Nikola Tesla, the inventor of the fluorescent lamp, polyphase electrical machines, and the high-frequency generator, had an extraordinary ability to create vivid mental images. He built in his mind three-dimensional images of complex machines down to the smallest detail. Most surprisingly, Tesla kept these machines running in his head for several weeks and carefully checked all the components for signs of wear.
To add vitality to your images, you need to turn off verbal thinking and use graphical analysis tools.
When you need to form a clear image, remember the key elements obtained as a result of your analysis - the proportions and interposition of the constituent elements. Let the image appear in front of you.
The next set of exercises is designed to improve the alertness and controllability of mental images.
1. Real things
Imagine each of the objects listed below. If the image is not as clear as you would like, do not try to force it. Instead, focus on the idea of seeing images. Whatever you try to imagine, everything has shape, texture, color and size. Focus on the shape first and gradually fill it in with details. Wait for the image to become clear and stable.
a familiar face, a childhood friend, a running dog, your bedroom, a sunset, a flying eagle, a babbling stream, a dewdrop, cirrus clouds, a century-old oak tree, typewriter keys, a snow-covered summit, a toothbrush, your favorite shoes.
2. Not quite real things
What's the difference between rendering familiar objects and something you've never seen? Imagine the following imaginary objects:
unicorn, chocolate river, six-armed deity, hobbit, talking giraffe, thirty-foot ant, choir of angels, four-dimensional sphere, world war three, four-leaf clover.
3. Drawing in quarters
Look straight ahead, noticing everything in the periphery of your vision, so that your gaze covers the full hemisphere, that is, the vertically cut ball. Close your eyes and try to restore the image. Divide your field of view into four mentally. Pick one quarter and analyze everything that falls into it, then draw that quarter in your mind. Repeat the same for each quarter.
4. Five mental pictures
Imagine five blue objects (blueberries, sky, book cover, ...)
Do the same for other colors like red, yellow, green, and magenta.
Imagine five objects starting with the letter "a" (artichoke, orange, ...)
Do the same for the rest of the alphabet.
Imagine five objects smaller than your finger (pencil tip, pea, blood cell, ...)
Imagine five objects larger than a bus (blue whale, train, ...)
Imagine five objects that can be found underground (roots, worms, ...)
Imagine five objects that make you happy (surfing, ice cream, ...)
5. Consistent image
If you close your eyes after gazing intently at an object, then for a few seconds you will see its subsequent image in front of you. Try using this follow-up image to render the subject. For example, look at the pencil, close your eyes, and consider the subsequent image. When the image loses clarity, open your eyes, look at the pencil, close your eyes and look at the mental image again. Repeat this at a rhythm that suits you until a clear imaginary image appears in front of you, at least for a few moments. Then try to create the familiar pencil look with willpower.
6. Peripheral mental vision
Imagine a pencil straight in front of you. Now make the created image move slowly in a circle so that it is first to your left, then behind you, then to your right, and finally in front of you again. As the pencil moves, imagine looking at it using your peripheral vision.
7. Visualization of people
Imagine all the people you spoke to today. How do they look? What color are their hair and eyes? How old are they and how tall are they? What were they wearing? Can you imagine their manners and habits? Try to imagine the people you saw yesterday; last weekend; last vacation, your last birthday.
8. Everyone has their own taste
Imagine a butterfly, detailed in every detail, with a delicate pattern on golden wings, long fluffy antennae, but let it be ugly for you, not beautiful.
9. Geometric shapes
Everyone knows that doing math requires a lot of imagination. Try to imagine the three-dimensional shapes suggested below. Try not only to form an image, but also to see the internal structure of the figure and the connections between the planar faces. Rotate the shapes mentally, looking at them from all sides, including inside. Try to feel their volume: a sphere, a cube, a prism, a tetrahedron (a pyramid with 4 faces), a pyramid, a dodecahedron (a dodecahedron), an octahedron (an octahedron), an icosahedron (a 20-sided one ).
10. Feelings, just feelings
Imagine a positive emotion. Mentally evoke a sense of surprise in yourself without trying to find a specific object in your memory. Try to feel desire without wanting anything specific. How realistic can you imagine the following emotions: hope, fun, love, anger, apathy.
11. Mental presence
Form an image of your mother's presence without seeing her. Likewise, invoke a mental image of the close proximity of a large mountain without imagining the appearance of the mountains.
12. Giant body
Draw a gigantic human body in your mind. Imagine that you are flying around this body, looking at it from different points of view and from different distances. Let the body be so large that you can freely enter through the nostrils, mouth, and other openings and explore the body from the inside. Enlarge your body so that you can fly over landscapes of cages and even view the components of individual cells.
13. Color fantasy
Imagine the color blue. You can start by rendering a specific object, such as a blue car. Then enlarge the car so that it fills your entire mental field of vision. Plunge into color. How bright can you make it? Try to imagine other colors: magenta, yellow, red, orange, and green. Imagine color transitions: from red to blue with intermediate shades in the middle. Paint everything above you red, blue on the left, green on the right.
14. Setting up your TV
Pick a specific object, such as blueberry pie, and try to visualize it clearly in your mind. Imagine being able to adjust your visual image just like the picture on a TV screen by turning the various control knobs.
15. Images of ideas
Imagine the idea of Beauty. Do you see a concrete image of something beautiful, or can you imagine an abstract idea of Beauty without any visual image? How small or big is this idea? Here are some more abstract concepts for rendering:
change, order, energy, peace, harmony, communication, reality, illusion.
