Opens with several first-person anecdotes about the author’s life as a practicing artist and a discussion of the intellectual lineage of his vision-based pedagogy. Many more anecdotes from the author’s teaching appear in most chapters. The author discusses perception as it benefits the artist in the studio. Perceptual laws govern both our experience of seeing and the artist’s process of creating. The book presents a proven process developed by the author over many decades of teaching and studio practice that the artist can apply to their own painting/drawing and/or teaching. The painting and drawing principles in the book are essential and yet not generally taught or understood. They will benefit anyone learning how to draw/paint or advance their practice. The book will also help practitioners to make rapid progress and to avoid clichéd, overused solutions. It also offers insights and discussions of interest to art lovers and “Sunday painters.” It is for everyone who enjoys viewing and thinking about art. Integrated into the text are more than one hundred images—works of art by well-known historical and contemporary artists and students, photographs, and diagrams—to reinforce the concepts presented. A recap section ends each chapter, followed by an exercise, or group of related exercises, to encourage and guide the practitioner in immediate application of the concepts.

Table of Contents:
Figures Foreword    Julian Kreimer    A Practical-Meditative Lineage XVII    Teaching XVIII    Learning to “See the Ground” Preface    Learning to See    The Brick    The Lineage Introduction 1. The Fear Factor    The Bare Canvas    Into the Void    Course of Action    Fear’s Tyranny    Mistakes and Accidents    Part-to-part    Recap 2. How We See It, How We Don’t    The 3D Cues       Perspective       Binocular Vision       Light and Shadow       Relative Motion    Recap    Exercises – Two or One Eyed 3. The Artist’s Vision    The Monocular Cues    Constancy    2D Visual Cues       Position       Shape-Size       Overlap       Value Contrast       Color Contrast    Hierarchy and Interaction    Recap    Exercises – 2D Cues 4. More About Seeing    Parts and Wholes    The Gestalt Contribution    Think Ahead    Arnheim    Where and What    Figuring the Ground    Object-Directed vs. Ground-Directed Seeing    Past Experience, Purpose, and Action    Recap    Exercises – Parts and Whole  5. Beyond Face or Vase    Head First    Figure-Ground    Not Negative and Positive    Edge-condition    Yes and No    Intentions, Meanings, and Context    Recap    Exercises – F/G 6. Forces in the Field    Inner Necessity    Closure    Coincidence of Edge and Continuity    Locales    Recap    Exercises – Three C’s 7. Line    Positioning Line    Contour    Gesture    Blind-contour    Cross-contour    Recap    Exercises – DYI 8. Value    Positioning Value    Reserving the Light    Adding and Subtracting    On Readymade    Adding Wash and Brush    Elegance or Clumsiness    Recap    Exercises – Plus and Minus 9. Brush, Paint, Process    Shape Paint, Don’t Paint Shapes    Color Studies    Bridging Triangle    DLWCDI    Recap    Exercises–DLM  10. Muscles and Marks    The Body Against Itself    Four Variables       Pressure       Tempo       Duration       Direction    Deliberate Practice    Recap    Exercises–PTDD  11. Figuring Where    Plumb, Level, and Square    The Frame    Sighting and Measuring    2D to 2D    Linear Perspective    Aerial Perspective    Sfumato    Recap    Exercises–Devices  12. Unmediated Response    Focal Point    Approximation    The Great Law    Recap    Exercises–Focal Point 13. Fixing    Jumping Parts    Add More of It    Build a Bridge    Reverse the Overlap    Adjust the Scale    Do Something Else    Recap    Exercises–Ground-Directed  14. The End is The Beginning    Limits of Language    Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes    Meaning, Metaphor, Myth    Last Words Endnotes Bibliography Acknowledgments About the Author Index