Gestalt and Analytical Perception Definition:
Gestalt Thinking: Learning to see and record the world in terms of wholes, whose properties are so unified that they cannot be derived from their parts. Gesture drawing exercises attempt to record the gestalt without the analytical details.
Analytical (Visual) Thinking: The mental act of separating a visual whole into its elemental parts so that one or more of them can be studied in depth. In visual analytical thinking, mental skill must be expressed in an observable activity that communicates clearly the degree of learning; verbalization about the nature of the learning must never replace appropriate visual expression.
Related Concepts:
Observation: The act of seeing, noticing and recording. In artistic terms, seeing implies that the individual takes full responsibility for the visual information that the eyes take in and the brain processes. If focused and critical attention is not paid to the information presented to the eyes and then recorded, however quickly and sketchy, observation becomes a fleeing mental activity which cannot serve as the basis for sound, extended visual thinking.
ETC: An acronym is created by Robert Mckin to describe the "feedback loop" necessary for graphic development of visual ideas. The letters stand for the three phases in the creative thinking cycle; Expression, Testing, and Cycling back to expression.
Gestalt and Analytical Perception