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Fluid Eye to Hand Coordination
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Expanding on the intentional line warm-up, we will develop your eye to hand coordination so that it can produce whatever clear intent you assign to it. We will develop the ability to see a shape and 'feel the line to describe it visually. When you observe another person’s emotion it is not only easy to mimic it, it is difficult to suppress it. Musicians can develop the ability to think of a sound or hear it in their head and spontaneously play it on their instrument or sing it. This is the spontaneous visual parallel we will develop using the Quick Sketch System.
The human brain contains 'mirror neurons'. The source of the universal human ability to mimic originate,s in part, from these special brain cells. We will train the ability to reproduce what we perceive to expand our skills into areas where most people don't explore.
If you doubt that you have these abilities, remember how you sign your name without thinking and write cursive thinking only of the words you want to say. It is actually harder if you think too much about it. These are the same spontaneous visual marking skills we use for sketching. They are already trained to a fairly high degree.
We will start simple and gradually play with expanding these abilities considerably. This pattern of exercises is valuable in so many ways that I call it my "Pattern Tracing Tool."
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You will notice that lines in some directions are a little more awkward feeling than others. This is normal. These lines haven’t been used enough to have motor memory established to a confident level yet. Here is a little exercise that will remedy this timidity fairly quickly.
Exercise Variation One:
Draw a closed figure around near the perimeter of a full sheet of paper with a starting dot somewhere inside. Repeatedly establish intent on a tiny spot on the line (relax, clear, focus on the target) and quickly draw a line to it. We are creating the habit of establishing intent prior to every line no matter where it goes, so don’t go on automatic yet, even though it is possible very quickly. Take time ensuring your intent but draw quickly. This is an important attitude and habit in all of the Quick Sketch System. Once established it to will happen rpidly but must slow down for each new element learned until it goes on automatic.
We are creating flexible habits that are controllable by the subconscious. We are just establishing the comfortable ability. We don’t want to ‘lock anything in too rigidly. As soon as you are comfortable with each exercise move on to the next. Get comfortable with as many as you can. Invent your own to make any awkward movement comfortable. Stay relaxed and playful. Your brain will teach your muscle memory to compensate for any unexpected variations if you are relaxed, playful and have clear intent. As the form fills in, just trace over previous lines. For variation, begin to start at the perimeter and make the dot the target. (Reverse directions.)
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Exercise Variation Two:
Start a new exercise including a decision on the fly element. We will use two closed lines this time. Draw one around the perimeter and another amorphous shape inside, but still fairly large. Draw alternating lines to one form and then the other. When this is comfortable draw out to one form around the perimeter a little bit then back to the center and back out to the other form. This requires more awareness of the relationships surrounding the lines and decisions. We consider more contexts on the fly. This is what happens when you integrate a sketch, drawing, or the elements in any other of the arts. We are expanding our comfort zones to include this ability in our visual spacial capacities.
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Exercise Variation Three:
Another degree of challenge is included simply by moving the target dot out between the two closed shapes. Make the inner shape smaller so that the lines don’t get to cluttered to see what is happening. Don’t get too obsessive about this one. It develops your ability to maintain awareness of where everything is and how it is related, but most drawings don’t get this kind of geometric complexity unless Etcher is one of your interests. There are many other kinds of relationships and other ways of developing those kinds of awareness.
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