Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Perfect vision is highly overrated.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I rarely wear my contacts, but my glasses never leave my face.

Except when I sleep, of course.

I know there are people who don't wear their glasses for various reasons, but I've never had good enough eye sight to make wearing glasses an option. If I want to stay on the road when I drive or read a sign in a store just a few feet away, I have to have my glasses.

The exception is when I'm painting or drawing outside. I have found that I create fresher, better art if I don't wear my glasses so much.

Can you think of an easier way to force yourself to quit agonizing over distracting detail that is distracting from the image as a whole?

When I remove my glasses, I immediately see shapes in stark contrasts of darks and lights, without my brain interrupting and saying "Wait a minute. I know you see that as dark green, but how can that be right? Paint what you know, what the details tell you."

And that, my friend, is a great way to mess up a picture. To paint the barn, I don't have to see the wood grain.

This quick and simple water color sketch of some autumn desiccated flowers is a good example. They weren't too far from me, so even without my glasses I could make out some detail. However, the blurry vision forced me to drop the back flower literally to the back by using the classic method of "less detail for things further away." Add in a little atmospheric work with some pale blue water washes, and you've got yourself a painting that tells the viewer just enough information, but no danger of overload.

The next time you find yourself out working on site and can't figure out how to quit tightening up and ruining your work, take off your glasses. Your view will, ironically, clear up in an instant.

Don't wear glasses? For once, we glasses-wearers get the upper hand.