I am curious about to which extent an inner eye is a necessity for drawing things without a model. What are your experiences? Are you able to draw, say, a cartoon elephant without looking at a model of one?
I am curious about to which extent an inner eye is a necessity for drawing things without a model. What are your experiences? Are you able to draw, say, a cartoon elephant without looking at a model of one?
I’m a hobby artist and no, you don’t need an inner eye to learn how to draw. I learned how to draw long before I even realized I couldn’t visualize. It makes drawing harder, sure, but it isn’t impossible. I’m kind of able to ‘feel’ where an object might be in space and be able to position it properly on the page how I want it. I find posing humans is harder without a reference and visualizing skills, but that’s also what references are for. I find designing characters and clothes is hard, though, because I can’t see them in my head, or compare in my head types of clothing I’ve seen in the past to mix and match what I want the character to look like.
I did end up drawing a little elephant to try, and yeah, it LOOKS like an elephant, but not a very good one lol
This is very interesting! Thanks for answering! 😀 Do you mind sharing the elephant? 🙂 Of course it’s alright if you don’t feel like it!
I am able to visualize, but I am not sure how much I actually do it when I for example draw an elephant. Maybe it is more about knowing sort of what an (cartoon) elephant ear looks like than actually visualizing one and then drawing it, also for people without aphantasia. Did you feel that your drawing skills were on par with say classmates when you were a kid?
I will post the elephant in a second!
I actually started learning how to draw rather late… I was in grade eight when I started to actually take some lessons. I knew someone who started lessons from when she was really young, so her drawing was always good. Better than mine, but I was also a lot less experienced than her. I’m a lot older now and I’ve practiced a lot since then, but for someone who hasn’t really gone to art school, I think my art is average at best. I have no desire to really persue an actual job based on art, it’s just something I enjoy for myself.
I had to post it to twitter but
just a little elephant doodle for the #AphantasiaNetwork pic.twitter.com/8sB75ACGsL
— Rachel (@BlueBee12345) November 15, 2019
Very cute elephant! 😀 Better than mine! 😀
I doodled myself today actually from memory, but couldn’t get the face right. Sometimes I do leave doodles faceless
Doodled myself from memory during my quantum chemistry class for the #AphantasiaNetwork but couldn’t get the face just right pic.twitter.com/1ZLULPMdcV
— Rachel (@BlueBee12345) November 20, 2019
Hmmm… Interesting.
I’m a terrible artistic art, but quite good at technical drawing – blue-print type stuff, both freehand, with tools or software.
I have no trouble thinking up a doodad and then sketching out what I’m thinking of with the three dimensions taken care of.
By that I mean from in front, one side and above.
the same is tru of drawing something that I’ve seen from memory.
i also build models and modify them, with and without instructions, but I suck at sculpting.
Interesting. I only discovered about aphantasia last week at the age of 66. I doodle a lot, but always geometric-like shapes. I’ve also loved making models (all kinds) since l was a child. I’m finding my discovery fascinating. So far not found anyone else in my friendship circle!!!
I can’t draw anything. Stick figures maybe. 😀 Can barely draw a striaght line with a ruler.
I cannot draw from memory at all, but if I am looking at something right in front of me i can. I always used to get very frustrated before I knew I had aphantasia because I knew – in a narrative way – how I wanted my drawing to turn out but they never work. I tried it recently with a cartoon shark, and I could draw it (badly) whilst looking at it, but when I couldn’t see it I had no idea how to. Conceptually I knew what the shark should look like, but without being able to ‘see’ it , I had no way to translate my narrative description into a drawing.
I can draw without visual recall. It’s easier with things that I have developed a sort of muscle memory for, but in general artist get better the more they practice.
yes i can draw from imagination. i usually draw humans, especially faces. i cant visuliaze my moms face but i can draw it because i have it in my memory. after i realized i have aphantasia, i realized that i draw from my memory. for example if someone asks you to describe a person u can describe. thats how i draw