Paint what you see

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“Paint what you see, not what you know” is a fundamental principle in representational art. That does not mean it is the only way to approach painting. Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked: “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.” Art used as therapy, on the other hand, often follows the principle: “Do not paint what you see, paint what you feel.” But for the artist engaged in representational painting, the idea of allowing reality to dominate over one’s own preconceptions is crucial to success.

In the 1982 film The Draughtsman’s Contract, Mrs. Herbert marvels at the artist’s skill and asks:

– How is it you draw so well?

The draughtsman replies:

– I am not intelligent enough to do otherwise.

Mr Neville’s (The artist) point is that intelligence, interpretation, and preconceived ideas only interfere with the eye. If he were “intelligent,” he would begin to think about what he sees, what such an object is supposed to be, or why it is there — and that would corrupt his drawing.

Many people who are new to representational art are far too intelligent. Instead of depicting what they actually see, they try to understand what they are depicting, allowing their preconceived ideas about the object’s characteristics to influence the result.

Many years ago, I taught a course in which the assignment was to paint from a photograph showing a clearing in a dense forest. In the grass grew small spruce saplings. One student asked what they were, and I replied: spruce saplings. She then painted tiny stylized miniature fir trees, the kind one might see in a children’s book.

This was an extreme example of an artist painting what she believed she knew instead of what she actually saw. In this case, she replaced several small spruce branches with her mental image of what a spruce tree should look like.

A very common mistake is to paint the color one assumes an object has, without paying attention to how the object truly appears. Tree trunks are a good example. Beginners often paint them orange-brown — after all, everyone knows that trees are brown.

The same applies to the soil in a ploughed field. Both the field and the tree become brown in the paintings shown below. This happens because the artists imagine soil and tree trunks as brown, even though in the photograph they are black-violet and black respectively.

There are also other parts of the paintings that have been influenced by the artists’ perception of reality, such as what a tree looks like, or how big the houses in the background are and the contrast between light and dark parts of the subject.

Perspective is another common pitfall. People often allow their assumptions about how perspective ought to work to control the image. In the example below, the old shed has a very pronounced perspective due to the low and narrow viewing angle. Yet many people’s preconceived notions of how such a perspective should appear often override reality.

A classic drawing exercise is to copy a photograph upside down. By turning the reference image upside down, the artist is forced to see angles and proportions without the brain interfering by telling the person what the object is supposed to be.

Many years ago, I watched an instructional video by an English artist — I believe it was David Curtis. In the background of an old barn he was painting, there was an object with vague, indeterminate shapes that could not be identified. He then said: “If it looks like a blob, paint a blob.

I have often used that quotation in my own courses: Do not let your intellect ruin your painting. Do not try to understand the object — simply paint what you see.