Austin's Butterfly

Author

Bary Levy
May 29, 2024

At the time, Austin was a First Grade student from Idaho. He was tasked with drawing a scientifically accurate drawing of a butterfly from a reference image. This is the first draft Austin came up with:

Reference Image (left), Austin’s first draft (Right)

Austin’s classmates were then told to give him feedback on his drawings. The feedback, however, had to adhere to a few guidelines that helped them put Austin on the right track:

  1. The feedback has to be about the drawing, not personal.

  2. Each item of feedback should go into detail, often focusing on a small part of the drawing, and never on more than one aspect of it.

  3. The feedback should be corrective and specific. That is, what can Austin specifically change to improve the drawing?

After only a few iterations, this was Austin’s final draft before adding color:

Reference Image (left), Austin’s fifth draft (Right)

When I first came across this experiment, I was blown away but also kind of skeptical. So I did whatever a good skeptic does. I tried to replicate it myself. Of course, I didn’t have a group of first-graders to give me feedback, so I had to settle for the next best thing, myself. Using the same feedback guidelines, I drew elephants. Then, equipped with hurried handwriting, I critiqued myself. Note, I have never in my life drawn anything remarkable before.

Drafts 1 and 2, With self-feedback written in handwriting.

Drafts 3 and 4

This method can be used for much more than drawing animals. I find that when playing an instrument, giving myself detailed feedback in real-time helps me correct and improve my playing. In chess, it’s established that a good way to improve is to analyze your games in retrospect.

While Austin and I had a reference picture to compare to, in reality, an exact reference does not always exist. Luckily, you don’t always need one. You can ask yourself what about someone else work makes it great, then extract those principles and generate feedback from them. You can also learn these principles from the internet.

Now it’s time to try this on your own. Grab a pen and paper, search for a reference picture that interests you. It will likely help if it’s an object with a lot of detail. Good luck!