By Armand Cabrera
Artists use the term learning to see quite a bit when
studying painting. Learning to see is more than a philosophical idea. It is
learning to overcome not being aware of your surroundings. Learning to see is
learning to see things as they are not how we expect them to be. New artists
fail to see color and value because of a lack of awareness. The sky is blue the
grass or trees are green even when the visual information contradicts this
idea. I’ve seen artists in my classes try and make trees green in orange
afternoon light when the trees no longer appeared green at all.
We think we see everything in front of us like a camera does
but in reality studies show we only see
things we pay attention to, missing everything else and actually making up the
other parts of the scene in our imagination.
The term for this is called inattentional blindness. Inattentional
blindness is a real phenomenon that people experience when they have preconceived
expectations about what they are seeing or when they focus on a predetermined
set of parameters that cause them to exclude other important information. It is what magicians exploit to accomplish
their tricks.
As representational artists we have to learn to see things
as they are and achieve a heightened sense of observation to effectively be
aware of subtle differences and shifts in color value and shape. This awareness
allows us to orchestrate a painting in such a way that we don’t have to render
every piece of information to achieve the truth of the scene.
Studies show that perception is based on knowledge and
awareness, it is inattentiveness that allows the illusion of
representational painting to fool most people into thinking they are seeing
something that completely mimics reality when in fact that is not true at all.
If you would like to read more about the phenomenon here is
a link to a short article.
