Draw what you see, not what you think

What you need: paper, a pencil, a chair, a cup, or any familiar object.

Start drawing the object in front of you. Draw it as if you had never seen one before and did not know what it was for.

Most children draw the four legs of a chair even when they can only see two. That is not a mistake — it is memory stepping in. Notice how the far legs are shorter, how the seat is an ellipse and not an oval, how the handle of the cup is a ring and not a circle.

Keep the memory out of it for five minutes. Then let the memory back in, and see what it added.