Studio Seeing : A Practical Guide to Drawing, Painting, and Perception

A study of perception and its role in drawing and painting, featuring practical exercises.  

Studio Seeing offers a close examination of perception as it is used by an artist in the studio. Michael Torlen shares here the successful process he has developed over decades of teaching and studio practice in a straightforward way that other artists can apply to their own work. Using examples from his own experience and supporting them with a rich illustration program that includes works from historical and contemporary artists, Torlen distills clear, effective principles for painting and drawing that will help artists make great strides in their understanding and ability. Each chapter is rounded out with exercises designed to help artists immediately understand and apply its concepts.
 

Opens with several first-person anecdotes about the author’s life as a practicing artist and a discussion of the intellectual lineage of his vision-based pedagogy. Many more anecdotes from the author’s teaching appear in most chapters. The author discusses perception as it benefits the artist in the studio. Perceptual laws govern both our experience of seeing and the artist’s process of creating. The book presents a proven process developed by the author over many decades of teaching and studio practice that the artist can apply to their own painting/drawing and/or teaching. The painting and drawing principles in the book are essential and yet not generally taught or understood. They will benefit anyone learning how to draw/paint or advance their practice. The book will also help practitioners to make rapid progress and to avoid clichéd, overused solutions. It also offers insights and discussions of interest to art lovers and “Sunday painters.” It is for everyone who enjoys viewing and thinking about art. Integrated into the text are more than one hundred images—works of art by well-known historical and contemporary artists and students, photographs, and diagrams—to reinforce the concepts presented. A recap section ends each chapter, followed by an exercise, or group of related exercises, to encourage and guide the practitioner in immediate application of the concepts.