I have aphantasia. I still draw manually; I just need a reference photo (or subject) and “modify” it as I draw. Imagine if you couldn’t remember what something looked like so you have to memorise “ok their right eye is 30% down their face and only half visible from this angle and extends 20% horizontally at about 10 degrees until it’s covered by the nose which is…” etc. Then I draw that tiny line and have to check again
Writing it out, I just realised it’s actually similar to how you would describe it to an LLM 😂. I will admit that I’m very unsuited to this skill, and it’s extremely difficult for me, but I still find it fun. Maybe because of the difficulty itself?
Actually, lately I’ve been challenging myself by using pen and doing line-art. Normally, because I fuck up so much, I do messy sketches; so it was really interesting using a medium that is so punishing. I’ve learnt with line art it’s mostly about what you don’t draw, rather than what you do, if that makes sense
I fucked around with a locally installed image generator A.I. for a while in the past ~ it was fun, but I got bored of it quickly, and it became kind of hollow
I do not have aphantasia, but a painting technique I follow could work for someone with aphantasia. It’s more about pattern-recognition than imagining something beforehand.
I pretty much start by following whims. I pick some colors and do what feels right. Only after a bit do I look again at the work and think, “Huh, that looks like an alien” or “That kind of looks like a tree,” etc. It’s kind of like making my own Rorschach test - making sense of the noise on a canvas. Then, I start accentuating the pattern I see until others can see it, too. In the end, it’s a unique piece that looks like I planned it all along.
I’m not sure if that sounds up your alley, but I figured I’d share just in case.
I have aphantasia. I still draw manually; I just need a reference photo (or subject) and “modify” it as I draw. Imagine if you couldn’t remember what something looked like so you have to memorise “ok their right eye is 30% down their face and only half visible from this angle and extends 20% horizontally at about 10 degrees until it’s covered by the nose which is…” etc. Then I draw that tiny line and have to check again
Writing it out, I just realised it’s actually similar to how you would describe it to an LLM 😂. I will admit that I’m very unsuited to this skill, and it’s extremely difficult for me, but I still find it fun. Maybe because of the difficulty itself?
Actually, lately I’ve been challenging myself by using pen and doing line-art. Normally, because I fuck up so much, I do messy sketches; so it was really interesting using a medium that is so punishing. I’ve learnt with line art it’s mostly about what you don’t draw, rather than what you do, if that makes sense
I fucked around with a locally installed image generator A.I. for a while in the past ~ it was fun, but I got bored of it quickly, and it became kind of hollow
I do not have aphantasia, but a painting technique I follow could work for someone with aphantasia. It’s more about pattern-recognition than imagining something beforehand.
I pretty much start by following whims. I pick some colors and do what feels right. Only after a bit do I look again at the work and think, “Huh, that looks like an alien” or “That kind of looks like a tree,” etc. It’s kind of like making my own Rorschach test - making sense of the noise on a canvas. Then, I start accentuating the pattern I see until others can see it, too. In the end, it’s a unique piece that looks like I planned it all along.
I’m not sure if that sounds up your alley, but I figured I’d share just in case.
Thanks! I’ll give it a go one day
Nice! Don’t know why you got downvoted just for sharing your experience.
I remove my own upvote from my comments because I like things starting at 0