the new Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain
By Betty Edwards.A couple of months ago, I was considering taking up drawing to further develop my creativity & provide a new outlet for things that needed to be expressed through me. I’ve always had a thing for drawing. Combined with my affinity for mathematics this was one of the main reasons why I was directed towards my first major, architecture, at a very early age.And I’ve always liked to decorate my bedroom walls and doors with my own symbolic drawings; yin yangs, arcs, smoky curves & dots all put together to represent one thing or another. Sometimes in wacky moods I even like to paint and write on my body & watch the prints move with my limbs like temporary tattoos! I’ve also dabbled with drawing on silk & glass. But as much as I like drawing, like many other talents I have they are all “mini talents” & not fully grown. Heck, I can’t even draw a straight line! In a way this is a good thing, because weather it’s writing, drawing, piano, guitar, needle work or any other art form, I always have something to work on and play with.
And as lovely fate would have it, it was just about this time when I was fumbling with ideas on how to develop this “mini talent”, that my father came up to me with this book stating he thought me or one of my brothers might find it interesting. Interesting! I was ecstatic with joy, this was the answer I was looking for! And although my youngest brother does have a thing for drawing and I might add has a bigger “mini talent” than I, in general they are not much into reading, they’re more of computer game freaks :P Needless to say, I poured over the book immediately & found it so enjoyable I had to write about it.
The basic idea of the book is that drawing is a function of the more creative right side of the brain, as opposed to the liner left side. According to Betty Edwards, anyone with average eye sight & average eye-hand coordination could learn to draw fairly well by learning to “see” or to perceive things the way an artist does.
Now inside each of our skulls, we have a double brain with two ways of knowing. Those are the left & right hemispheres. They both gather in the same sensory information but they handle them in different ways. The left hemisphere analyzes, abstracts, counts, marks time, plans step-by-step procedures, verbalizes & makes rational statements based on logic. The right hemisphere on the other hand is how we see things that are imaginary- existing only in the minds eye. We see how things exist in space and how the parts go together to make up the whole. When something is too complex to describe we use gestures that communicate, we use and understand metaphors, we dream and create new combinations of ideas, using the right hemisphere mode we are also able to draw pictures of our perceptions.
Through various exercises, such as copying drawings upside down(like the picture below taken from the book), we learn to shift our perception to R-mode producing a slightly altered state of consciousness which most artists experience while drawing, painting, sculpting or doing any kind of art work. “This state is probably not altogether unfamiliar to you” says Edwards. ”You may have observed in yourself slight shifts in your state of consciousness while engaged in much more ordinary activity”. “For example, most people are aware that they occasionally slip from ordinary waking consciousness into the slightly altered state of daydreaming. As another example, people often say that reading takes them “out of themselves.” Other kinds of activities which apparently produce a shift in consciousness state are meditation, jogging, needlework, typing, listening to music, driving & of course drawing itself”.
Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Igor Stravinksky
R-Mode state is described as a pleasurable state in which you are unaware of the passage of time, alert, relaxed, confident, interested, absorbed in the drawing and clear in your mind. If someone talks next to you, you might hear the sounds but you probably wouldn’t care much to figure out the meaning of what is being said.
“The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture- however unreasonable that may sound … The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. The picture is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state.”
From The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, 1923.
“We begin with a concept of some kind of awareness, some kind of basic ability to ‘know’ or ‘sense’ or ‘cognize’ or ‘recognize’ that something is happening. This is a fundamental theoretical and experiential given. We do not know scientifically what the ultimate nature of awareness is, but it is our starting point.”
Charles T. Tart, Alternate States of Consciousness, 1975
So far, I have finished the basics and I’m about to begin chapter 9 where I’ll learn how to draw portraits. Here are a couple of the drawings I’ve made so far. The first tackles the issue of dimensions; how to properly portraying foreshortened views. The second tackles the perception and proper portrayal of edges and angles.
my hand ;)
My sisters door ;p
Not bad, eh! ;) Unfortunatly the pics didn't turn out as clear as I expected, but u can click then for a clearer view ;) Now I know I will NEVER EVER be as good as ArtFinale mashallah 3aleh but this is some serious fun shit :P and let’s see what I can do with it! I’ll post some portraits for u when I’ve tackled those ;)
PS: the link is to my favorite drawing of Art’s, the sleeping child in the middle. I just LOVE how he magically, brilliantly and so realistically portrays the innocence and peace of the baby, don't u just love those lashes!! *sigh* Now that’s a real artist! Mashallah 3alek ya Art ya Finale ;)
posted by Peach @ 11:47 AM
13 Comments:
Great post. I would like to thank you for sharing that with us. I can see where it's leading you and i am glad you like it as much as you do.. The thing is though, you can never grasp the whole concept of painting or drawing or whatever is art-related by just reading books, it's true that they help dramatically and open your eyes to things you never knew as well as make you see things differently, but it's not enough.
I liked your sketches and i really think you should work on your mini-talent and hopefully make it a major one.
Here is the number to a good art institute that you might find useful, the instructors there are gifted and patient and have been teaching most of their lives..
Formative Arts Institute: 5336011
*ps* Thank you so much for the sweet compliment & linking my drawing, i am honored that you like my work :)
Thanks Art ;) I'm glad u liked my humble efforts, this means alot comming from u ;) inzain, are you saying that it's not a skill u can fully develop on your own? & That u need professional help to do that? And what would be enough?
Thanks for the number ;)
Teach me drawing :D
bs 6ala3ti multitalented ;)
Brilliant quote by Robert Henry :D
I have drawn for a long time.Logo's and fancy headlines and brand logos of my own head. Tell me about this book, whats the name? I need to hone my humble skills to.
Although I already know my Left side of the brain is so not being used .. :P
lol
HP, yalla foga ;) and don't u mean multi"mini"talanted ;p
Thanks Tareqish ;)
Luda, it is, isn't it! ;)
my title is the name of the book ;) "the new Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" Long name sa7! I'd like to see some of ur work, Did u post any of it on ur blog?
hmmmmmmm, very interesting
You're most welcome peach.
It's not that you can't fully develope it on your own, but there are certain tricks and guidelines that books won't be able to provide at this stage.
Besides, supervision is needed otherwise you won't know if you were on the right track or not.
A book might provide the info, but it doesn't monitor your progress nor your application. Not to mention that it differs from one person to another, i mean some people might need the info based on their skill level where others won't.
I recommend that you let somebody guide you and set you on the right track first, then you can use books to feed and widen your knowledge based on the basics you've learned. I'm sure your approach would be totally different if you do :)
Regards
Great job! Loved the art..and the stuff about the right and left brain...they say that generally women are right brainers...(feelings, emotions and perceptions)..while men are left brainers (logic, factual, etc..)..very interesting...My sister joined Bait Lothan one time when she got the urge to explore her talents in drawing...her paintings ended up to be really quite creative..(I was jealous...:)...I think it'll be a good idea to try them out to develop your talent more...it's obvious though that you're already doing great!
Peach looks like you do have hidden talent in drawing. Do keep it up.
had the final grads on drawing in my secondery major. I always loved drawing :)
Loved that post, dear peach :)
I really love drawing and I wish I had that natural art. Or atleast the patience and time to do it a bit professionally. It was interesting to read.
one more thing is that word weather or whether in the last lines of first paragraph.
Ayya ;)
ArtFinale, Great advice, thanks ;)
Miscosmo, I think I will thanks ;)
Jewaira, U really think so! cool ;)
3ala', I'm glad u do ;) on both ;p
White, U got me there ;p hehe it's whether,I keep mixing em up ;)
Badoor thanks bas wallah it's not me it's the book! I honestly can't draw a straight line if my life depended on it! well! maybe not if my life depended on it :P
Sam , hehe multi half talented ;)
Post a Comment
<< Home