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The Perception and Invention Principles:

The Perception Principle

Most art programs today are based on the invention principle: the idea that creativity is primarily a product of the imagination. The focus in such programs is on "making up" pictures of a unique nature. The New Masters program is based on the perception principle: the idea that creativity is inherent in experience -- and is only secondarily realized through expression. In other words, we do not see and then create; our seeing itself is creative. Another reason the program emphasizes perception over invention is that all artistic skill development, whether perceptual or inventive, is primarily dependent upon hand-to-eye response. Unless we first learn to draw what we see, we will be unable to draw what we imagine.

For this reason, the New Masters System employs essentially the same method for skill development as that used by all the great artists of the past: copying. Just as the great masters learned their craft by going to the museums with sketchbooks and paints and copying the work of the masters before them, New Masters System students begin their instruction by copying the work of master artists in various media.

This method of instruction is carried out in 3 phases. The first is straight copying -- from the simplest line drawings in black and white to complex and difficult renderings of color photos in oil paints. The second is interpretive copying where pictures created in one technique ( like pencil shading) are interpreted in another (like pen and ink cross-hatching). This is an intermediate phase between straight copying and working directly from life, the 3rd and final phase in the New Masters students' development. Beginning with very simple subjects -- like an index card on a flat surface -- students work their way up the scale of difficulty to still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and figures.

Thus, the primary goal of the New Masters System (but not the only goal) is to teach all students to draw and paint what they see -- as they see it -- with a high degree of accuracy. This emphasis is based, not only on the perceptual principles already discussed, but on the presumption that all forms of artistic expression, whether perceptual or inventive, are grounded in perception and are dependent for their expression on representational drawing skills.

The Invention Principle
In spite of its emphasis on perception, the New Masters System recognizes the importance of imaginative creativity and addresses the principles of design on all its levels. It also includes a number of optional enrichment activities designed to coordinate imaginative and perceptual expression.

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