There’s a common piece of advice which states that for realism you must “draw what you see…not what you know”. The idea is that, looking is key and you can’t draw what you see if you’re not looking at what you want to draw.
When we think we know what we’re seeing, we stop looking and we assume – invariably wrongly as it happens. Knowing leads to lack of realism, so after establishing sufficient realism, I then let the art take over. With a figure drawing for example, I do not follow shadows very rigorously – in less than perfect lighting they can be harsh and even confusing. Arms, chins, legs all at times cast what I call “inconvenient shadows”. I diffuse these or sometimes even remove them.
Break-a-Brush!
David