Drawing WITHOUT Imagination - When You Can't Visualize ANYTHING
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Professional concept artist, illustrator, and the creator of DrawABox.com: Irshad Karim (AKA Uncomfortable) explains the phenomenon of aphantasia and his personal experiences with it. Irshad gives us a step by step walkthrough of the creative process he uses when drawing from imagination when you can't visualize anything.
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Instructional How to Draw videos for artists. My drawing lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching.
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Artist | Instructor - Irshad Karim (drawabox.com/)
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Production Assistance - Sean Ramsey (www.peoplewhodr...), Cody Shank
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Additional music by Epidemic Sound
Thanks Irshad! You can follow Irshad’s work at drawabox.com/article/motivation
Irshad is the reason why I kept on drawing and learning, he's the best !
Merci !
Big Thanks to Irshad and Proko, you are Amazing! 😃👍💜
Great video!
Beginner cope, the video.
I think aphantasia is a thing that actually made me an artist. I never had images in my head so it always felt like a miracle when I draw and there is an image happening, conjured out of nothing. I feel like if I have been able to imagine beautiful things, and trying to put it on paper, and be dissapointed by the difference, over and over, I would never keep drawing. The difference between nothing and garbage is still a positive one!
ah yes, the reason I don't really draw much is because my visualisation is so strong and it NEVER looks how I imagined. it kind of creates high/strict expectations when you visualize too much, unfortunately I can't just turn it off to dodge the perfectionist in me
wow!
Same here!
I feel this! I always say I started drawing because I needed a distraction for my mental health, and I stuck around because after finding out I had aphantasia it made me feel like I had my own form of 'visualisation', albeit not natural to me or inside my head, and it felt really rewarding knowing I was creating something of absolutely nothing!
I'm facing same prblms and I have an exam where you need to draw what you visualize I'm having hard time
Came for the aphantasia, stayed for the *whole dang course on creature concept design*
if you're talking abt drawabox then, just stating it out, it NOT a course about creature concept design. it's about developing a fundamental skill of 3 dimensional sense of object from 0 up
@@itsgeet he meant the video
Draw a Box is by far the best REAL beginner drawing course on the web, the fact that so many teachers on youtube assume one already knows how to put down lines on the page is very frustrating when one is just starting and that´s exacly what Uncorfortable does way better than many others, teaching how to get somewhat decent lines and perspective before actually drawing.
Agreed unfortunately I think a lot of people bail out at the idea of mechanical exercises
Draw a box is solely designed to make people quit art.
@@i5m5bob that's where you got it wrong, Draw a Box is not about "art" it's about a craft so if you were trying to get "artsy" by watching videos you were just in the wrong place but it's a fact that by following the suggested exercises is possible to improve line quality, understanding of perspective and the construction process of things that exist in "3d".
@@Cinerolo The way he teaches textures and lineweight is examples of "artsy" drawing. Take a perspective course instead of a bootleg Peter Han's dynamic sketching. DAB guy doesn't even apply what he teach in his own "art". Dude shouldn't be teaching.
@@i5m5bob hahahaha such low standards, so doing a texture study and the fact that one ought to be aware of the marks one puts down is now considered "artsy"? I see why you got frustrated, and he is teaching because he knows the subject which is more than enough reason to do it.
I must be dreaming, Drawabox and Proko in one video! Thats amazing!
Aphantasia literally caused me to quit drawing. I’m gonna pick it back up. It’s so challenging knowing where to frame a human skeletal frame to start the drawing because I don’t even know what I am seeing in my head. It’s there, I can FEEL it. Like walking in the dark and bumping into it. But I’m a blind man.
YES, that is a wonderful way to put it, I can like, imagine it and comprehend what it is and stuff, but in my head I'm kind of like a blind man
And how do you remember certain things like anatomy etc?
"Like walking in the dark and bumping into it" is the most accurate description I've ever heard holy shit
@@lonelyberg1808 I'm not him but as someone with aphantasia you actually can remember details of where things are/should be you just can't SEE them. when it comes to anatomy, understanding the principal of how the muscle moves and where things should be is the most important part for me.
@@myuutosan ok thanks
This is so important to me. I’ve been pursuing an art career and education for years now, and all this time I’ve felt like I was just wasting my time because I wasn’t “creative” or I was “unimaginative”. Finding out that there’s a reason for it and more importantly that I’m not just screwed for being an artist is just amazingly relieving for me. Thank you so much for making this video.
I also have aphantasia, it was really strange finding that out, I thought it was just normal!
It blew my mind too. I thought I was screwed, but luckily I was in too deep to quit.
@@Uncomfortable I spent a good few days questioning my friends and family, gradually becoming more and more perplexed. Then a lot of moments in my life made a lot more sense. I find, even with aphantasia, that I still visualise (in a unique way) that's totally in darkness but it's like a blueprint exists in my mind where all the technical specs exist. Find it helps a lot more, like you said in the video, knowing how something works in a space than visually seeing something (not that it's a replacement for reference photos).
Also, thank you so much for all the content you provide! When I had the free time I was using drawabox and it was very good.
@@Holyflare That sort of blueprint explanation is pretty similar to how I understand the things I imagine.
me 2 ... It's weird finding out. I am still thinking my wife is making fun of me when she is saying she can see images with her eyes closed... :)
so like... can you guys not even remember visual images? and how do dreams work if you're brain can't produce images?
I only recently learned about this subject, and I think I have the inverse called hyperphantasia, because I actually have a recurring problem where I relive past memories, and even imagined scenes in such vivid clarity that it actually sometimes distracts me from my real life surroundings.
how do you experience memories and dreams if not through sensory information? How do you remember what someone just said if you can't replay the sounds in your head?
No pun intended, but I truly can't even begin to imagine what that must be like!
Wow, as an aspiring artist with aphantasia I never thought I’d hear someone else talking about this. This is amazing ❤️
"Don't wait for that sense that you're finally ready to draw the things that you're passionate about-that feeling will not fall into your lap-you have to go out and hunt it down yourself."
Wow. I just started learning on DrawABox, got frustrated, did a search to see if it was pointless to learn to draw if you have aphantasia, and found this video. Amazing! You're an inspiration.
Thankyou for spotlighting other artists who have just as much to teach Stan
And here we came to the point, that you need to find your own material for sketching, as it's critically important for your comfort and quality. What do I mean:
I have aphantasia as well, so I can't imagine anything on the paper and sketching with permanent materials is a nightmare for me - I have to draw gesture and construction, I have to try something on paper so I can see what is wrong and what I should shift or scale, so the best sketching material for me is pencil. I am very relaxed and confident while using pencil, because I know I can fix stuff later.
Thanks for talking about this. I am having trouble with Aphantasia, and it heavily affects my short term memory, not just for art. I literally can't repeat what someone said to me a few moments ago, but I can make 'summary' of the things they say. This doesn't help much though, especially since my skill set leans toward translation, and lucrative jobs related to translations are usually interpreters - and I feel so discouraged when I can't remember things word for word.
HOLY DRAWABOX AND PROKO???? I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME
Me too!
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This is really encouraging! I've recently discovered I have aphantasia and it somewhat affected my confidence in my art career. I'm not very experienced, but I'm always trying to improve and learn, but learning about aphantasia made me think I had a lower skill ceiling than every other artist that hasn't it.
Knowing that such a knowledgeable and skilled person like Irshad also has aphantasia is certainly reassuring. Now I know there is no lower skill ceiling, just a different approach in life and in art. :)
This information is like art gold. Feeling stuck for the longest time and now I have discovered an answer to my questions. I am very much grateful.
This, makes a lot more sense to me than I thought, all my best drawings come out good when I've got lots of references, but I could never seem to pull similar quality images out of my head
I was starting to lose hope that I would ever be good at drawing once I found out I had aphantasia, videos like this make me very hopeful. I'm trying to keep it slow and draw simple things rather than go crazy like I did last time because I quit after a few days. I'm just worried that it won't ever become enjoyable. Thanks for explaining this stuff since I can't really understand how art works just yet.
Oh wow, I never knew Uncomfortable has this 😳 his artwork is amazing and most importantly, he made Drawabox...
As someone with Aphantasia I would strongly disagree with the title of this video. We have wonderful imaginations. Our brain uses a different form, more so conceptually, instead of having a mind's eye of pictures.. My Aphantasia is only limited to while awake, my dreams however are in vivid movie images including sound, more striking than while awake.
I used to have a vivid imagination and I blame the loss on my depression, specifically a year where it was extremely bad as a teen. Before I used to read all the time and draw really well. During that year I almost completely stoped doing art and I lost the spark I had for art since I was a kid.
Ive been trying to get it back for at least 5 years now 😭
Thank you for featuring this creator. Love this guy.
I’m a working artist with aphantasia, and this is almost precisely how I am able to make art! I’ve talked to several other artists who also don’t visualize, and everyone has been different in how they store their memory and translate it back out onto paper. Cool to find someone else who retains it as spatial relationships!
I must have a partial version of that. I can see something, but it's like I'm looking from the corner of my eye and can't focus on any detail
It is definitely a wide spectrum, with aphantasia at one end, and hyperphantasia at the other.
That's low visualisation. Aphantasia is when you see absolutely nothing
@@choccymilkconnoisseur2775 Yeah, like the person above mentioned, I figured there's intermediate versions of it
This was actually quite interesting and helpful for me! I don't have aphantasia, I can see the things I imagine, but they're quite distortioned/misshaped all the time. I barely can think whenever I draw so instead of thinking I just let my hand do the strokes it feels familiar with, which is fun because I never know what the results will be! I always saw drawing as a way of creating rather than translating thoughts since I'm little. Despite practicing, using references and trying to understand space and structure I can't draw realistic at all, ending up with things that my own hand creates most of the time rather than my imagination. When I heard about aphantasia for the first time I wondered if people with it wouldn't be able to draw, but It's nice to see how drawing is the way some people use to give imagery to their mind and not just move it into canvas. I always wondered if other people had a hard time thinking while drawing and how they dealt with it.
I have that problem but only with faces. I can't imagine the characters faces (and voices) when I read a book, only the body, clothes and hair. Great video, and great work with Drawabox
I heard that humans can't visualize new faces, only visualize faces they've seen before, even if it's a stranger you've seen a few seconds before.
I thought I had aphantasia too when I first learned about it, it made so much sense. But I don't know if it's something that can get better with practice or what, but the more I practiced visualizing and drawing from memory, the better it became. I'm not saying this is possible for everyone with aphantasia, but it's worth a try!
I have definitely heard a few people talk about potentially training their visualization skills, but I didn't end up going down that path, simply because I found that I didn't need to rely on visualization to achieve what I strove for.
@@Uncomfortable For sure, I made my comment in case there were people who felt like they wanted to do it, but felt like it might not be possible. Actually, what helped me visualize better was doing Drawabox, hahah.
I believe it depends on the degree of Aphantasia. For me it's near total, the mental space is completely black, with the barest hint of an outline. Images only appear when tired or asleep. If I were to train my visualisation skills, it might make outline sharper, but I don't think it would clear the mental "darkness", actually I think it would probably make my dreams more vivid. XD
Someone with less severe Aphantasia might get more out of it however.
First time I heard about Aphantasia. This video helps me to understand what happens when something doesn't pop into my mind. I had a professor that always aks us to draw something and bring the reference or he didn't accept it. He said, "good artists are as good as the reference."
I have this too! I don’t see. I “feel” the outline of the shape. I can feel and hear in my head. Occasionally, I get a half second shadow or a general blip of color. Everything feels like the act I’ve the shape. Similar to actually closing my eyes. Thank you so much for sharing this!
I've been in a state of art block lately, but this video was very relieveing to watch. After watching this, I was a lot more enthusiastic while drawing :D
Thank you for the video, I hope everyone receives the credit they deserve!
i see things vividly in my mind. in my dreams too, i can see petals of roses, the intricacy and screws of lamp posts, etc
I had never heard of aphantasia before. I can't imagine what that's like because I'm visualizing stuff in my mind all the time. It's just not easy to put what I have in my mind on paper or on the screen. Great job of creating a strategy to draw cool and original things despite having aphantasia - and not just for people with aphantasia but also for people like me, because as Uncomfortable said, I think it can help anyone to come up with cool designs.
Omg those Pigeon+Tiger Griffins were so adorable! XD
I consider myself a creative person. I draw stuff that don't exists, but i constantly have a hard time mentalizing what i'm reading in a book, or dreaming and even drawing is weird. I don't always see what i'm drawing inside my head. Thinking now I think I never did o_o
Mentalizing... I like that!
I saved this for my daughter, a really fantastic artist with Aphantasia. I do not know how she does it, only that she does. Aphantasics tend to draw sequences, something that other artists have to be taught to do. I've watched her school herself, by doing countless iterations of a character, turning one character into another, etc. Also, some very famous artists are Aphantasics: The lead illustrator, responsible for character creation in Disney's "Little Mermaid" for Ariel herself... and one of the founders of Pixar, just to name two.
Something I noticed is that even though I am far on one side of the spectrum, the side that can imagine highly detailed objects and movie scenes with my mind's eye, I absolutely cannot draw without a reference. It seriously looks so bad without a reference lol. And I can only imagine things in great detail if I have been able to study those specific objects in person. Just like at 6:50
Being able to imagine things in high detail is cool, but definitely does not determine how good of an artist you can be. I'm learning a lot with this video as well.
I clicked because I've recently discovered I have Aphantasia as an artist and I just wanted to say this video was incredibly helpful, educational, inspiring and VERY entertaining! I was laughing so hard at all the choices you were making while conceptualizing the discount store gryphon. So glad to have found your channel!
Hi there! What are some insights you have discovered? I just heard about this and am now really curious.
@@Jusangen There's two main things about my personal experience that has been really eye-opening. Having recently been diagnosed with adult ADHD, my focus relies on my level of interest, and the 'mental image' only happens (like I think it does for others) when I'm resonating deeply with the topic.
The other thing is that it explains why I'm so driven to craft/create physical things or a serial hobbiest. When I have visceral ideas I want to make them physical so I can enjoy them.
@@Animbating Ah, I see! Same with the ADHD thing, recently found out WHY I have so many hobbies lol. So weird right!? But that's interesting about how it has to be something that's stimulating to you in order to conjure a mental image. I appreciate your honest share and yes, I feel the same way when I hear a song I like, I have to find the sheet music and play it.
Never would have guessed Uncomfortable has aphantasia. Great video, good to see Drawabox on this channel - Proko and Uncomfortable are my main teachers. Thanks.
Huh. I remember things in images, but can’t visualize.
Hmmm....
Perhaps this is why I’ve taken to using shapes as bases rather than just drawing the things like everyone else I know.
This video resonates with me immensely.
22:12 this applies to anything we want to do in life, really!
This is a great video and has GREAT editing. Really raised awareness for me in terms of how other people see drawing from imagination.
Even if i dont have aphantasia, this its so helpful , one thing that blowns my mind it how clear and precise his base is and how easly is visualize the shapes with which he start drawing. Having an fudation so strong like him and polish skills, im sure that it must be taken him a lot fo time and dedication.
I like to describe learning to draw more as learning to fool one's self. It's a lot like actively subjecting one's self to a delusion: that the things we draw on a flat page, are in fact three dimensional. That they're real, solid, and heavy.
Lying to someone and fabricating a complex delusion is difficult. It requires us to maintain a list of many different statements and assertions, always checking that with every new question we answer, we're not contradicting something we said previously. Eventually, we will contradict ourselves and the illusion will fall apart.
Actively believing in that delusion, however - once you can actually get yourself to do so (which is the hard part), is easy. If a person genuinely believes in something that isn't real, it can become *very* convincing if you let it, and if you focus only on the statements they're making, without any outside interference. Because they believe in it, it's just reality to them - so their statements don't cross over one another, they don't self-contradict, they all exist in this consistent sphere of their perceived reality.
Bringing that back around to drawing, if I draw a circle on a page and *believe* it to be a sphere, then when trying to draw a mark along that sphere, my pen will actually curve along its "three dimensional" surface. Because I believe it to be so, to just draw a straight line across the flat circle would be unthinkable. And so, every mark I draw will continue to reinforce the illusion for the viewer, and they will be able to share, momentarily, in my own delusion.
Of course, it's all a very involved process - you're basically driving yourself just a *little* bit insane, rewiring how your brain perceives things. It takes time, it takes practice, and it takes a whole lot of effort. But once that belief is instilled, understanding things like how a human body can be broken down into simple forms, and how those forms can be manipulated in 3D space as you draw them on your page, becomes a lot easier to grasp.
@Uncomfortable So true,i have been practicing really seriously for a little bit more than a year (aiming to in a future be able work in the industry of animation and videogames ) and learning fundaments like forms boxes,cilinders, and another shapes in many perspectives it helps SO MUCH i mean its the base which i see so many people use even me to break down in more simple shapes anything of reality (it gives a sense of volume and space) ,always using references to recall what its looks like and developing throught hard and smart work a process for yourselft to ending come up with an satisfactory and high quality product. Im just starting and i know that i have so much still to learn, but with discipline and constancy its actually possible more with so many options that gives the internet. Enjoy the process actually its what is more important, i think its what in the end its gonna drive you to the long term, if not you are just gonna ending burn out always aiming to become better and dont enjoying it and droping it out soo soon, knowing what actually to practice without the necesity to actually spend endless hours without a fix goal its just gonna be a waste of time.There has to be like i said discipline and a smart work, but inthe end not forget the reason for what actually ones started to do it. Maybe this is gonna be a reminder to me but not to be afraid to actually upload your works even if they are not the best is something that i (and im sure that many people too) should do that way you can actually recive critiques and see it from differents eyes, also you can actually start building some relationships with people who actually share the same interest o even goals.
Sorry for the long reply jeje, the fact that you take the hussle to even answer me means a lot, cheers
I'm going to be an amazing artist, because I see, hear, and taste my imagination!!
Unfortunately, if I'm daydreaming sideways though, gravity turns off against my will, but sometimes I can control that also.
yay! I finished the 250 box challenge like two weeks ago
Congratulations!
I need a teacher to teach me face to face, I’m too dumb to understand this way 😭 years passed and I still can’t draw something looking nice and realistic, all I can draw is portrait. I wanna cry 😓
I thought i had this. But then one morning i imagined something really vividly, so i guess i don't. It really can come and go. There's outside factors i'm not sure of
hmmnnn....i think this answers questions i often ask myself why i find dificlt to draw somthing frm imgntion and even doubt myself if i wud evr create smthin..gvs me frustrations smtyms and quit..when i'm wtchng dis vdeo mde me realize abt spatial reasoning...mde my ptsd calm.. tnx..😉
I don't have this disorder, I just have no depth perception. So special reasoning is the key. Learning shading for 3d too
BRUHHH Uncomfortable!!
I stayed on lesson 4 of drawabox, I've meant to come back when I feel I'm going weak on 3D drawing, this course has been a huge help for real
Bruh……didn’t know I needed this video till this video is telling me there’s a reason I can picture anything in my head….
You just changed my life! Thank you so much, I needed to hear this.
Hell yeah finally 👏👏Draw a Box is helping me get closer to my art goal, such an efficient approach to learning and practicing drawing is just bound to succeed. Thanks Proko for bringing on this amazing teacher.
Try imagining with your eyes open. It is actually easier than closed.
So happy to see you working together!
14:28 "...rather than pointy triangles or rounded circles..." he says as he draws the triangular ears and circular eyes of the tiger...
This was so helpful, thanks for sharing!
I actually learned about aphantasia only a few weeks ago and since then have thought a lot about how that alters the workflow for artists.
Also: The Drawabox lessons are incredibly helpful, you should definitely give them a chance, even though it seems tedious!
I have plenty of ideas because i can't talk. Your right. They're difficult to draw what I really want them to say. Although it's only been about a year of learning basics. Thx for confidence tho✌️
I'm near the mental theater end of the spectrum. When I became a parent, I couldn't understand why my child doesn't like to read, then I slowly realized that not everyone sees books unfold as these elaborate feature pieces in their minds. And when I realized that, I understood why I was such an avid reader, and why others may find fiction reading to be a waste of time.
This feels like my mind 😯
And I also visualize straight on paper , actually all my explanations start with “let me draw it for you!” And I went through 5 years of art school and two different fashion design colleges with flying colors:) and when I told my family I have blind mind, they couldn’t believe me, BECAUSE I went through art school and design colleges!!! And because I am constantly reading something!!!
Now THIS is the vest video explaining Aphantasia.
Absolutely would like to see him teaching this more.
I started with cinema4d and zbrush and I can tell how my understanding of volume has increased since playing with geometric figures.
Great video! A lot of very useful info :)
Also that first griffin will haunt my nightmares now, thanks xD
Hey i have aphantasia and i have a very good spatial awareness and very good understanding of shapes and the space they occupy in 3D. The problem is when it comes to applying proportions correctly in 2D.
I don't have aphantasia, but every time I try to draw I suck anyway. Probably mindblock due to frustration of being bad.
We get in our own way like that about a lot of things! More often than not, when people are forced to suddenly take on a task or learn something new out of necessity, they're much better at it than they expect if they just let themselves learn.
You can make art! I guarantee it!
those griffin designs are EPIC.
Commenting just to kick over the 666 comments =O. Jk. But really, when I went to college for music, I literally had a sight singing (where you sing what pitch is in your head) teacher say that my brain must be broken. I later came to see how not learning to play by ear while growing up and only learning how to read music notation was the major crutch and I have gotten much better at this. But also with art, all growing up I could copy pretty much any cartoon, freehand, and impress my friends and adults. But when they would ask me to draw something on the spot, I literally couldn't do anything. It's still that same way, but maybe I can make some progress in this area. I've already started with Drawabox and am looking forward to making more progress! Thanks Proko and Irshad!
I'm completely new to art so thanks for the tip :D
i have it too and i'm a graphic designer!
I was honestly baffled when I learned that some people can't seem to be able to visualize things in their head.
I do it all the time without thinking too much so I thought it was just normal, lol.
Only thing I can't seem to do on my own is visualize a scene from a book. I really need to stop and think really hard on what I'm reading to do it which I guess it's one of the reasons I never got interested in books or comics.
I guess that's more me just hating filling the gaps tho.
Sub earned. Imagine if the new Neurolink can enable imagination in people with Aphantasia.....
I have had problems where I can come up with many ideas/scenarios/concept but most part is hazy and only appear for seconds or two. Can't hold a strong mental image for two long before I could compose it on paper. Thank you for sharing, Uncomfortable. I started out learning from your site.
im very suprised now,i thought it was normal!!
Excellent explanation and topic to talk about, thanks Irshad!!
It's a shame to have aphantasia but it's makes a great challenge when you try to make art, I love making art an making whatever I "have" in my mind even when I don't actually see it with my "Mind's eye" 😅
I HAVE IT. I FRICKIN HAVE IT. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW?? _I'm so confused-_
Thank you for the video ._.
Our imagination and creativity is the glue that binds the bits of reality we've chosen to reorganize to suit our purpose...
I think this is a really interesting topic. I don't have Aphantasia, necessarily, but I don't have great mental visualization. If it's on a scale like what we saw early in this video, a scale of 1-6, I'm probably a 3, with images being very blurry and indecipherable.
As an artist and person with aphantasia myself, I simply become frustrated with the concept of 'visual library'. For example I can draw people from imagination, and know my share of anatomy, and force and so on... but I certainly cannot invoke them visually on my head. It's more like pure memory. Like recalling someone's name or a quote. Thats why to me, normally the most difficult part is the gesture, coming up with an interesting pose from the top of my head (since I literally can't) :/
Do you find yourself prototyping and iterating more until the foundation looks right? It's what I seem to do. Just keep correcting it until I get something that looks right. Though, I've only just begun my art journey. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong. (I'm Aphantasic too)
My version of this is pretty much why I've never been interested in concept or character design. And nope, I don't really have ideas that I just can't draw, that's still imagination. I mosty lack the ideas period, unless it's a mishmash of stuff already out there -- just like the visualization. I can visualize an apple for instance because I'm actually remembering an apple, not creating one in my head.
As an avid reader, it's always been strange for me when people talk about seeing characters in their head because I never do. I actually tend to skim descriptions of characters because of that.
I've got aphantasia.
I had to kind of find form through motion in my mind. This sounds similar to what you're describing, but you've pinned it down to a practiced skill, whereas I just kind of intuit things.
I might have to check this out, anything to help streamline and improve my processes.
I've always visualized in a weird, vague way. Like, you tell me to visualize a specific person bust up wearing a cowboy hat. I can see it but any detail I can't recall fully or not familiar with is in "gray", like, i imagine it's there, and my brain puts a label on it so i know that for example, it's a "cowboy hat" and they're wearing "clothes", but it's just vaguely there with minimal "details", like placeholder flats when drawing.
It is ultimately a spectrum - so you could be a little closer to the aphantasia end, but still have some capacity for visualization. Although conversely, you could also simply lack the visual library to fill in those details. Honestly, it would be so interesting to see this kind of thing be studied in greater depth, but I imagine it'd be a rather difficult bit of research to pull off.
@@Uncomfortable re: my visualization-- even if i fully recall something, once it's out of focus on my mental image it gets replaced by gray/vague placeholder. So it's gotta be the former.
Re: research-- Agreed. It's a fairly niche topic it seems. This is literally the first time I've heard of the term aphantasia. I've always assumed mental images worked the same way as mine for everyone except to people with visual memory who can see things vividly in their mind.
This is exacly what i wanted too learn thank you so much!
I was clearly seeing (visualizing) anything and everything when I was a kid and now I can't see shit.
Funnily enough, it's the same for me - or at least I think it was. I know that I had an extremely active imagination, any quiet moment I'd get (embarrassingly often on the toilet, leading to a lot of shouting from my mom when I wouldn't come out in a timely manner), I'd escape into the world in my head, populated by characters from all my favourite TV shows. I'm no longer certain if it was visual - it feels like it was, but it could just be my own memory playing tricks on me, unreliable as memory often is. Either way, I found myself doing that less and less - might have been related to puberty - and by the time I was a teenager, my imagination was still active, but in an abstract fashion. No visuals at all.
ngl, the tiger pigeon combo reminded me of hatotaurus
Im 36 years old and recently I found out I have this fucking problem. I always wondered why I could never draw from my imagination. And other could. Until I realize that people actually see stuff when they imagine and for me it's just blank. I can think about things I want to draw but I can't draw them because I don't have reference on my head. To this day I still draw with a reference next to it. Leaves me frustrated... I've been practicing more but I really can't create my own stuff. And everybody says I'm talented when it comes to drawing but I don't feel like it because everything comes from somewhere else. Feels like I'm cheating somehow, it's awful.
I know your comment was from a month ago, but I wanted to clarify one thing - aphantasia does not preclude you from drawing from your imagination, and inventing your own things. It does not *require* you to work from reference for everything. But it does make the path to learning how to do those things seem a little less clear.
If a person practices only by doing direct studies, copying a photograph, then they'll develop very strong observational skills, but will find themselves struggling to break away from following a piece of reference exactly as it is. If however a person trains drawing through approaches that focus on developing spatial reasoning skills - which involve breaking down those complex objects, understanding how they are made up of simple forms and how those forms sit in 3D space in relation to one another - then they'll develop the particular areas that are necessary to draw more from imagination, and to stray from those references.
The point here is that *how* you practice matters, because it determines which skills you're actually developing. Drawing is not just a single skill - it's an umbrella that covers many things from the execution of linework, the understanding of 3D space, of how light works, etc. Each of these require our attention, and ultimately drawing from one's imagination is a very demanding endeavor - but one that is not outside of your reach, if it's something you're interested in achieving.
OMG UNCOMFORYABLE!!!
Ich dachte immer jeder könnte es so gut aus dem Gedächtnis sehen …
I write short stories and have autism so I need to visualize those sences in my head, so I pace to put those scenes in order! Does anyone else do this? I feel like I'm the only one!
I probably have aphantasia, i can visualy describe a scene or even a world, but cant visualise it like im looking at something, it like u know im walking on a street with busy cars and a cloudy sky, but i dont see it
Great work! I love your lines.
oh how this video had me so fucking worried about me having aphantasia
There's absolutely nothing to worry about. Whether you have it, or don't, it doesn't really change anything, and it doesn't close any doors for you.
@@Uncomfortable I watched half the video, panicked and researched for an hour and a half only to finish the video and be comforted lmao.
Holy shit it is you.
Wanting to create and suffering from this is terrible and discouraging, it's a neverending artist block. I didn't know there was a name for it, just figured I'm boring and unimaginative.
I can draw, it's the one thing I'm good at. But I'm not original, and I really want to be. I wanna make a unique picture, write stories, make comics, etc. but I'm either a blank slate or the idea is vague and I can't fill in the blanks. I constantly try to fill my head with things that interest me or inspire me with little luck.
I hope I can learn to overcome this one day. Nice to know I'm not alone, thanks for the video.
This is *exactly* what I went through, before I came to understand what aphantasia was. It was a good ten years of frustration, of my drawings feeling bland and uninteresting, of my designs lacking any kind of depth or complexity. It turned out, ultimately, that it really didn't have anything to do with my aphantasia - it was a red herring that distracted me from the simple fact that I wasn't doing the kinds of exercises that would develop my visual library, and help me to better understand how to approach design as a whole.
Hello Proko and all ! Some thoughts :
- How does one actually test for such a condition ? (beyond just the feeling of not quite being able to draw from memory). If anything, even someone who can draw a great looking scene from a book description may not quite visualize it litterally, but rather craft it on the spot applying their own visual library and knowledge of composition and perspective ... The test described in the Wikipedia article seems to suggest that it is all up to the subjective appreciation of the person being tested (as opposed, to, say, being objectively able to differentiate a chair from a table, or being able to recognize a relative when being shown the picture).
- Kim Jung Gi (shown on the right side of the scale here ) always stresses out how he took the time to study and memorize all the things he draws, from drawing them like CAD drawings from multiple angles. Therefore one can says that he is not imagining anything, just recalling things precisely from a very rich and detailled visual bank.
- I personally believe that trusting one's "mind's eye" too much is risky for an artist anyways, because the idea of something is basically worth nothing :D Only the execution matters after all ...
- All that said, there is definitely something to be said about suddenly feeling like being unable to visualize the face of a loved one, and then the next day it comes back.
A fun topic :)
It's definitely not the sort of thing that has been studied nearly enough, on a scientific level, and to be honest I'm not really sure how they'd go about reliably testing for it due to how wrapped up it is in the subjective experiences of the individual. The problem is in communication - we cannot reasonably convey to someone else how we perceive the things we imagine, because there's no baseline against which to compare. We only exist within the bubble of our own experiences, and all we can do is our best to get those experiences across to others, knowing full well that there are clear barriers there.
That said, you will still have people who insist that they can't picture anything, and others who claim to be able to conjure vivid movies to play for them as they read books. That's a pretty wide spectrum to cross, if both are describing the same thing. At the end of the day, I try to focus on the bigger issue - the fact that some people may feel that the way they experience their imagination is holding them back - and I want to make it clear that while they may not approach things in exactly the same way as another, and may not have the same initial experience, they certainly have the capacity to create drawings and paintings based on the things they imagine.
Oh- and I absolutely agree that relying on one's "mind's eye" is indeed not the best path forward. Developing strong spatial reasoning skills, and a thorough visual library from purposeful study, provides a far more reliable foundation upon which to build one's work.
@@Uncomfortable All very true !
Perhaps people who say they can't quite visualize things yet still want to draw might simply need to get used to making very small thumbnails, as opposed to being discouraged or frustrated in front of a large Letter/A4 format that they believe they need to fill with clean lineart right off the bat. Matching the resolution of the medium to that of the mind's eye, so to speak. But that's a bit ironic still ... since it's pretty much almost always one of the best way to start on a design anyways, regardless of how seemingly detailled one's imagination may seem :D
I'm pretty good at visualizing things and simplifying/breaking things down.
I do a lot of things in this video (I do find video references pretty helpful too when studying an animal for concepts), but there's always room to improve. I do want to get back to doing Draw a Box...xD
Thanks you so much for this. This really opened my eyes :3
GREEEEAATT Grigeon ^_^
I can picture things in my head but can't keep the image long