My progress after drawing 101 portraits.

Aaron Hertzmann published a fascinating blog post explaining why we fail to see things:

👉 The Illusion of Awareness: Why We See Much Less Than We Think We Do

He starts the post with two videos that demonstrate our limitations in our ability to notice things that are happening right in front of our eyes.

He then explains in detail how our eyes work including the peculiar features of foveal vision and the characteristics and limitations of peripheral vision.

His post argues that our awareness is an approximate construction of reality that is shaped by the limitations of our vision and the interpretations of our brain.

Hertzmann then moves to the most important part of the blog post in my opinion. He explains that drawing and photography train you to look carefully and notice things. They force you to see better.

This reflects my experience over the past months as I decided to improve my drawing skills. You notice shapes, colors, values, shadows and things that you wouldn't otherwise notice if you have never practiced drawing. Such as reflected light on shadows, 🤯 what!?

When I spent time learning to draw, I quickly felt embarrassed by my earlier drawings. This is when I realized how much I got better at noticing things. Drawing isn't just about getting better with the pencil.

Which brings me to AI-generated art. I wonder if it is going to impact our ability to carefully observe and notice things?

This post is part of a challenge to write 150 blog posts of 150 words (or more?) each this year. This is post 35 out of 150