Psychology 397
Psychology of Art
Essay 1
Fall 2001
DUE TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 25
This assignment is based on your drawing a figure, looking at your drawing as you go, as well as when you are finished, and relating the results to Gombrich’s Introduction and Chapter 1.
Take a blank piece of paper and draw a vertical line. Look at the line on the page. Then draw a horizontal line below and to the right of the vertical line. For your third line, draw another horizontal line to the left of the vertical line and below it so that the two horizontal lines are exactly opposite one another with a gap between them. The vertical line should be centered between them. Finally, add a vertical line below the horizontal lines, opposite the first vertical line, with a gap the same size as the gap between the two horizontal line segments. A version of these four lines would look about like this (making the lines equal length):
Now spread the pattern across the page and down, line by line, until you have filled your page. Depending on the length of the lines, you might end up with a 3 by 3 pattern or a 3 by 5 pattern or even a 6 by 6 pattern. The precise number will not matter.
As you draw, look at what you see emerging. How would you describe what you see at key stages of your drawing?
Writing AssignmentWhat can you find in the Introduction to Gombrich’s book and Chapter 1 that can be related to your experiences of drawing the pattern described?
Obviously, this is like the sequence he talks about from his youth in Vienna, when he learned to draw the loaf of bread that ultimately turned into a cat.
There are many ways you can do a good job, but all ways that amount to a good job will use relevant quotes from the reading and draw attention to relevant observations you make about how your pattern looks as it emerges in the drawing. A good paper will make it clear that you’ve carefully read and thought about the reading and that you’ve looked at your drawing with equal care. A poor paper would be one that could have been written without looking at a drawing or without doing the reading.
LENGTH: I envision papers of roughly 1000 words. You can do a good job with more or less, but that’s a ballpark to start with. Showing illustrations (which do not count in a page total) is good, and documenting Gombrich’s points with quotations is essential.