Research how to improve your memory, and you’ll likely find articles touting drawing as the miracle cure for focus, memory and even dementia. Great! Guess what we’re going to do today?
William Scott, Study for Still Life, 1980
My memory is like swiss cheese, but I love to figure out how things work. I tried this creative challenge with Lendy and I was IN FOR THE WIN. We laughed at how hard it was to remember more than a three or four things at a time. Only three or four??? The number of things we could remember seemed strangely low. I thought the average person could easily remember seven things?
William Scott, Frying Pan, 1981
It was thought that the average person could remember seven things, and that’s why phone numbers were seven digits.
867-5309
According to psychologist Nelson Cowan in an article on Live Science, early telephone dialing started with a two- or three-letter “exchange,” often the first letters of a community name, followed by four or five figures, e.g. PEnnsylvania 6-5000). So people weren’t remembering seven, they were remembering two groups of three and four. Recent scientific studies say the true working memory capacity of the average person is not seven, it’s actually three or four, unless we can group things. Turns out my seemingly puny memory bank of three or four was actually normal. The painting I was trying to remember had more than 4 items, so luckily, I had some other tricks.
William Scott, Still Life, 1973
Relationships
First, I know from teaching drawing that the most important thing is often the biggest thing – the thing we usually overlook because it’s so big. The first thing I want to remember is the dimension of the whole artwork. In this case, it’s about the same ratio as my piece of paper, horizontal – ish. Done. No memory needed. The next biggest thing is the red table. The red table doesn’t quite come to each edge, and there’s a big gap at the top. Got it. Not even breaking a sweat and I’m on my way! Now for the smaller shapes: I started implementing strategies that grouped things. If I could find similarities and relationships, I was able to hold more information in my mind. For instance, I could say there were four egg shapes (three on the plate, one on the table) that are all about the same size. I could then note that the space between the lone egg and the plate, and the lone egg and the cup were also about the width of one egg. That gets me relative placement. The top/side gaps of the table also are just a little bit smaller than the width of an egg. That’s several pieces of information all within one memory item: egg size. To continue: the top of the cup is a slightly larger egg shape, the shape of the plate is an even larger egg shape, and the shape of the pan is the biggest egg shape. The pan goes just past halfway into the red, and the edge of the pan lines up with the lone egg, so the lone egg is just a bit to the left of center, and slightly less than egg distance from the bottom of the canvas. I’ve got it sized and placed. I can remember all those things and I’ve only used up three of my working memory items. I might still have room for one more. I could observe that all objects are in two groups, with the exception of the solo egg, just left of center. The first group has three eggs on the plate. The second group has the pan, the spatula, and the cup. Then, I might try to remember that the handle of the pan….. …. oops my brains fell out. I have surpassed my limit of four, and after I reach my limit, for every one additional thing I picked up, another thing falls out of my head, so I found it was best to grab the biggest basic things first and stop.
A Game of Selected Focus
In a way, the game is partially about honing my memory, and partially about choosing carefully what I remember so that the information I choose to gather is the most helpful. It’s not just a game of memory. It’s a game of selected focus. For me, strategizing for visual memory like this, especially with such charming artworks, is incredibly fun and fascinating.
William Scott, Still Life, 1970
Give it a try. Ask yourself what the three most helpful things to remember might be. Try looking for commonalities and overall patterns between the objects, size, angles, and spacing. Group things! As I went, I got smarter. You will too.
William Scott, Blue Still Life, 1969
Memory Drawing
Your goal is to re-create the outline of the shapes (not the colors or values) in these William Scott artworks. You can choose to do one, a few, or all of them.
Materials
If you have colored pencils, colored pens, or crayons, do your first round with a light-ish color and change to a slightly more dark or bold color every round, so you can see a record of your changes, and the last most accurate marks are the darkest. I typically went three rounds on these, but you can do as many rounds as you choose.
The Rules
Do not use any measuring or note taking tools – eyes only!
Do not erase.
DO NOT DRAW AND STUDY THE ORIGINAL AT THE SAME TIME. It is recommended that memory games like this are best done with the original kept in another room so you have to walk back and forth between the original and your copy. I realize most of you cheated on this last week and kept the original nearby, so if you’re going to cheat, avoid quick back-and-forth checks and adjustments. Move slowly. See if you can get the whole artwork copied accurately in three or four rounds of deliberate careful studying.
William Scott, Towards Poem for a Jug, 1980
How to do it
Look at one artwork. You can look for as long as you wish. Take your time.
When you are ready to draw, block your view to the original. Choose a light colored pen and draw everything you can remember. Draw as much as you can.
When you can’t draw anymore, put your drawing tool down, and check back with the original. Look for as long as you wish. Take your time.
Block your view to the original. Using a slightly darker or bolder color, return to your drawing, making additions, adjustments and corrections as best as you can, until you can’t do any more.
Put your drawing tool down. Return to look at the artwork.
Continue until you have accurately copied the artwork.
William Scott, Candle, 1949
Post it!
When you’re finished with your session, post your project and tag #30SAL. I’d love to hear how this went for you!
You can also copy and paste these additional tags to your posts:
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30SAL Challenge: William Scott & Memory Drawings
Research how to improve your memory, and you’ll likely find articles touting drawing as the miracle cure for focus, memory and even dementia. Great! Guess what we’re going to do today?
My memory is like swiss cheese, but I love to figure out how things work. I tried this creative challenge with Lendy and I was IN FOR THE WIN. We laughed at how hard it was to remember more than a three or four things at a time. Only three or four??? The number of things we could remember seemed strangely low. I thought the average person could easily remember seven things?
It was thought that the average person could remember seven things, and that’s why phone numbers were seven digits.
867-5309
According to psychologist Nelson Cowan in an article on Live Science, early telephone dialing started with a two- or three-letter “exchange,” often the first letters of a community name, followed by four or five figures, e.g. PEnnsylvania 6-5000). So people weren’t remembering seven, they were remembering two groups of three and four. Recent scientific studies say the true working memory capacity of the average person is not seven, it’s actually three or four, unless we can group things. Turns out my seemingly puny memory bank of three or four was actually normal. The painting I was trying to remember had more than 4 items, so luckily, I had some other tricks.
Relationships
First, I know from teaching drawing that the most important thing is often the biggest thing – the thing we usually overlook because it’s so big. The first thing I want to remember is the dimension of the whole artwork. In this case, it’s about the same ratio as my piece of paper, horizontal – ish. Done. No memory needed. The next biggest thing is the red table. The red table doesn’t quite come to each edge, and there’s a big gap at the top. Got it. Not even breaking a sweat and I’m on my way! Now for the smaller shapes: I started implementing strategies that grouped things. If I could find similarities and relationships, I was able to hold more information in my mind. For instance, I could say there were four egg shapes (three on the plate, one on the table) that are all about the same size. I could then note that the space between the lone egg and the plate, and the lone egg and the cup were also about the width of one egg. That gets me relative placement. The top/side gaps of the table also are just a little bit smaller than the width of an egg. That’s several pieces of information all within one memory item: egg size. To continue: the top of the cup is a slightly larger egg shape, the shape of the plate is an even larger egg shape, and the shape of the pan is the biggest egg shape. The pan goes just past halfway into the red, and the edge of the pan lines up with the lone egg, so the lone egg is just a bit to the left of center, and slightly less than egg distance from the bottom of the canvas. I’ve got it sized and placed. I can remember all those things and I’ve only used up three of my working memory items. I might still have room for one more. I could observe that all objects are in two groups, with the exception of the solo egg, just left of center. The first group has three eggs on the plate. The second group has the pan, the spatula, and the cup. Then, I might try to remember that the handle of the pan….. …. oops my brains fell out. I have surpassed my limit of four, and after I reach my limit, for every one additional thing I picked up, another thing falls out of my head, so I found it was best to grab the biggest basic things first and stop.
A Game of Selected Focus
In a way, the game is partially about honing my memory, and partially about choosing carefully what I remember so that the information I choose to gather is the most helpful. It’s not just a game of memory. It’s a game of selected focus. For me, strategizing for visual memory like this, especially with such charming artworks, is incredibly fun and fascinating.
Give it a try. Ask yourself what the three most helpful things to remember might be. Try looking for commonalities and overall patterns between the objects, size, angles, and spacing. Group things! As I went, I got smarter. You will too.
Memory Drawing
Your goal is to re-create the outline of the shapes (not the colors or values) in these William Scott artworks. You can choose to do one, a few, or all of them.
Materials
If you have colored pencils, colored pens, or crayons, do your first round with a light-ish color and change to a slightly more dark or bold color every round, so you can see a record of your changes, and the last most accurate marks are the darkest. I typically went three rounds on these, but you can do as many rounds as you choose.
The Rules
How to do it
Post it!
When you’re finished with your session, post your project and tag #30SAL. I’d love to hear how this went for you!
You can also copy and paste these additional tags to your posts:
#30sal #seattleartistleague #memorydrawing #memory #memorychallenge #drawingchallenge #drawing #art #sketch #artchallenge #drawings #artist #draw #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #instaart #drawthisinyourstyle #artwork #drawingoftheday #dailydrawing #inkdrawing #drawingsketch #artoftheday #myart #pencildrawing #creativity #creativechallenge
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