I've seen variants of the question of how they do art asked and explored, but every time it's answered, it just leaves new questions (which means this is going to come with a few side questions which will be emphasized), at least to me. For example, someone mentioned that we live in a world where it's 100% possible to use pictures as models and draw based on a picture that's right in front of them, but unless the picture was a photo that was right next to the drawing you're completing or something you are tracing, you still have to absorb the visual you're trying to replicate (is this not what visualization is) and then pour it out on the paper or canvas. Another person mentioned they might just resort to writing, but even that is an act of visualization, as dawned on me while talking about handwriting's supposed uniqueness while also thinking of this topic (which, as a point of emphasis because it's a popular topic even though signatures predate paper and different scripts use varying rules of visual style, makes me wonder how people with aphantasia have handwritings that are so different).

And that's when I realized, when you break them down and think about it, most tasks use some variant/degree of visualization, right? Such as cooking for example, since you have to estimate outcomes based on what descriptive words say, or running down a new set of stairs you have never walked down before, since it depends on you having visually absorbed the dimensions of the stairs which you are using blindly without the memory of them. I'm sure, like all things, aphantasia is a spectrum, but where are the lines drawn between different forms of visualization and why/how? What makes one part of the aphantasia experience "different" from another part entailing similar functions?