You don’t really see a hand until you try to draw one.
REFLECTION
WHAT THIS MEANS
Trying to reproduce something exposes how little of it you had actually stored. You have seen your own hand a million times and still cannot say where the knuckles sit until a pencil forces the question. Recognising a thing and knowing it are two different skills, and only the first one comes free with looking.
Pick something you believe you know well and try to draw it from memory, badly, for ten minutes. Then put the real thing beside it and mark what you got wrong. The same test works on a chapter you are sure you have revised.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What would you finally have to look at properly to draw it?
MORE IN PERCEPTION & ATTENTION
- You notice every gap in your skills and none of the ground you’ve already covered. Look back too.
- Walk out of a dark movie into sunlight and you’re blind for a second. Big changes take a moment to see clearly.
- Notice which questions you’re scared to Google. That’s the stuff you actually want to know.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.