In the previous chapter you learned about the ways paintings cannot compare with the real macro scene as far as size and the three-dimensional aspects of nature.
There are many unattractive shapes present in natural settings. Artists can design objects in paintings to look better than they do in reality. Nature’s canvas is much bigger than you could ever paint, but as an artist you have the ability to produce more beautiful shapes and lines than nature does, even if the forms are much smaller in scale.
The macro world will provide you with an abundance of visual information, and the left side of your brain (the symmetrical brain) will naturally want to document visual information in close detail for the viewer. This is one of the most common challenges beginning artists face, because many operate under the belief that the closer they get to realism the better the painting will be.
The real landscape world has little to do with the painting landscape world, and the right side of the brain (the artistic brain) prefers the poetic license aspect of artwork. Instead of imitating exact forms, you will depict symbols that represent trees, rocks, bushes, etc.
Contrary to photography, as a painter, you have the freedom and ability to relocate and resize the diverse landscape elements. A tree in your painting may be the size of a mere few inches, but that tiny size can be very attractive due to its abstract design, which should outdo its equivalent in a photo.
We won’t go into right brain/left brain theories in depth in this chapter, but rather focus on techniques to help you tap into your artistic brain in a more functional way so it becomes a useful tool to strengthen your landscape symbol designs.
From the time we are babies and first open our eyes to the world, the first thing we see is the symmetrical interior of our homes. These images get imprinted into the subconscious mind and stored forever. From then on every time we produce a shape, we tap into our subconscious mind and feel compelled to create circles, ovals, squares, straight lines etc.
We practiced these shapes in our early elementary school drawings. We kept reinforcing by repetition the symmetry of these and developed habits. So when we paint or draw, the subconscious mind wants to continue on with the childish practice of drawing triangular Christmas trees and round trees that makes the abstract designs so much more difficult to depict. To make matters worse, nature has a strong tendency to produce visually implied symmetrical shapes, and we feel compelled to copy these because they are in sync with our symmetrical brain.
We will always war against symmetry from nature and symmetrical brain influence. Even artists with decades of experience still struggle from overstating details and depicting geometrical designs. The good news is you don’t have to train the artistic brain. With the proper approach you will automatically tap into it more thoroughly by implementing certain techniques. You can double your artistic IQ!
Now that you are aware of what may put the brakes on your paintings from escalating to new levels, you can overcome your own symmetrical brain’s interference.
Nature produces many symmetrical shapes. They may look good outdoors but once scaled to mini sizes in your artwork they become painfully obvious. This takes a toll on the artistic beauty. Note the symmetrical triangle shapes of the pine trees to the left and the obvious round and almost perfect oval shapes in the foliage pictured above.
Years ago Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, did ground breaking research and proved that the opponent to producing attractive shapes is our own symmetrical brain, which fulfills the function in the level of logic to scientifically process and register data. In this hemisphere of the brain we store symmetrical shapes. On the other hand, the artistic brain is the area that functions for the production of artistic beauty. Edwards demonstrated that when novice artists focused on the surrounding air and the empty space between the legs of a chair instead of the object per se, they produced more accurate drawings. Your consciousness can switch back and forth between the two brain hemispheres and from that you can increase your artistic ability.
The tree trunk has a cylindrical shape and the tree branches protrude like a fork equally on opposite sides. Frankly, this is an ugly tree.