See the Value
of Squinting
In the initial stages of your drawings, try squinting as often as
possible when you’re looking at your subject. Eventually,
squinting will become second nature to you. The reason for
doing this is to concentrate your attention on the large shapes.
Many beginners become overwhelmed by details, and details
are not important in the first stage of a drawing. What is
important is to map in the structure of what you are drawing.
You will not find structure in details. The level of realism you
achieve in your drawing is based on analyzing and drawing the
structure of your scene or objects.
The painting here demonstrates how large shapes are an inte-
gral part of the work. Notice how the artist here uses just three
large main shapes to define a young girl looking down: the
side of the face, the head of hair, and the side of the body.
Within the large shape of the head, there are three or four
smaller shapes that define different sections of light on the
hair. You can also find smaller shapes within the other two
larger shapes. Basically, there is really no detail, and yet you
can tell what the object is right away.
Squinting, which is easy to do, is an
important technique that helps you to
view your subject in simplified shapes.
Look at the picture on the right. We
have purposely blurred the image to
show you how details are no longer
clearly visible. They become blurred,
and you can see only large forms. If
you squint at the image, it should
become even more simplified.Lakewood,by Tim Lowly, courtesy of the artist