What is Drawing from the Right Brain Anyways?

"The magical mystery of drawing ability seems to be, in part at least, an ability to make a shift in brain state to a different mode of seeing/perceiving. When you see in the special way in which an experienced artist sees, then you can draw. Drawing is not really very difficult. Seeing is the problem, or to be more specific, shifting to a particular way of seeing. You may feel that you are seeing things just fine and that it’s the drawing that is hard. But the opposite is true…and the exercises of this book are designed to help you make the mental shift and gain a twofold advantage: first to open access by conscious volition to the right side of your brain in order to experience a slightly altered mode of awareness; second, to see things in a different way. Both will enable you to draw well. “ (p. 4) Betty Edwards

Betty Edwards researched brain functions while she was teaching as and art educator, because she wanted to know why some people seemed to be born with the talent to draw. What she found out was that some people are right brain dominant and others left brain dominant, and that the brain has two hemispheres that control different functions. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere controls the left side. Speech and language are closely linked to thinking and reasoning, and the higher mental functions that set human beings apart from animals. The right side of the brain is better at spatial problems and at perceiving external reality, being creative, day dreaming and intuition. Most activities require both hemispheres of the brain, but there are a few activities that require mainly one mode without the interference from the other and that is drawing.

Do all three exercises below and click on the links for information and prompts.

The Face and the Vase

This drawing exercise is designed to make image connections. In the vase and the face exercise, you will probably find that naming the parts such as forehead, nose, or mouth will seemingly confuse you as your draw the parts. It is actually better not to think of the drawing as a face. It is easier to use the shape of the space between the two profiles as your guide. In right brain modes if you use words to think like, “where does that curve start?” or “how deep is that curve?” then your left brain is intruding with the right brain trying to perceive the object. This is when you need to tell the voice in your head to BE QUIET so that you can perceive the shapes as you SEE them……not as you think you see them. Now click on the following link to do the vase exercise. Follow the instructions of the blog and read the comments about this technique.

http://drawright.com/vaceface.htm

Upside Down Drawing

Go to the link below and read the short excerpt on drawing upsidedown. Then ask yourself the following questions; what was the benefit of drawing upside down? Once you started drawing, did you find yourself interested in how the lines fit together? Or did your left brain interfere with the progress of your drawing and it seemed to take forever? If you did not experience the shift of when your brain goes into a different state such as; losing track of time, or you feel like you do when you are daydreaming, then your left hemisphere was still interfering with your ability to draw. Once you let the left brain rest, you will find that you can create a self-induced state of consciousness achieved through a different form of concentration.

http://www.learn-to-draw.com/drawing-basics/06-drawing-pencil.htm

Sighting

Another device that artists use when they are drawing is sighting. This is a tool and a process that compares the relationships of angles, point, shapes and spaces. Betty Edwards states that, “Sighting is visual perspective, with the optical information perceived directly by the eye and drawn by the artist without revision. Sighting requires no T-squares, triangles, protractors, rulers. All you need is pencil and paper. The only other requirement is a quiet L-mode that will stay out of the act and not protest when you draw thing according to the way they really look and not according to what we know about them. Other artists prefer to use tools like a viewfinder to sticks that can be used a reference points to see the different angles. The procedure is to use a pencil or stick and hold it out in front of you at arm’s length and close one eye while looking at the object. Using the pencil, find the mid-point and find different reference points to visually measure the size of the object in relationship to the objects and space around it. Click on the link below to see the two examples and scroll to page 71 and 72.

http://books.google.com/books?id=E9AnudWoHRkC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=sighting+in+drawing&source=bl&ots=PNtP7cVKYS&sig=ir2fzUFDvCVXiXS3YZjOqFhuzUk&hl=en&ei=XKNGSv-CH4HaNrKvqJcB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

Conclusion

Did you find that you might start to think differently about how you will approach drawing in the future? Are you more willing to seek out different techniques and ways of building your drawing skills? The goal of this short exercise was to expose you to the pleasures and tap into the artist within. Betty concludes her book with the following with a statement that is applicable and poignant by saying, “Drawing on the capabilities of the right side of your brain, develop your ability to see ever more deeply in to the nature of things. As you look at people and objects in your world, imagine that you are drawing them, and then you will see differently. You will see with an awakened eye, with the eye of the artist within you.”