Q&A / Advice
Hello! I have been reading / learning about aphantasia for a little over a year now and thats not to say I am actively researching but I am really starting to understand how it effects me, I think? I have read several posts and articles about varying degrees of aphantasia and this made me really curious to see if someone could potentially develop skills to visualize or work to improve the lack of picturing during thought. Last year I started reading voraciously again after not having done it since my teens (27F) and feel like after spending a lot of time reading I began to visualize the content to a degree and even remember the very first “clear imagine” I got from a book during this period. I can NEVER visualize people but shapes of them and in the spaces they are described, I can. If I want a whole “picture” type of visualization I like to look up fan art of particular characters and that helps a bit too. Anyway, after continuing to read everyday since then, I feel like visualizing has gotten easier though its never crystal clear like my friends seem to see. All of that leads to where I am at now. I have been taking up drawing and have been trying to practice everyday. I always feel like my art is better if I have a reference, but also feel like i lack creativity because I cant draw something from my head. And not like something existing like my house but something original if that makes sense. Purely my ideas put into art. If I got better or helped develop skills to “see” while reading, do we think that I could do the same for art? And I would be really interested in hearing feedback on tools or tips and tricks you other artists use. It feels frustrating to want to be creative but never feel like I can take whats in my brain and put it on my sketchbook. If you read all that babbling thanks! I appreciate being heard 🥹
Edit - to be clear I do not visualize every time I read - just that it seems to be something I have “learned”? how to do over time but not consistently. and it usually in response to intense emotions in the content.