DRAWING FROM MEMORY 
Kim Dingle, United Shapes of 
America III (Maps of U.S. Drawn 
by Las Vegas Teenagers).  1994.  
Oil on panel, 48” x 6’.  (Courtesy 
of the artist and Blum & Poe, 
Santa Monica, CA.)

Drawing or painting from 
memory is even more difficult 
than copying figures. The 
constancy problem is probably a 
major reason again, all the 
more so because in drawing 
from memory it is not possible 
to make use of proximal-mode 
perception of the scene. Thus if 
we are trying to draw an object 
or scene and we remember it or 
imagine it on the basis of how 
things look, it is likely to be 
difficult indeed to draw in 
terms of the laws of perspective 
projection.

    It is probably true, as has 
been suggested by the art 
historian E. H. Gombrich and 
others, that we tend to draw 
what we know. This is all the 
more likely to occur in 
children. Therefore, if a young 
child makes a drawing of the 
street in which he or she lives, 
a typical example might not 
look like a picture in 
perspective.  Instead, the child 
might depict the streets from 
above, and then show two-
dimensional drawings of the 
houses from the side as they are 
seen from the streets.  Laying 
out the objects in such a way, 
so as to show them in their 
most representational view, 
might be regarded more as a 
rather intelligent solution 
than as an error. To some 
extent, children may depict 
objects in this way even when 
asked to copy something.