why is drawing from memory so hard? the skills you actually need
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Hi Reader, I have a question for you: Can you draw something realistically from memory? If your answer is no, you’re in very good company. In my 20-something years of teaching, I’ve met maybe one or two people who could draw realistically from memory. I remember one student in particular who was incredibly good at drawing horses. She spent a huge amount of time around horses, drawing them from observation, studying photographs, and then drawing and painting horses from her imagination when she didn’t have one in front of her. Of course she was good at drawing horses from memory: she had practiced it! And yet I see artists all the time who use their ability to draw from memory as some kind of test of whether they are “good enough” to call themselves artists. That got me thinking about what our brains actually do with all of the visual information we take in, and why drawing from memory is so much harder than we often realize. More importantly, I started thinking about whether drawing from memory should even be the goal. Because if what you really want is to make art that feels like yours, there are other skills that matter much more. I dig into all of this in my newest article (Yes!! YouTube is back after summer hiatus!): 👉Read/watch Why Is Drawing From Memory So Hard? The Skills You Actually Need I hope it gives you a little permission to stop measuring your artistic ability against someone else’s definition of what a “real artist” should be able to do. You don't have to prove you're an artist before you can be one. You make art. That's enough. Remember, proudly call yourself an artist. Together, we are Artist Strong, Carrie
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