Hi! I’m totally new to the forum, so I hope I’m posting in the right place!
Anyway, my question is about how to use memory techniques when studying art in an academic way.
As a traditional artist I need to learn a lot of visual information about for example anatomy, so that I can see that information in my mind when I draw and paint. If we use anatomy as an example, then the names of muscles etc aren’t especially important, the point is to remember shapes, where muscles connect and overlap, how the muscles flex in different positions, etc. It’s the visual information that is important, how things look, so that I can insert that visual information in to my drawings and paintings later on.
Other types of visual information that I need to memorize are for example typical skin colors and how they change in different areas of the body/skin. Or maybe the shapes if the eyes or ears. Or different compositional layouts and how they look.
To summarize, it’s about learning visual information so that I can see it as pictures in my mind when I draw and paint.
So, my question is how do I memorize this kind of information in most efficient way?
I’m very much a beginner to different memory techniques, I’ve just learn a little bit from a book by Harry Lorayne. But I have a basic understanding of linking images and how to visualize information in my mind using exaggeration and “making it interesting” for the brain.
I’m not sure to what extent memory techniques can be useful in such a task. We usually use visuals to memorize abstract concepts, ie numbers. To memorize visual information like that, you could possibly twist it and exaggerate, caricature the whole thing to make it memorable, that could work. You would then during recall un-exaggerate it all. Again though, I’m not sure how useful memory techniques can be here.
Hi Magnus ! I´m a traditional artist too. I have the same questions as you.
From what I am experience, memorization is great for creativity. This is useful in art. Memorization have a lot of visualization too, we artist need to visualize a lot. Just for this I recommend you keep studying memorization.
The main question how to memorize shapes, I’m still working on it, maybe we can do research together ?
BTW. Speed reading have some good stuff for artists in How to see. For example, I never notice how bad my Peripheral vision is until I start learning speed reading and try not to focus all attention in one word only. We artist squint a lot to see the whole shape and not fix on details, same in speed reading, but we need to comprehend the text, the feedback is less abstract.
Hi, I am an illustrator, and I absolutely understand what you are talking about. The way to remember these things isn’t to try to hold the specific details as isolated concretes, but instead to create a network of deeply integrated concepts regarding the ‘truths’ of reality, and how to represent them. You must read Andrew Loomis, as he is incredibly rational, and he reins in the massive range of information regarding visual representation to conceptual cells, which of course can be learned. His book Creative Illustration is a treasure trove of knowledge for artists. The best in the field in my opinion.
