I am an artist who works from photographs, but I didn't understand until recently that it is probably because I don't visualize images. That does change (apparently temporarily) if I spend some concentrated time in drawing and painting. Several months of almost obsessive work will do it. Once I got myself through a 2-hour dental procedure by visualizing the steps needed to create my next watercolour commission. Afterwords, I actually did those steps and it was one of my best paintings. When I paint only intermittently, I lose this visualization ability again. I am about to try to regain it by getting back into daily sketching and painting. I am hoping it will work as it certainly makes life more interesting. It will be interesting to see if it might be a learnable skill.  

I am an artist who works from photographs, but I didn't understand until recently that it is probably because I don't visualize images. That does change (apparently temporarily) if I spend some concentrated time in drawing and painting. Several months of almost obsessive work will do it. Once I got myself through a 2-hour dental procedure by visualizing the steps needed to create my next watercolour commission. Afterwords, I actually did those steps and it was one of my best paintings. When I paint only intermittently, I lose this visualization ability again. I am about to try to regain it by getting back into daily sketching and painting. I am hoping it will work as it certainly makes life more interesting. It will be interesting to see if it might be a learnable skill.