1. What you know and what you see are two extremely different things. You know an object bends in a particular fashion, however the way the individual object is positioned possibly will not exhibit the bend you know it makes. In fact the bend may look like a totally straight line. You know from experience the seat on the chair is a square. You sat on many chairs, you've seen many chairs. But when that particular chair is put a certain angle you will not see the seat of the chair as a square. You will try to draw the seat of the chair as a square because you know from the many chairs you have seen that it's square. But when you draw it you'll notice that something is wrong, something is out of proportion. So when you really look at it you'll see that it is straight line not an angled square shape.
An optical illusion. Square A is exactly the same ...
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Drew Barrymore and Corey FeldmanTo override the tendency of drawing what you know instead of what you see you have to stop look at the object itself and start look at the whole compositions as shapes. And you have to compare them to one another. How does this shape angle with this shape? What is the distance between this shape and this shape? It's all about comparing different pieces of the composition. For example when we were drawing the still life, we had to compare different pieces of the stiff life to one another. Also when we drew the peculiarly placed chairs many of us had the tendency to draw what we knew instead of what we saw.
2. When you look at a drawing you look at the whole and bits and pieces at the same time. Like you look at this bit of the drawing compared...