Hello everyone, I just joined this group a couple days ago. I have very little experience with any memory techniques. I’m very interested in improving my overall memory, but more specifically I would like to apply it to drawing from memory.
I consider myself a decent artist. I think I have a good foundation of observational skills. Here if some of my work http://dariuslipinski.tumblr.com/. However, my memory abilities pale in comparison to an artist I admire, Kim Jung Gi. Just check him out on Youtube and you will see what I’m talking about. I’ve read some literature on the subject like The Training of the Memory in Art by Horace Lecoq de Bosibaudran. I have been practicing the techniques ,which mainly consists of observing something from nature for a period of time, and then drawing it after without the reference. I could get a pretty good representation immediately after , but the image defiantly gets worse the longer I wait to draw it. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to store images into my long term memory. Would just improving my overall memory help retain visual information? Ideally I’d want to be able to quickly observe and retain an image to draw later. It’s something I can do. I just would like to get better at. Also, Id like to create a massive visual library in my memory. I guess illustrating strange an novel images would help with that.
What visual information is important to you?
For example, colors, uniformity, textures, shadowing, size, clear vs indistinct borders?
If so, I would arrange a memory bank/palace in those categories
For example textures:
uniform represented by a flat linoleum flooring in my texture room
mild variety in texture maybe hard wood floor
moderate variety in texture moderately bumpy tile
high variety in texture carpet
Shadowing
no shadow represented by no light on in the room
mild shadow light
moderate shadow flood lamp
heavy shadow lazer beam
Its a good starting point. I’ve been practicing the exercises from the book. I start by observing something I want to draw for five minutes and then try to recall it by drawing it as accurately as I can after. He does talk about memorizing different color and value arrangements as well. I’m mainly interested in just being able to reproduce things from memory using just line. That pretty much narrows it down to memorizing the gesture, shape , function, and contour of whatever I’m drawing. Just being able to internalize and study visual information more effectively would be a great advantage to me.