If you squint a little, you’ll see two dark stripes. At the same time you see a profile. Stay with this. Keep looking at the whole page.
The mark making in the dark passages is so rich that you’re drawn (!) in to dwell on the intensity of that texture. The next second you’re reading the face with its clear profile and the hint of an eye in the shadow side. Your brain flickers like a strobe light, back and forth in this paradox.
This is uncanny, very powerful.
Drawing by Kat.
Here’s what I mean by “two dark stripes”:
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 
Great series of posts! Your students are lucky to have you as a teacher. Challenging but fun assignments.
Keven
Keven Wilder T: 773.772.7172 Cell: 773.636.6289 http://www.kwilderart.com http://www.fairdealcommittee.com instagram.com/kwilderart
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This was one of my favorite excercises back when you were teaching in Evanston, not because my drawing was so “accurate” but because it hanged together as a whole. Alas, it only works with photos—haven’t figured out yet how to draw a live model upside down!
Upside-down drawing is an exercise you can do anytime, using whatever image is lying around on your desk. It’s a way of sharpening your ability to see, really see what’s there, without projecting what you want to see. Having practiced seeing like that, you can then apply it to seeing anything.