Drawing What You See, Not What You Know. 14th Oct

One of the most important skills we explore at Great Ayton Art Club is learning how to really see the world around us. It sounds simple, but translating a three-dimensional scene onto a flat piece of paper can be surprisingly challenging.

Working from a photograph is often a good place to start because the image has already been flattened for us. But when we're sitting outside, looking at a landscape, a street or a building, there's an extra step involved. We have to learn how to simplify what we're seeing.

First, we need to make some decisions.

Before putting pencil to paper, ask yourself a few questions. What part of the scene do I actually want to capture? Where will I place my frame? How much of the surrounding landscape or architecture needs to be included?

And perhaps most importantly, what am I trying to achieve? Am I putting pressure on myself to create a photorealistic image, or would I rather produce a loose, expressive illustration that captures the character of a place? Something that's enjoyable to create but still recognisable enough to remind me of being there.

Neither approach is wrong, but making that decision early can take away an enormous amount of unnecessary pressure.

Next, we need to learn how to flatten what we see.

Our brains are incredibly clever. We understand that a building continues around a corner, even when we can't see it. We know that a bush sitting in front of a wall doesn't actually cut the wall in half. We automatically interpret the world in three dimensions because we understand how objects exist in space.

But when we're drawing or painting, that knowledge can sometimes get in the way.

Instead, we need to practise temporarily ignoring what we know and concentrating on the shapes that are actually visible. Imagine the scene in front of you as a completely flat arrangement of shapes, lines and colours.

That bush isn't something sitting in front of a building. For the purpose of your drawing, it's simply a shape that interrupts another shape. The building doesn't need to continue behind it because you can't see that part.

Once we begin to see things this way, drawing becomes much more manageable. We're no longer trying to recreate an entire three-dimensional world. We're simply arranging the shapes we can see onto a flat surface.

It's about observation, not perfection.

This is something we regularly practise in our adult art classes in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. Whether we're working with watercolour, fineliners, acrylics or mixed media, the principles remain the same.

Learning to frame a scene, simplify what we see and make confident creative decisions gives us the freedom to create artwork that feels personal and expressive.

And the more we practise, the more natural it becomes.

Ultimately, the aim isn't to teach everyone to produce a perfect photographic copy. It's to help people develop the confidence to sit in front of a view, understand what they're looking at and think, I know how to begin.

That's when drawing and painting become so much more enjoyable.