Blind Contour
May, 2006
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is now a classic text for art schools teaching beginning drawing. Here is a quote on the theory the book is based on:
Two Ways of KnowingBetty Edwards has used the terms L-Mode and R-Mode to designate two ways of knowing and seeing - the verbal, analytic mode and the visual, perceptual mode - no matter where they are located in the individual brain. You are probably aware of these different characteristics. L-mode is a step-by-step style of thinking, using words, numbers and other symbols. L-mode strings things out in sequences, like words in a sentence. R-mode on the other hand, uses visual information and processes, not step-by-step, but all at once, like recognizing the face of a friend.
Most activities require both modes, each contributing its special functions, but a few activities require mainly one mode, without interference from the other. Drawing is one of these activities.
Learning to draw, then, turns out not to be "learning to draw." Paradoxically, "learning to draw" means learning to make a mental shift from L-mode to R-mode. That is what a person trained in drawing does, and that is what you can learn.
I'm often suspicious about this kind of binary thinking, although to some extent it's no doubt based in physiological reality. It just seems too easy. Two giant buckets to categorize mental activities. Even saying that a given mental activity lies somewhere between these poles is one-dimensional and couldn't possibly capture the full complexity of the process required to draw an image.
In this project, I decided to approach one of the classic 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' exercises from the wrong side. In the exercise, the student is asked to turn in their seat so that their drawing is not visible. Then they are to hold their hand up in front of them, and with the other hand almost behind them, draw what they see. The idea is that they can't see what they're drawing while they're working on it, and so they are forced into a purely visual (right brain) mode. They have to draw without mentally editing their work, and thinking about it.
My goal was to draw with the so called logic and reasoning side of my brain. I first developed a code library that would allow me to create an image entirely using only code with an interactive commandline-style prompt. I decided that the final product should be an SVG file. The vector format allows it be scaled to any size for printing, and the format itself is essentially XML, making it easy to generate with Python (my programming language of choice). The library consists of a number of classes for things like polygons, lines, masks, etc. Once that was complete I started up an interactive Python prompt and started type. The only thing visible on my screen during the process was the text I was typing.
It was an extremely slow and tedious process. Looking at my hand, and then typing at the keyboard. The numbers were all basically relative to each-other. I started with a 400x600 canvas, and knowing roughly what the point (200,390) meant within that canvas, I inched along. The final result is shown below.
