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What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

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Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#51

Post by skykooler »

bena wrote: post #12
garrettgrimsley wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For any still not seeing it: The chain stay from the bottom bracket is missing. The rear wheel should be held by a triangular arrangement of the frame, but the side of the triangle that runs parallel to the ground isn’t there

I didn't want to mention what I thought was wrong because I didn't want to accidentally influence anybody else, especially if I wound up wrong. But yeah, after giving it a good, long look, along with his mention that it would break when someone sat on it, I guessed that there should have been a bar between the back wheel and where the pedals are.

I'm not sure it would break when you sat on it; the chain would be in tension, holding those two sections together and filling the task of that bar. The problem would be when you started to pedal, and that bar is not there to stop the chain from pulling the rear wheel towards the pedals.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#52

Post by Someone »

jdietrich wrote: post #7

Drawing and painting is almost entirely a visual skill. The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial; the hard part is being able to see what's actually there. A bicycle is an incredibly simple visual form. You can doodle one in about five seconds. They're not rare or unusual objects and they're relatively homogenous. Nonetheless, most people have never actually seen a bicycle. They'v…

”The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial”

Trivial? Painting a single shape everybody knows got Giotto a job (http://theorbitbrown.com/site/the-perfect-circle/)

There are huge differences between humans in drawing ability and training.

But yes, in the case of these drawings, it seems the main difference is that many people apparently have never looked at a bicycle frame. I expect that to be somewhat different in countries where bicycles and people repairing their own bicycles are more common.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#54

Post by framebit »

jdietrich wrote: post #7

Drawing and painting is almost entirely a visual skill. The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial; the hard part is being able to see what's actually there. A bicycle is an incredibly simple visual form. You can doodle one in about five seconds. They're not rare or unusual objects and they're relatively homogenous. Nonetheless, most people have never actually seen a bicycle. They'v…

Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain is an astonishing book that revolutionized my own artistic practice. The simple but difficult emphasis on drawing what actually see and not what you think you see takes real presence and mindfulness to master. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in art. Even if you don't go through the exercises, the principles in there can really inform different ways of thinking.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#55

Post by Johnythree »

garrettgrimsley wrote: post #8
bena wrote: post #3

I had to go look up pictures of actual bikes to confirm what (I think) is wrong with the lead picture. I also wonder how I would have done in the blind.

For any still not seeing it: The chain stay from the bottom bracket is missing. The rear wheel should be held by a triangular arrangement of the frame, but the side of the triangle that runs parallel to the ground isn’t there

Plus the front forks are straight.

eg they have "Rake", but no offset, so the amount of "Trail" or "Castor" will be incorrect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_geometr...

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#56

Post by komali2 »

garrettgrimsley wrote: post #8
bena wrote: post #3

I had to go look up pictures of actual bikes to confirm what (I think) is wrong with the lead picture. I also wonder how I would have done in the blind.

For any still not seeing it: The chain stay from the bottom bracket is missing. The rear wheel should be held by a triangular arrangement of the frame, but the side of the triangle that runs parallel to the ground isn’t there

After googling bicycles, seems to me like the common shape is "diamond with a line dividing the two triangles (bicycle seat thingy) and a line coming off the top vertex (front wheel holder thingy), I'm gonna try to remember that and draw a bicycle later after the memory has faded.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#57

Post by skybrian »

I don't know if he redid this independently or failed to give credit, but here is an article [1] describing some similar experiments done by Rebecca Lawson. And a formal academic paper from 2006 [2].

[1] https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/~rlawson/cycleweb.html

[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03195929

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#58

Post by [deleted] »

eitally wrote: post #46
jdietrich wrote: post #7

Drawing and painting is almost entirely a visual skill. The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial; the hard part is being able to see what's actually there. A bicycle is an incredibly simple visual form. You can doodle one in about five seconds. They're not rare or unusual objects and they're relatively homogenous. Nonetheless, most people have never actually seen a bicycle. They'v…

If you Google "learning how to see [like an artist]" type of queries, you'll find lots of useful information, like this: http://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/negative-shapes-design

[deleted]

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#59

Post by jdietrich »

jacobolus wrote: post #41
jdietrich wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to draw freehand. A t-square, a pair of compasses and a set of French curves are pretty much essential if you want to accurately draw precise geometric forms.

This seems like moving the goalposts. You also don’t have to draw “free eye”. There are plenty of tools you can use like tracing paper, photographic references, coloring books with the lines already drawn, ... None of my illustrator friends use french curves or compasses to do their sketching, and usually even skip using a straightedge, but through practice can make very nice straight lines, right angles, circles, ot…

Most people can accurately trace a line drawing, but can't accurately copy it by eye. Try it for yourself and you should see that your manual dexterity isn't a meaningful bottleneck in your ability to draw.

Drafting tools might well be a crutch, but they were considered essential in the days when engineering drawings and technical illustrations were routinely done by hand. If you need to use a spline to draw smooth curves or construction lines to draw perspective, so what?

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