by Henk ter Heide on Wednesday June 17, 2009
Thinking about my thinking process.
- Processing abstract information
- Finding the limit of my thoughts
In my last post I wrote that I expected that post would be a little further apart in future. This one is taking even more time then I had expected.
On the up side I have figured out that my very annoying habit of talking to myself is actually a symptom of my autism.
Having a visual thinking process means that I can’t think about subjects I can’t visualize. Things like “feelings”, the word “goals”, “business deals” are to abstract to visualize.
I’m not able to think about them except by talking about them.
Accepting that this is a symptom of my autism means a few things.
- It means that I have to accept that I will never get rid of this habit.
- It means that I’ll have to accept that I can’t draw as much as I would want to. Because I can’t think visual at the same time that I’m processing abstract information.
- But it also means that I need a better understanding of this process. There must be a natural boundary. A point where I’ve solved the problem I’m working on and should go back to thinking visually. That’s what I’m working on right now.
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by Henk ter Heide on Thursday May 7, 2009
I’ve started with the book “Drawing the head & figure” by Jack Hamm, which is considered the best book the learn to draw the human figure.
As instruction manuals go it’s quite an odd book. As you would expect it starts out with some instructions on how to draw the shape of the human head, but that are the only instructions you get. The rest of the book is filled with a collection of drawings of body parts. It’s left to the readers own inventiveness to figure out how to draw them.
I didn’t start at the beginning of the book. Since I have been having a lot of trouble drawing noses that seemed as good a place to start as any.
I found that the nose is indeed very difficult to draw.
At first I tried to copy the noses as good as I could, but that didn’t seem to work very well. After doing a few noses I tried drawing the general idea. That worked as poorly as the first Idea.
Only while doing the 11th nose I figured out what the problem is. Until now if I wanted two lines at a specific distance from each other I would start the second line at the point where it was nearest to the first.
But when drawing a nose that isn’t possible. You have to aim a curving line in such a way that the two lines will be at a specific distance half way through the curve. It’s very difficult to judge where you have to start your line and you need a very steady hand to pull it of.
I’ll have to see if I can find some exercise to practice this.
Noses1
Noses2
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