From the time we are old enough to hold crayons without eating them, we are encouraged to draw something representative of the real world. It's often hard to look at a drawing our kids or grandkids have done and guess what it is supposed to be. Many people do not ever progress far beyond these child-like drawings.

There are those who have great success and achieve great fame drawing and painting works that are entirely unrecognizable as anything. Although I can appreciate line and form and flow of color, my personal preference runs toward a more conventional representational type of art. But I digress!

Many years ago, I decided that I really wanted to learn more about drawing to help my work and my students. Someone was kind enough to direct me to a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards, which I bought and started reading right away.

Reading this book was probably the best thing I have ever done to increase my skills. Ms. Edwards has an entirely different way of approaching the process of learning to draw. Through a series of exercises that are, to say the least, revolutionary, she leads you into the world of drawing by teaching you to "see" things in a new way.

One of the goals she accomplishes with relative ease is to teach you to be able to shift into using the right side of your brain. The right side of the brain is the side that controls our creativity and learning to use it more efficiently makes drawing become almost intuitive.

There have been times when, in demonstrating something to a class, someone would say "Wait a minute! You stopped explaining." Indeed, I had shifted into the right side of my brain and was creating, but not able to explain it at the same time. The left side of the brain controls speech and being able to use both sides at the same time is impossible. At least it is for me & most other people. So you can't talk while you are "in" the right (creative) side. However, learning to voluntarily shift to the right side allows one to be able to create "on demand". Imagine being able to be creative when you want to or need to instead of having to wait until you feel inspired.

Some of the chapters include:
1 Exercises in drawing upside down (really an enlightening experience!).
2 "Drawing on Memories" which outlines how children see as they age, what we see as adults and why.
3 Learning about negative space, perspective and proportion
4 "Portrait Drawing With Ease"
5 "Seeing Light, Drawing Shade"
and much more.

The New "Drawing of the Right Side of the Brain" will be a fun, enriching way to learn to draw (even if you thought you never could), gain skill to bring your artistic works to a new level or to "deepen your artistic perceptions" if you already draw.

Ther reading is easy but so interesting it is difficult to put down. And you will want to keep a drawing pad and pencil close by to do the drawing Ms. Edwards suggests.

This is one to put on your Christmas list! You will be glad you did.



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Thanks for stopping by!

Paula Devore
Painting Editor