M2M Day 44: Sorry I’ve been staring at your face
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For December, my goal is to draw a realistic self-portrait with only pencil and paper.
Last month, when I was learning to memorize a deck of cards at grandmaster speeds, I started unintentionally seeing playing cards in the real-world. In particular, real-world things (like wheelchairs and airplanes), which have association in my mnemonic system, were triggering images of playing cards, without any conscious thought on my part.
Simply, I was rewiring my brain.
This month, as I learn to draw faces, I’m experiencing a new phenomenon… For the past few days, I’ve found myself scrutinizing and deconstructing other people’s faces on the train, at work, on the street, at Whole Foods, etc. Wherever there is a face, I can’t help but try to analyze it, and imagine how I’d draw it.
Now (and I hope this eventually wears off), when I see a new face, my first instinct is to estimate the ratio between the height and width of the head. Other times, I just look to see what shapes the eye sockets are. Or how prominent the brow ridge is. Or if the nose and brows equally break the face in thirds.
Basically, I can’t stop staring at people.
So, thank you people of San Francisco for not getting totally creeped out. I promise I’ll stop soon.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
