ABSTRACT
Right now, we want you to focus on practicing the third kind of seeing — pure seeing, stopping to consider what you are viewing just for the sake of noticing details with your eyes. Look at Figure C5.1, which opens this creative exercise. It was drawn by artist and instructor Janet Halversen, who created many of the illustrations in this book. Notice the variation of thin and thick edges, and the spaces and shapes created when lines intersect. Let your eyes wander over the image slowly. Notice the details of the woman’s eye, lips, nose, and ear. Stop to see each line that forms those features. Notice how far the line goes from the top of her forehead at the hairline. See that the contour is the same length as the contour edge from her chin to the end of the neck line. See the space formed by the intersection of her hair, forearm, and bicep, and another space formed by her neck, upper arm, and forearm. See the large area of space made up by the contour of her back and the edges of the drawing. To draw the woman’s back you can draw the contours of that big space. Look at the dark thickness of the line that forms the contour of her back and compare it to the thinner, broken contour that runs down the side of her bodice. Follow the contour of her hair line from the lower lobe of her ear to where it touches the bend of her elbow. Follow it very slowly and see how it is more than one line. It is a series of broken lines that start and stop and that parallel each other.
