SIMULTANEOUS DRAWING

In Transparent Drawing, I used the words simultaneous, and simultaneously, 20 times.  Drawing simultaneously is one of my central concepts.  As I took these photos a few days ago in the countryside of Girona, Spain, I thought, if I were teaching a drawing class, I would ask that students draw this form, from these photos, simultaneously.

An exercise like this would help focus a student’s attention on the holistic form.  This kind of exercise helps to expand our imaginative capacity.  It provides another mental pathway.  And I would assign this as a daily drawing activity.   

The psychologists Shepard and Metzler, back in 1971, conducted experiments which explored this exact concept.  In their experiments, they provided 2 simple line drawings of a form, each from a different viewpoint, and they asked, are they the same form?  What they wanted to know was the time it took the subjects to answer yes, or no.  The subjects reported that their process required that they rotate the forms in their imaginations.

With simultaneous drawing, I am asking the same question as the psychologists.   And I am asking that you draw the form.  Drawing the form gives a far more useful and integrative human response to a concept that is central to our visual perception.  You still have to make mental rotations of the form.  Instead of answering yes or no, we draw it!  What could be simpler or more practical?  

Please, dear readers, feel free to pick up a pencil, or something that makes marks, and make your own simultaneous drawing.  It is very easy to do.  You will end up with a fine drawing.  And you will have expanded your imagination just a bit more.  My drawing at the top is my own modest result of this exact activity.   

1. Shepard, Roger N., and Jacqueline Metzler.  Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects.  Science, New Series, Vol. 171, No 3972 (Feb. 19, 1971), 701-703.