How can we tell what is real and what isn’t? Ludwig Wittgenstein said that it was all about language. If we want to understand what we can know, then we must look at how language works.

So he wrote two very different books on how we use language to think.

1. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

At first sight the Tractatus is as terrifying as its title. But the core idea is quite simple: Our sentences are pictures of the world.

Why do some images support a text better than others? Let’s start with a quick example:

Illustration of an idea

Creativity is the ability to imagine something that isn’t there — yet. Its core ingredient are ideas. An idea is a new thought that springs up from existing knowledge. Thoughts collide — something “clicks” in our mind.

Let’s not sugarcoat this: diseases, hunger, and our inevitable death have been a strain on our relationship with nature. We needed some distance.

We built houses, retreated to cities, turned wild animals into livestock, and forests into fields. At some point, we even distanced ourselves from our own bodies, and considered our minds as separate.

The following exercises are a bit more advanced than the ones in the “Quick beginner’s guide to drawing”, and I hope you find them equally fun!

We are going to focus on different aspects of observation to strengthen our visual thinking.

Exercise 1: Negative Space — see what is NOT there

Draw the spaces in between things!

An ancient feud rages at the very core of your creative endeavour: The rational logical you and its fuzzy intuitive rival are in constant dispute.

Imagine yourself coming across an old tree.

Baffled by the spectacle of its twigs and branches you could reach out to feel its bark. You observe how the sunlight falls through the countless leaves orchestrating a spectacular pattern of shadows before your feet.

Or you could just think “That’s a tree.” — and move on.

Until recently everyday objects were shaped by their technology. The design of a telephone was basically a hull around a machine. The task of the designers was to make technology look pretty.

It was up to the engineers to define the interfaces of those objects. Their main concern was the function of the machine, not its ease of use. We — the “users” — had to figure out how they worked.

The basic craft of drawing is about two things: you learn to control your hand and to see.

Tip: For the following 6 exercises I suggest you stick with one pen and one particular type of paper (for instance A5).

Dexterity — two workouts

The first two exercises are about controlling your hand. We want to build muscles and train our hand-eye-coordination. Mechanical exercises like these are great for beginners. Later on you might use them to explore new pens or get started when you don’t know what to draw yet.

They are also terrific ways to relax your mind.

Exercise 1: Circles — more is more!

Distribute circles of various…

Some drawings look fresh and alive while others … don’t. What is their secret? Let’s look at cameras first.

This is what happens when you take a photograph: The light rays of your environment project a picture on a photo sensor. This picture is then stored on a hard drive. It’s a recording process, straightforward and linear.