As soon as you make the perceptual shift to seeing the object as a condition of light, what you observe becomes as tentative, shimmering, and luminous as light itself.
Same thing with drawing. To draw something "true to life" you have to stop thinking about the object as an object, and instead think of it as a series of interrelated shadows and shapes. The concept of "coffee mug" gets in the way of the reality of the mug's curvature, texture, proportions, and color.
