Section One

The Pixel

Drawing in One Dimension - Pointism

Seeing the world through small shapes called pixels.

Break the subject down to the smallest shape you draw just like a TV set does with small dots called pixels. Your pixel size will determine the viewing distance for your picture. Its placement, shape, color, and texture will be your picture. This pixel alphabet is the basis of much of realistic drawing. If you paint with accurate enough pixels your pictures will look like photographs!

"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." - Luke 16:10

An airbrush artist paints with one color, one tiny dot at a time, 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. It takes him 6 months to complete one picture. Sound boring? Not when you see them. Some of his works hang in the most prestigious gallery in the world. His breathtaking realism is indistinguishable from the camera.

Michelangelo defined creativity as "stucco". This means the discovery of the infinite possibilities of shape in the most common subject matter.

Procedure For one dimensional drawing

1. Observe the shape only of a pixel (dot). Forget what it is supposed to 'be' and study its shape only. Is it rounded, squared, angled, jagged, irregular, saw toothed, curved, smooth sloping etc?

2. Hold the shape in your mind. As you gaze at it mentally trace the edges of it as if you were going to draw them on top of the subject. Study it as if you had never seen it before.

3. Find an edge on the chalk that matches as closely as possible that shape. Literally try to find that shape on the chalk.

4. Imagine the way that you would have to hold the chalk, and the motion necessary for your hand, wrist, and arm to produce that shape on the paper.

5. Select the place on the paper where the pixel is to be drawn. Imagine that it is there already on the paper exactly as you saw it.

6. Look at the chalk. Try to find an edge on it that matches that shape. Carefully place the chalk on the paper with the proper angle, pressure, direction, and distance in mind.

7. Make the stroke.

8. Evaluate it, comparing it to the original.

9. Restate it if necessary, using steps 1 - 8 and comparing the two shapes.

If you feel that this procedure is so complex that you would be bored out of your mind if you tried to do it for every single dot on a paper for six months, you are right! Your mind, that is your normal conscious mind, is unsuited for such a painstaking task as pixel drawing. The purpose for listing the steps above is to demonstrate the difficulty of memorizing rules and laws to draw. So the first goal of one dimensional drawing is to stop our old way of thinking and seeing. Discover new, more excellent way to think about drawing.

"old things are passed away; all things are become new" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

"But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet I show unto you a more excellent way" - 1 Corinthians 12:31

There is an unseen battle for control in the mind that affects the way we think, see and act in life. It is a battle between our old critical carnal mind and the new creative spiritual mind:

"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to one the other" - Romans 5:17

Your critical, carnal mind is like is a bad art critic or a judge in the way it processes what you see. Its normal job is to filter and screen out unnecessary details (like visual shape information). As soon as the identity of the object is recognized it is judged and labeled. All the beautiful details your eyes recorded are replaced with a simple bias critique in symbol form. This mental labeling of the things we see goes on constantly to keep our mind uncluttered.

The trouble is that when we try to draw a familiar subject our art critic remembers the symbol and only the symbol is drawn in place of the real shapes. This is why many adults draw like children. It is not their drawing ability that is stunted but it is the way our conscious mind processes visual material. The system blinds us to the pixels and actual shapes that are there.

But your spiritual mind is like a very gifted artist or an architect, who loves this type of job, and can do it as easily as you breathe. This spiritual mind was created... "in the image of God." - Genesis 1:27 Since God is the creator, His image in us makes us also a creator. Our spiritual mind was created to naturally think and see like an artist-architect. Since God created everything, and His image is in us; then we must have in us some of His creative potential. He has the ability to instantly see every detail of our universe. Our inner artist is like an architect, who can easily visualize every brick and board in a huge complex structure.

All our carnal critical mind can do about it is gripe and criticize. The secret is to get the carnal side of your mind to surrender the tasks of perceiving and drawing detail to the creative side of your mind, the creator-artist-architect within. We must first overcome fears, objections and natural tendency of inner critic (our dominant conscious mind) to obstruct our inner artist (creative mind).

We gain great empowering confidence when we discover and remove the things that hinder creative visualization.

There are many new computer programs (like Pixar’s "Toy Story" and cartoon, "Reboot") that plot points and even move them about in space giving drawings three dimensions.

Our inner creative mind is billions of times more powerful if turned loose! To do this we must free it from the labeling process.

Pixel drawing is one way to stop this labeling process of substituting symbols for the real things. Free the spiritual mind and drawing becomes not only easy but fun.

As a Christian I have enjoyed the wonderful peace of God that passes understanding in my soul for nearly a quarter of a century. As we silence our carnal, critical natures we are at peace with God and all around us. As a Christian artist I have also enjoyed the wonderful peace that comes from completely suspending carnal criticism. By prayer and faith I have learn with quiet confidence to accept and even embrace my mistakes as great teachers of drawing grace and humility. This quieting of the carnal critic, releases the creative echoes of the image of God, the artist that He placed in each of us. It is a serenity that may days after drawing.

Once you learn to open this door to your creative mind you will discover the vista of infinite, artistic potential you were created for. On every horizon there is another horizon! Here we must leave behind both worry and words for they would interfere with the freedom of visualization that makes things seem to just fall into place. There is no time here; no pressure, no expectations. Only freedom to fly where ever you wish. May the Lord seat you in such heavenly places as you stand before Him at your easel!

In the book, 'Drawing on the Right side of the Brain", Betty Edwards explores the amazing nature of this 'cognitive shift'. Your brain is physically divided into two halves. They each appear to process information in such a completely different way that they interfere with each other. This may be why that the Lord used such a small bundle of neural links to connect them: so they could work independently of each other. The following is a brief summary contrasting the two sides:

A General Description

Type of problems it is best suited for:

Style of hand writing or drawing:

Symptoms:

Drawing with half your brain tied behind your back.

These contrasts give us many helpful clues to free our captive creative mind from our dominant left brain. We must tie our left brain behind our back so the right brain can unleash its incredible spacial super-computer processor. Here are some hints of how we will do this.

In each dimension we must ignore what we think our subject looks like and draw:

Habits Of Highly Effective Artists

Since our left brain substitutes simple symbols for the actual shapes we see; we must study every subject in a new way, as if we had never seen it before. Here are some habits I have noticed that highly effective artists use to silence their critical left brain so right brain can see:

Visualizing - Draw it in your mind on the paper first.

Reverse Drawing - Draw the space around the subject.

Inverting - Draw the subject upside down.

Reflecting - Draw the subject in reverse.

Squinting - To compare shapes, sizes, colors, and relationships.

Pure contour drawing - Draw without looking at your picture.

Distancing - Viewing from a distance to check results.

Sighting - Comparing measurements, mid points and angles.

Framing - Holding a picture frame in air to study composition.

The actual bypass occurs subconsciously between the right and left sides of our brain. Artists develop two distinct handwritings in all four dimensions. You can actually become aware of this if you notice:

1. Your inner dialogue changing.

Left - critical, judgmental and labeling

Right - interrogates relationships with a relaxed feeling free to explore possibilities too fast for words.

2. Your grip on the chalk constantly changing.

Left - Tightly choked up close for calculated detail.

Right - Draw while holding your chalk loosely with free arm motions.

3. Your eye movement changes

Left - glancing nervously back and forth.

Right - gazing intensely at shapes exploring their relationships.

Refuse to criticize. Analyze positively. Remember: You don't have to like your picture to learn from your picture. Spot strengths. Identify areas to work on. Change your inward vocabulary. Call mistakes a learning experience.

You can't brainstorm and criticize at the same time. Risk taking is the first step to mastery. Eliminating stress means releasing creativity. Do the most interesting parts quickly before boredom sets in. Failure comes from lack of concentration. These will helps you to be in your right mind as you draw.

 

THE ADVANTAGES OF STUDIES IN TACTILE MODELLING

The masters made a habit of copying from other artists work. Even the most skilled artists today rely heavily on graphic assistance, modelling and photography. They run constantly back to the real objects to escape the stagnation of 'creative inbreeding'. Inbred ideas are often stillborn.

"There are two opposite errors: taking nothing second hand, and taking everything second hand." - Spurgeon

Dr. Margret McDowell in her Studies in Art Education discovered that students who drew from photos or slides showed faster development of art fundamentals and superior technical proficiency than those who worked from live models only.

Drawing is complex process. We must transform a three dimensional world with infinite detail of motion, color, light, shadow, and reflection into paralyzed splotches of pigment on a two dimensional canvas or paper. Here are a few reasons why tactile studies or tracing can be a vital key to mastering the arts:

1. It instantly eliminates all barriers and gaps in knowledge so that even the beginner can concentrate on his own unique style without distraction. The beginner bypasses the tedium of rules and dives directly into interpretation. Your internal thought process, the silent dialogue, will creativity unfold with immediate positive feedback.

2. It guarantees instant and excellent results. Later the things learned and practiced can be drawn without tracing. But while you trace, God becomes your teacher!

3. It frees from the fear of tackling complex imagery and unfamiliar subject matter

.4. It develops the eye-hand coordination and motor skills necessary for mastering the medium.

5. It allows focus on developing on skill at a time.

6. It allows firsthand interactive experience with the medium, building confidence and familiarity with many principles without one lecture or formulae to remember.

Even first time artists have fast, wonderful results with tactile studies. Granted they may be 'baby steps', but when you are learning it helps to have something to hold on to. Remember: Copies are cheap, but originals are priceless. Your interpretation, no matter how 'traced', will be different from anyone else in the world. This process will unfold into your own unique style as you develop your own preferences.

Exercise:#1

Prejudice & Pixels (Please read all the instructions before you begin)

Choose a slide of a real person or scene you would like to draw. Draw it free hand beside the projected picture. Label this picture prejudice and date it.

Now project the picture directly on to the paper where you will be drawing. Use about one fourth of a piece of bogus paper. Turn off the phone. Limit your distractions as much as possible. Set an alarm if you have a limited time to work so you can forget about the time as you work. Play some soft relaxing music as you work. Trace all the smallest dark shapes you can see. Notice how strange each shape looks by itself. Be sure you draw only shapes not the objects they represent. Try to forget what you are drawing and make one small mark at a time. Ask if it is long enough, curved or straight, how rough are the edges etc. Take about 45 minutes and completely trace as many dark pixels as you can. Then trace the larger shapes as groups of pixels. Label this picture pixel and date it. Be sure to save these pictures for comparison studies with later exercises.

How does it work? By drawing shapes instead of objects we silence our noisy conscious mind's childish simplistic symbols and trace the finger of God. Did you notice the music fade as you began to make the cognitive shift? This is the bypass we are building to your inner artist- architect.

Exercise #2

Style Emulation

Repeat exercise #1 with an artist's picture you would like to study. Notice the artist's 'hand writing' or way of pixeling his subject.

Exercise #3

Style Application

Use the artists style of interpretation to trace another slide of a real subject. Try to use the artist's handwriting in your pixeling.

Exercise #4

Pixel Alphabet

Create your own pixel alphabet using a picture of a face. Try to find as many as possible noting the pixel's shape, angles, curves and irregularities.

Exercise #5 Expand your alphabet using pictures of your favorite subjects. Group it into pixels with similar characteristics.

Challenge / Essentials / Obstacles / Blindness / Steps / Value
Style / Hidden Pictures / Troubleshooting / Copyright Information