👀 Exercise: Sharpen Your Visual Intelligence - 09/19/24
A moment of visual mindfulness. Practice staying in the moment to notice the rich details.
As we move throughout the day hurriedly from one task to the next, it’s good to slow down and observe what is right in front of us, to notice the details, and to not gloss over important information.
Over time you will be able to strengthen your observation skills which can be applied in all parts of your personal life and in your work.
Each time I do this exercise I’m surprised at the details I discover and I think this exercise will surprise you too.
Instructions
Look at the image below. Notice all the details. Zoom in to notice the fine details in the artwork.
Challenge yourself to identify as many details as you can. Look for objects, people, shapes, colors, patterns, etc.
Be as specific in your observations as possible. For example, instead of noticing frames on the wall, look at each frame and the picture within it, go further and notice the patterns on the frame.
Optional: Share your observations in the comments
Artwork Details:
Title: The Music Room of Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) (1849), vintage interior illustration
Artist: Julius Eduard Wilhelm Helfft
Medium: Watercolor
Source: Original public domain image from The Smithsonian Institution. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
That’s it!
I hope you enjoyed this exercise and notice the value in staying present in the moment to observe the details.
By practicing this way you can strengthen our visual perception muscles and use them in your daily life when needed.
Remember, the devil is in the details!
Cheers,
This exercise is inspired by the insightful book Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life by Amy Herman which is a guide to improve our observation skills which in turn helps us communicate more effectively.
I think I could do this for hours and hours. I picked just one item, the shelf on the right.
I see 6 ceramic-ish items on the top, 5 on the bottom. 5 of the items are white, 3 a shade of teal, one copper, one black and copper, and one a dark grey that almost matches the wall. From left to right, Top: maybe a cream holder. It appears to have a spout; a vertically ribbed glass; a goblet; a thin bottle. It's slightly leaning, but the base is flat, perhaps it's simply crookedly painted; a small pitcher; the dark grey goblet, lost in the color of the wall; Bottom: A medium sized narrow, stout-necked jar; a stick-candle holder; a small vase; a sugar jar; a shallow, wide topped coffee cup.
The shelf itself is black wood. The top/bottom are connected by shaped supports. From the design of the supports, which are narrower at the bottom than the top, I imagine the top shelf holds more weight.
Here is my observation:
In the painting I see a room where we are looking from one side towards the door. The room has a desk with a char and what looks like stationary and a box on top. On the right side we see a piano and a chair in front of it. The char has a maroon cushion. The chair has a very intricate design. The walls of the room are grayish blue color and the sun's rays are falling on the far side wall and on the door. The floor is wooden with orange reflections coming off the frames on the wall. The ceiling and walls are molded with panels. There is a golden chandelier hanging from the middle of the room with three arms but there are no candles on it. On the left side of the room there is a wooden base right next to a window and on the base there is a chair and a small wooden table with a tray and a box on it. There are two plants on the window sills of both windows. The windows are covered with white fabric curtains. The curtains let the sun light in to light up the room. There is a three panel mirror with a blue frame hanging in between the two windows on the wall. On the far side wall there are 8 golden frames with paintings. One the middle wall that is at an angel there are 6 frames with similar intricate designs on the tem. On the right side wall there are 8 golden frames with paintings. There placed from the smallest to the largest right next to each other. There is a small carpet by the piano.
There are three chairs and a stool. Two of the chairs are facing the door and one is facing the windows. There are three tables. There are 23 golden frames on the wall.