Analyzing: My Brain and the ability to see shadows

During my first painting lesson our teacher made us paint  white objects with brushes as thick as a my wrists. The goal of this was to get a sense of shading and light. Since we only had white objects the shades were better viewable and the thick brush would hinder us to get lost in irrelevant details.

I must admit I was pretty bored at the start and my pictures looked like a huge mess. Black and white tightly mixed into one grey paste of awefulness didn't really grasp the beauty of the cracked cup lying infront of me.
So I started to try to not mix the colours and avoid going to crazy about smooth gradients.

And it helped.

So... Why did it help?
I tried again to do some smooth gradients but it just didn't seem 'good'. First off all most of these gradients just existed in my mind. I was looking at the object, saw shadows and was expecting gradients because I didn't like the idea of having hard edges and hard contrasts. However with sticking to these stupid guidelines I set up in my fantasy I started to see the object differently as it actually was. Basically I was assuming things, even though proof of me being wrong were directly in front of my very eyes.

That's the point were it made "click" and I got this pretty "AHA"-effect. Also I understood how long you  have to stare at things to understand why you're doing it wrong. Sure thing that I didn't master seeing shadows, since my brain tends to be rather slow-witted and dumb, but I am getting there. It just needs loads of staring and analyzing and getting annoyed by not getting the shadows right at the first fifty attempts.

I bet some of you guys will be in the same position at the moment of understanding shading and light. Just keep in mind that your brain needs to adjust to visual work and stop the habit of  putting your expectations , how something should look like, into reality.
This process of 'really seeing' needs time. (and tantrums which you will be throwing because you'll be enjoying learning sooo much)

And I like unicorns, make unicorns instead! D:<