As an artist you’ll never see the world the same again

Do artists see the world differently?

Well, that’s a tricky question. Because none of us really knows how anybody else sees the world. We can’t see inside their mind. To make life easy, we tend to assume the world looks pretty much the same to most people. It’s a working model.

But if artists don’t see the world differently, most tend to look at the world differently.

I used to issue this as a health-warning to new students in my drawing and painting classes. Once they start their art studies they might never look at the world in the same way again.

The world is under observation.

The main reason for this is the artists’ necessity to observe the world. As people’s perception of the outside world becomes more visually authentic, first there is surprise – then excitement. When translating a visual experience to a expression on paper of canvas, we develop more acute observation of the subject before us.

For a teacher, it’s a delight to see students experience little Eureka moments stemming directly from their observations.

‘I didn’t realize there’s so much space in trees.’  ‘Wow, arms are really quite long.’ ‘Those distant hills aren’t green, but blue.’

It must be rather like an engineer looking at an engine. She can probably visualise spinning crankshafts, meshing gears and pumping pistons – where the average motorist, lifting the hood of their car just sees a big chunk of machinery that makes it go.

What about the abstract world?

It’s easy to think that accurate observation is only important to figurative artists, but that’s far from the truth. Abstract artists also draw heavily upon real world experiences. They will have sketchbooks, scrapbooks, photographs and files of visual references.

Artists spend their time experiencing the real world so that they can translate that experience into their painting.

I once spent much of a holiday at the coast, sketching waves to understand how they happened – how they roll over and the crest casts a shadow beneath itself, and much more. I’m not a seascape artist, but it was really satisfying to observe how this visual phenomenon was constructed. I’d added the experience to my artist’s toolbox.

In the past, students would spend a lot of time drawing. From the 16th to the 19th centuries there was emphasis on ‘drawing from the antique’ – students would draw, using classical sculptures as models. Not something we would see going down well today, but the theory behind it was to develop observational skills (together with the abiity to translate onto paper).

Visions and visionaries

Many artists will not try to work from reality, but will create images from their own minds. But even they are drawing upon visions of the real word that they have stored. These may be actual figures or landscapes, or colour combinations or interesting shapes etc.

Perhaps one of our most celebrated visionaries, William Blake, drew heavily upon real world images to create the visions in his paintings.

However, there can be little doubt that he looked at the world through very different eyes.

So, perhaps you are interested in how painters see the world, or maybe you are already an artist or just starting out. If you are on the wonderful journey of artistic expression, one thing I can promise, you will never look at the world the same again!  Enjoy!