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Symbols play an important role in our lives. 

When we see this we stop. 

When we see this we know the time.

Even the words you are reading are made up of symbols that our brain interprets as language. Without symbols it would be harder to get through our day.  We rely on them for safety, promptness and expression of thought.

Symbols are helpful for everyday life but can interfere with an artist’s ability to truthfully represent the world around them. The reason we rely on symbolism is fear.  If we are uncertain of how to paint something, symbols give us a means to create a recognizable image.

So an eye becomes:

A house becomes:

A tree becomes:

Artists can overcome reliance on symbolism by learning to describe shapes using comparative measuring.   Comparative measuring is a method of flattening the 3-dimensional world onto the flat canvas by comparing points on an object that describe height to width and how they are connected.  Remember the fun of doing dot to dot drawings as a child, where you would connect the numbers and an image would magically appear? 

Comparative measuring is similar.  You do not think about the "thing" you think about the shapes.  Begin with the biggest shape possible find its height compared to its width.  How do those points connect?  Do they connect in a straight line, a curve, an angle?  Once you have the largest shapes your find smaller shapes and how they fit in relation to what you have already marked.  I think of this process as "reading" shapes.

Here the largest shapes of height and width have been marked. The other marks map the midpoint and turning of the head.

This drawing shows how the smaller shapes fit into the larger shapes and create a face without symbols.

Shapes are more interesting than symbols. My favorite part of drawing is the surprise shape that will perfectly describe something in context but is not recognizable on its own. In the first drawing below there is nothing to tell you what it is, in the second drawing the shape begins to look like an eye when it is surrounded by other shapes.  In the painting you can see how the shapes of light that connect create the man’s portrait.    Symbols take away the unique expression of the artist because they are easily recognizable and can be used in place of the factual shape.

Comparative measuring allows you to draw anything as long as you trust the process. Symbols are great for helping us show up on time and keeping us safe, but they are a hindrance to representing the world truthfully.