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Question for the autistic artists on here - struggling with observing details, I see too many

LimaMikeSquared
over 5 years ago

Hi, 

I have been drawing for quite a long time, but recently since letting all my masks down and not suppressing parts of my autism I have begun to struggle with observation skills. 

I see so much detail and it comes in all at the same "volume" and all the time. It has become so distracting that I can't break things down into basic shapes and shadows to build the first steps of my drawings. It is hard to also see the object as an overall thing, I get stuck on the details within in it. It is so overwhelming that I just stare at my paper get really anxious and then give up. 

I have tried things like grid drawing - perhaps my grid squares are too large?

I realise being able to see the detail is a good thing, but is there any methods anyone has worked out to get around it when it is too much. Harness it in a positive way as it were?

I know some of it will be practice but I am going round in circles (actually mostly shading spheres at the moment).

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  • over 5 years ago

    Hi Lima,

    I have this problem and it can hold me back.  The anxiety can become a perpetuating cycle if not dealt with as I discovered.  I find using grids can help or setting myself mini drawing tasks as this can help me get over the fixation on tackling all the detail.  So an example would be set yourself aside 20 minutes a day, where you spend 10 minutes just practicing pencil strokes, tones, shading etc. then select one object to spend only 10 minutes drawing.  It sounds daunting, but it trains your mind to prioritise what is important so that you can create something similar to what is in front of you, rather than a very small detailed part or nothing at all.

    I also attend public art workshops when they are held in my local area.  Although attending them can be daunting, it pushes out of my comfort zone and forces me to focus on the task in hand and stop obsessing over just detail.  I also find I can get frustrated if I cannot capture the detail in my drawings that I feel it needs - not sure if you suffer from this as well?

  • over 5 years ago in reply to Starbuck

    Hi Starbuck

    thank you for a much more sensible and practical reply than mine! :) hope all good with you x

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