“The process of drawing opens your perceptions of the visible world through an active process of observation where what your eyes see-by-looking is melded to the mental function of noticing. … the drawing process is about extracting elements from a view and then imposing your interpretation of those elements through your drawing approach and techniques.”
Suzanne Brooker, “Essential Techniques of Landscape Drawing“, pp2-4
Drawing or painting a subject multiple times is underrated as a technique for deciding what to include and what to leave out to get to the essence. Each time I see it differently, notice things I hadn’t before, fail to see something I had previously, make different choices. The result(s) then guide my decisions in future pieces, without dictating as I don’t compare the previous piece with the new one as I am creating it. That comes later.
If you think it’s going to get repetitive and boring, go look at Monet’s series paintings. His haystacks, trees, and lilypond paintings range from slightly different to vastly. Something as easy as changing the size or proportions of the surface you’re working on makes a difference to how you interact with a subject.
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I’m just setting up a still life at home for this very reason, to use repeated arting of the same subject to improve my observation and help me experiment with style. I’m hoping it will produce lots of learning!
Working from a set up still life rather than photo really makes us realise how a slight change in position changes what we’re seeing, and watch how shadows change across the day and with lights on. It’s great for learning!