To See

My 4 year old drew this after playing with a kitten for a few minutes.  He then watched his brother play with the kitten and drew a picture of them playing.

I read the book ‘The Zen of Seeing’ by Fredrick Franck in high school and was reminded of it when I saw him happily watching and drawing.  What I learned from this book, so long ago, is that is doesn’t matter what it ends up looking like.  The judgement of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ can take a back seat along with the mental projections and old memories of an object.  This practice is to sit down with paper and pencil, draw exactly what you SEE.  Not what it should look like, not what you think would help someone recognize, simply what you see.  Line for line, shadow and light, space and stuff.

It can help to take a fairly simply picture, turn it upside down and cover it.  Expose 1 inch at a time and draw.  This confuses the brain away from labels and trying to make it look ‘right’ because the upside down image confuses the brain, you can then simply draw the lines, shade the shadows and leave what needs to be left.

This is a meditation.  It is a practice of seeing with fresh eyes and fresh mind.  It is so good for your brain and worthy of your time.