Always flip your art! #1 tip to improve your drawings
Imagine this: your creating an artwork. You’re super happy with it because everything goes smooth. However, as you progress in the process, you notice something’s not quite right. Yet, you can’t figure out what’s wrong with the image. Sounds familiar? The answer is simple: always filp your art!
If you’ve ever got stuck when drawing because you couldn’t say what’s wrong with your painting, this tip is going to help you in 8/10 cases.
Just… flip your art
Flipping means creating a mirror image of your artwork along a vertical axis, essentially flipping the image as if you were looking at it in a mirror.
In traditional drawing, you would have to a put a mirror next to your work to see the flipped image.
Luckily for us digital painters, we can benefit from the advantages of digital art software, which makes it so much easier to see what’s wrong with our artworks.
How to flip a drawing in digital software?
Here’s a quick overview of the most popular programms with instructions how to flip the painting you’re working on. The naming of the action varies depending on the digital art software you use.
- Procreate
Action > Canvas > Flip canvas horizontally - Clip Studio Paint
Edit > Transform > Flip horizontal - Krita
View > Canvas > Mirror view - ibisPaint
Open the Layer window > Invert Layer Horizontally
Why does flipping your drawing works?
When you flip your art, you’re essentially tricking your brain into viewing the image from a fresh perspective.
Our brains often become accustomed to the way we perceive familiar objects and shapes. By flipping your art, you disrupt this familiarity, forcing your brain to engage in a more analytical and objective assessment of the composition.
This shift in perception allows you to identify subtle imbalances, disproportions, and perspective issues that might have gone unnoticed otherwise.
Imagine you’re working on a portrait. Flipping the image horizontally might reveal that one eye is slightly higher than the other, or that the curvature of the lips isn’t quite symmetrical.
These small irregularities can have a significant impact on the overall realism and aesthetics of your artwork.
Flip horizontal or vertical?
Personally, in 99% of cases, I use horizontal flipping. However, as I was writing this article, I started to wonder if there’s any use of vertical flipping, and I think I figured it out.
Flip horizontal for symmetry
As I explained above, the mirror image technique is great for finding flaws = everything that’s not symmetrical and simply seems off in your art.
You should do it in absoultely EVERY stage of the drawing process.
Flip vertical for composition & copying
Now, I think vertical flipping can be useful in two situations.
Flip vertical when planning out the composition of your painting
When you see an image upside down, you get an entirely fresh perspective. You stop perceiving its elements as physical objects, and start seeing the more abstract aspect of it, which might help you discover new ways of improving the composition of your artwork.
Flip vertical to train your perception
In her book, Drawing on the right side of the brain, Betty Edwards, a famous art teacher, discusses the concept of flipping a drawing upside down and copying it as a valuable technique to enhance drawing skills and tap into the right hemisphere of the brain, which is often associated with creativity and visual perception.
The technique of flipping a drawing upside down and copying it is based on the premise that our left hemisphere, which is responsible for logical thinking and language, often dominates our perception when we’re drawing. This dominance can lead to inaccuracies and difficulties in capturing the true proportions and relationships between various elements in a subject.
By flipping the drawing upside down, you essentially disrupt the left hemisphere’s dominance and allow the right hemisphere to take over. This shift in perception helps you see the drawing as a collection of abstract shapes and lines rather than as recognizable objects. It reduces the interference of preconceived notions and labels, enabling you to focus more on accurately replicating what you see.
Perceptual training
When copying an upside-down drawing, you engage in a process that Edwards refers to as “perceptual training.” This involves careful observation of the relationships between lines, angles, and shapes, without the distraction of naming or labeling objects. This training encourages you to draw what you see rather than what you think you know. As a result, you’re more likely to capture accurate proportions, angles, and nuances in your drawing.
Edwards also emphasizes that flipping a drawing and copying it upside down can be especially beneficial for those who are new to drawing or who struggle with realistic representation. It’s a way to bypass the critical voice that often hinders creativity and allows you to build your drawing skills in a more objective and analytical manner.
It might seem unusual, but believe me, this method really works! Here’s my copy of Picasso’s Portrait of Igor Stravinsky. I flipped the original upside down and copied it. I was more than shocked to see my copy was actually quite good (notice that back in 2017, when I drew it, I was just at the beginning of my art journey):
Always flip your art. Bottom line
I hope you’ve found this article useful. If you don’t want to miss any upcoming painting tips, consider signing up for my newsletter. 🙂
(And remember: always flip your art!)
Self-taught digital painter who likes to write about art & drawing. Mostly painting urban scenes during golden & blue hour.
Great article! as a tip I found this Flip mirror image tool very useful https://mate.tools/flip-mirror-image