his students read a book about the subject called, The Training of the Memory in Art,5 by a French teacher named Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Richard F. Lack,6 a Gammell student who was also one of my teachers, somewhat systematized memory training for his own atelier students. As Gammell had done before him, Lack based his procedures on Boisbaudran’s book. He also wrote a brief article about this subject in a privately-published journal, the Classical Realism Quarterly.7 Just how strongly Lack believed in memory drawing can be seen in the following quote from that article: Memory must be integrated into a mature painter’s working method if his or her talent is to be truly fulfilled. I myself, when doing a portrait commission, will spend up to three times as much time on memory work as I do on direct observation.8 In varying degrees, Boisbaudran, Gammell and Lack (as well as my principle teachers, Annette LeSueur and Charles H. Cecil) informed my own memory training and as such this book is an extension of their teachings.
A Daunting Task Although I encourage you to consistently engage in memory-drawing practice, it should not supplant your regular art exercises. Memory-drawing ought to be done in addition to your regular art training, not instead of it. In a perfect world it would be integrated into traditional arts instruction, but the reality is that you will most likely be training your visual memory on your own. You should be aware that what I present in these pages is an extensive and intense course. Achieving your best level will take a consistent, concerted effort over a long period of time, just like what is needed when learning to play an instrument, speak a foreign language or learning to draw, paint or sculpt. Without a teacher to guide and encourage you along the way your motivation is entirely up to you. Do you need to do every exercise in the book? Perhaps, and more. Your visual memory is like a muscle, it needs maintenance to stay strong, and it is no coincidence that the exercises in this book are called just that, exercises. Once you get a sense of what memory drawing is all about and you gain some proficiency in it, you will be better able to determine how much, how often and exactly what exercises to do in order to improve and maintain your visual memory. If you can commit to doing all of the exercises in this book, you will see a marked improvement over time. But let me backtrack on that a little bit. More important than doing each and every exercise is simply doing some exercises on a regular basis. Once you become more adept 11
Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall
at visual perception, memory training can evolve into something less formal. Again, do not let your regular art training suffer, rather, try to incorporate memory training into it. When the trajectory of your regular art training takes you into creating your own artworks, your memory-drawing efforts will also likely be incorporated into those creations. As such, memory-drawing may cease being structured exercises and become a part of the process. Keep your eye on the prize: a well-developed visual memory that will be an ever present aid as you produce whatever artworks you set out to create.
Chapter Summaries Chapter 1 - History The history of memory drawing is long, but unfortunately not very well known. This chapter will help to inform you of its past. Hopefully, history will not repeat itself, and memory drawing will once again be an important part of an art student’s training. Chapter 2 - Science As you might imagine, the research about memory is extensive. Many books and hundreds of academic papers have been written on the subject. Distilling these into the aspects which deal with our visual memory is the main task dealt with in this chapter. The summary background provided in the chapter should help the student understand how their mind perceives and remembers visual information. Chapter 3 - Process To get from one place to another you must follow a set of directions. These can be as simple as being pointed to the destination or as complicated as making pâté en croûte.9 Knowing what informs the directions can often be helpful because it gives the person the ability to put the directions to their best use. These principles are outlined in the chapter on process. Chapter 4 - Shape Perception and memory-drawing begins with shape. This chapter takes the student from simple line comparison all the way through complex figure drawings. Chapter 5 - Value Our perception of values is different than for shape. Therefore, the process of memorizing value observations is different as well. The chapter on value begins with learning how to perceive pairs of flat tones. The student then progresses to simple images in full value, to observing and recalling actual, real-world scenes, and finally, reproducing Old Master paintings from memory. Chapter 6 - Color Color is a complex topic, especially given all of the different variables involved. This chapter attempts to simplify the issue and gives the student guidance on how color perception and color memory can best be trained. 12
Introduction
Chapter 7 - Advanced Memory Drawing Advanced memory-drawing is that which is done from the direct observation of nature. This chapter advises the advanced student on the best ways to practice their visual memory skills when landscape painting and for other fleeting observations. Chapter 8 -Sculptural Memory Drawing The basis for sculpting from one’s memory is similar to many of the principles in the preceding chapters. This chapter goes further and provides the student of sculpture with exercises in three-dimensions. Appendix I - Sage Advice from Père Lecoq This appendix is a reprint of the first appendix in Boisbaudran’s book, The Training of the Memory in Art. In it, Boisbaudran summarizes his teachings on memory training. Appendix II - Harold Speed: The Visual Memory The classic book on drawing is The Practice and Science of Drawing - by Harold Speed. It was originally published in 1913 and since then has impacted many students. In his book, Speed wrote a chapter which explained his thoughts on an artist’s visual memory. This appendix is a reprint of that chapter. Appendix III - Facets or Curves? There are many ways to begin a drawing, whether from life or from memory, and two of them are faceting and curving. This appendix discusses historical reasons for pursuing both approaches. Appendix IV - Copying Old Master Drawings One of the ways students learn sound drawing technique is through copying Old Master drawings. This appendix outlines the process, based upon Gammell’s assertion that the student’s copies of Old Master drawings should be exact.
Onward Certain aspects of this book could continue, almost endlessly, but every author faces a deadline. Fortunately we have the internet! Updates to this book, further exercises and more are available at www.memorydrawing.com and www.studiorousar.com.
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Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall
1 Doyle, Arthur Conan. “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Adventure 1: A Scandal in Bohemia.” The Strand Magazine, July 1891, 61-77. 2 Magnussen, Svein and Helstrup, Tore. Everyday Memory. New York: Psychology Press, 2007. 3 Cox, Kenyon. Art Museums and Schools: Four Lectures Delivered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1913. Pages 62-64. 4 Gammell, R. H. Ives. Twilight of Painting. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1946. Twilight of Painting, is a must-read for anyone interested in representational art. Also see, Ackerman, Gerald M., and Elizabeth Ives Hunter. Transcending Vision: R. H. Ives Gammell, 1893-1981. R.H. Ives Gammell Studios Trust, 2001. 5 Boisbaudran, Horace Lecoq de. The Training of the Memory in Art and the Education of the Artist. London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1914. See: http://archive.org/details/TheTrainingOfTheMemoryInArtAndTheEducationOfTheArtist 6 Gjertson, Stephen. Richard F. Lack, An American Master. Minneapolis: The American Society of Classical Realism, 2001. As an aside, Richard Lack initially coined the term “Classical Realism” in 1982 for an exhibition catalog, Classical Realism, The Other Twentieth Century. For more on its history, see Gjertson, Stephen. “Classical Realism: A Living Artistic Tradition.” Stephen Gjertson Galleries. N.p., 11 2010. Web. 12 April 2012. . 7 Lack, Richard F. “Memory Training For Painters.” Classical Realism Quarterly. V.2 (1990): 18-21. This article is available through my website, here: http://www.studiorousar.com/2013/01/08/richard-lack-on-memory-drawing/ 8 Ibid., page 21. 9 Culinary Institute of America. “How to Make Pâté en Croûte.” http://chefsblade.monster.com. http://chefsblade. monster.com/training/articles/712-how-to-make-pt-en-crote (accessed January 22, 2013).
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History•
I will tell you my idea of a portrait, said Corot: Let a person walk slowly through an open door, about ten feet away from you; let him pass and repass a few times; then if, after he has gone, you can paint the image which he has left in your brain, you will paint a portrait. If you sit down before him, you begin to count his buttons.1
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hrough the years artists have sought to improve their visual memory for four distinct and yet not always exclusive reasons:
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to develop the ability to accurately recall something which they had previously seen to remember fleeting effects to recall the essentials of something which they had previously seen to enhance their imagination
Behind these distinctions are factors which, in part, motivated representational artists as well as representational arts education. Because of this, it is helpful to look at those factors in some detail because they can impact how memory-drawing training is undertaken.
An Artist’s Outward Vision Broadly speaking, those artists on one side of the representational coin were those for whom recreating what they observed was the highest form of artistic achievement and joy. Part of their training was learning to artfully adjust what was seen, only after a certain level of accuracy was attained. The late nineteenth-century English artist Walter Crane, a student of Ruskin and the author of the book Line & Color, called this kind of motivation for painting an example of the “outward vision.”2 He also defines this quite well, but it is important to remember when reading his definition that he is writing about an accomplished artist, not a student in training. The painter and the sculptor often seek as complete a representation as possible, and what may be called complete representation is within the range of their resources. Yet unless some individual choice or feeling impresses the work of either kind it is not a re-presentation [sic], but becomes an imitation, and therefore inartistic.3
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All drawing and painting from life is at some point done from memory, even if that memory is only seconds old. An artist’s ability to recall something previously seen is all the more important when their subject is no longer in view. Da Vinci, Corot, Degas, Whistler, and Inness wrote about it. In fact, Inness claimed that many of his best landscape paintings were done from memory. Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall teaches you how to visually perceive and accurately recall those perceptions. It will also help you improve your abilities to remember fleeting effects, seize essentials, and even enhance your imagination. www.StudioRousar.com
Velatura Press
TM
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA