Observation Skills and CG - An Introduction to Computer Graphics for Artists - page 37

Chapter 3
Observation Skills and CG

3.1 Introduction

Almost every person over the age of six knows how to hold a pencil, how to use it
to make marks, and how to erase marks previously made. Very few people are able
to create a convincingly realistic drawing with that same pencil. The difference is
less a matter of hand-eye coordination and tool use than of observation skills and
understanding of the subject. When a skilled artist picks up a pencil to make a draw-
ing of a model, they know what kind of marks to make because the combination of
their understanding of fi gure drawing and on-the-spot observations tell them what
to do. Holding the pencil is incidental to observation skills and knowledge of how
to translate a three-dimensional scene into a two dimensional image.
Observation skills are one's ability to see, understand, and communicate what
one has seen (Pearson 1972 ). This should be understood as distinct from the simple
act of seeing, which does not entail remembering or communication. For an artist,
observation also requires an analysis of that which is seen. Understanding is not a
passive act, but an active one. The artist uses visual information as part of a study of
a subject. This study allows the artist to create data that can be used as the basis for
a project. The process of observation is what makes it possible for an artist to trans-
late physical reality into a digital simulacrum.
Observation skills are developed through practice (Hourcade et al. 2007 ). It is by
testing our observations that we fi nd our mistakes and learn to overcome them. This
chapter begins by describing some common observational styles, as a way for read-
ers to recognize the impact of certain habits on one's observational skills. After this,
several categories of observational error are discussed, to help readers recognize
errors in their work.
The goal of this chapter is to improve the quality of your observations by showing
some of the ways mistakes are made. This is important to artists, because observa-
tion errors lead to likeness errors . A likeness error is anything that negatively