Drawing on the right side of the brain

Based on the work of Betty
Edwards

A learnable skill
 Learning to “see” in a special way
 A special state of consciousness
 A path to creativity
 A risk. Becoming an artist will only work
for you if you are willing to try. Do not be
concerned or embarrassed about the
early outcomes. Every mistake becomes
something to learn from and gets you
closer to seeing like an artist.

 Draw a person without looking at anyone.
There are no specific directions for this, only
the general task of “drawing a person.”
 Draw a picture of your own hand. If you are
right-handed, draw your left hand. If you are
left-handed, draw your right hand.
 Draw a picture of plant or flowers in a vase.
 Draw a picture of the house you grew up in.

 The function of language is in the left
hemisphere for most people
 Scientists discovered this by observing
people with brain injuries
 Left hemisphere is usually dominant
because speech and language are
related to thinking, reasoning and higher
mental functions.

 Scientists used to think that the right
hemisphere was less-evolved.
 It is connected to the left brain by a thick
nerve cable, the corpus callosum, which
allows communication between the two.
 Each half of the brain works in a
complementary fashion for different
modes of thinking.

 In one test, two different
pictures were flashed for an
instant on the a screen, with a
split-brain person‟s eyes fixed
on a midpoint so that scanning
both images was prevented.
 Each hemisphere received
different pictures.
 A picture of a spoon on the left
screen went to the right brain;
a picture of a knife on the
right screen went to the
verbal left brain.
 If asked to name what had
been flashed on the screen,
the confident, articulate left
hemisphere caused the
patient to say, “a knife.”

 Then the patient was asked to reach
behind a curtain with his left hand (right
hemisphere) and pick out what had
been flashed on the screen
 The patient picked out a spoon from the
group of objects that had a knife and a
spoon.
 If the experimenter asked the patient to
identify what he had in his hand, the
patient looked confused for a moment
and said, “a knife.”
 The right hemisphere knew the answer
was wrong but did not have the words to
correct the articulate left hemisphere
causing the person to shake his head
asking out loud,”Why am I shaking my
head?”

 Research suggests that ability to draw may depend on
whether you have access to the capabilities of the
“minor” or “sub-dominant” right hemisphere and
whether you are able to “turn off” the dominant left
brain and “turn on” the right.
 How does this help? The right brain perceives,
processes visual information, in the way one needs to
see in order to draw, and the left brain perceives in
ways that seem to interfere with drawing.
 The key idea is that there are two ways of knowing.
Think politics: people analyze good and bad points
about an issue and finally vote on their gut feelings.

THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE THE LEFT HEMISPHERE

 Uses intuition and leaps of  Uses logic, Very sequential,
insight. a = b = c.
 Has moments when  Analyzes and draws some
“everything falls into place.” conclusions
 It is intuitive, subjective,
 Categorizes and names.
rational, holistic.
 Does not sequence but looks
 School is designed to
at the whole problem. cultivate the verbal, rational
 Is a dreamer, an “imagineer” left brain.
and operates in a time-free  The left brain attends to
mode not valued by society. time management.
 Deals in spatial relationships.

Imagine this R larger or
Imagine this L as smaller and attach
large as a high-rise functions of persons
apartment building drawing, painting, playing
or the pyramids. melodies, sculpting and
Now think of the L in dreaming with a sense of
the context of timelessness. Since these
letters, numbers, images are less concrete, it
equations, diagrams, may tax the power of your
maps, books, and imagination. How do you
with images of attach an image to non-
lawyers, time? Perhaps like Dali‟s
mathematicians and melting clocks. How do you
scientists. Touch the imagine “Ah-Ha”? Take
left side of your time until you can call up a
head and imagine picture, then touch the
that you are placing right side of your head and
it inside your head. place the image inside.

 Now, shift the images to the opposite side. The
mathmatician, the scientist can move across the corpus
callosum to the R-mode in order to imagine and dream
of new inventions; the artist and musician can migrate
to the L-mode to analyze aesthetic problems.
 Do this shift several times. Practice making this mental
shift will help you during the drawing exercises.
 Imagine connections between your left and right brain
as tubes or wires. Imagine the pathways in color going
from left to right.
 Now switch to the right brain and imagine connections
going to the left.
 Now imagine the whole system and its crossover
potential.

 Speed is one consideration. Which
hemisphere gets the answer the
quickest?
 Motivation is the other. Which
hemisphere cares the most or likes the
task, and conversely, which hemisphere
cares the least and like the job the least.

 Drawing is a right-brain function and to do it
well, one must keep the left-brain out.
 The left brain is dominant and speedy; it is
quick to rush in with symbols and words
taking over jobs it is not good at. It prefers
not to relinquish tasks to its “dumb” partner
unless it really dislikes the job, either
because it takes too much time, is too
detailed, or slow.
 To learn to draw, we must find tasks that the
left-brain will turn down.

 The left brain has no patience for careful
observation of stuff it already has a symbol
for.
 The left brain is impatient with careful
observation and attending to the subtleties
and nuances of drawing a leaf, for instance,
in the exact way you see it. It says, “I have a
symbol for a leaf. Here it is. Now let‟s get on
with it.”
 Left brain symbols are like computer icons.

 Draw a profile of a person‟s
head.
 Draw horizontal lines on the
top and the bottom of your
profile
 Go back and trace over the
profile saying the names of
the features to yourself.
Name the forehead, nose,
upper lip, lips, etc. Naming
is an L-mode task

 Next start the drawing at the top and draw the
profile in reverse to complete the vase.
 Watch for faint signals from your brain that you
are shifting modes of information processing.
 You may be confused but note how you solve
the problem.
 You will experience that you are doing the
second profile differently. This is right-
hemisphere-mode drawing.
 Now do the drawing.

 The first profile was probably drawn quickly then you went
over the drawing naming the parts to yourself. This was left-
hemisphere processing, drawing symbolic shapes from
memory and naming them
 In drawing the second profile you may have experienced
some confusion or conflict. In continuing this drawing you
had to find a different way or process. You probably lost the
sense of drawing a profile and found yourself scanning back
and forth in the space between the profiles, estimating
angles, curves, inward sweeping and outward curving
shapes and lengths of line in relation to the opposite shapes,
which now become unnamed.
 You were drawing by checking where you were and where
you were going; by scanning the space between the first
profile and your copy in reverse.
 You were not drawing symbols from your left brain but
actually seeing spacial relationships.

 Draw a profile of the
oddest face you can
imagine.
 Again name the parts of
the face to yourself
including wrinkles,
warts, moles, and double
chins.
 Add the horizontal lines
at the top and bottom.
 Now draw the other side
to make a baroque vase.

 The complexity of the second form can best be
done, and maybe can only be done, by shifting to
right-hemisphere mode.
 The point of this exercise is not the drawing so
much as feeling the shift from left-mode and
right-mode.
 Trying to draw a form using the left-mode is like
trying to use your foot to thread a needle.
Learning to draw means learning to block out the
behaviors of the left-brain especially if it is
sending interference signals like making you
impatient or prompting you to talk, or especially,
to giggle. These are distraction tactics when your
dominant left brain tries to “take over.”

 The first drawing by Tiepolo was so
confusing that it was almost impossible to
decipher when it was upside-down. The
mind just gives up on it. Frustrating the left
logical brain like this will help with your
drawing. It will force the wimpy right-brain
into action.
 Now you will try to draw a complicated
image upside-down. You will force your
right brain to notice all the lines and spaces.
First, let‟s read all of the instructions.

 Get your head in a quiet place. You may listen to music but nothing with
words. As you shift into R-mode the music may fade out. Give yourself at
least 30-40 minutes but your goal is to forget about time. If you find
yourself wanting to glance at the clock, it is your left brain trying to take
over.
 Do not turn the drawing right-side up until you have finished. That may
only allow the left-brain to intrude.
 Look at the drawing for a minute to see all the angles, shapes, and lines
and how they fit together. Look at the shapes between the lines and how
they fit together.
 When you start to draw, start at the top and copy each line, moving from
line to adjacent line. Don‟t name the parts that maybe you could name.
Just think this is not a h-a-n-d it is just a line that curves this way; this other
line crosses over and is at that angle, compared to the edge of the paper.
Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle.
 Once you start, you‟ll find yourself very interested in how the lines fit
together. Your L-mode will have turned off because this is not the kind of
task it likes; it‟s too slow and too hard to identify things. Remember that all
you need to know is in front of you. Don‟t make it complicated; just copy
the lines and form the shapes.
 Begin your drawing now working from line to line.

 Once you are finished, you will probably be quite
surprised at how well your drawing came out.
 Compare it to your pre-instruction drawing of a
person from memory. Most of these will be at the
ten-to twelve-year-old level which is typical of
adults in our culture who have not studied
drawing.
 Two important things come from your upside-
down drawing. First is becoming aware of the left
to right shift. The second is your awareness that
making this shift enables you to see in the way a
trained artist sees.

 Did you notice that you were somewhat unaware of the
passage of time?
 Did you notice that you were so absorbed that you did not
listen to any whispers or chatter?
 The R-mode is pleasurable because it releases you for a
time from the verbal, symbolic domination of the L-mode,
and that‟s a welcome relief. The enjoyment may come from
resting the left hemisphere, stopping its chatter, and
keeping it quiet for a change. This may explain centuries-old
practices such as meditation.
 It is a break from what you do in school most of the time. It is
why art class can often fly by so fast when you are really
engaged in your work.
 I think it is a right-brain vacation.
 Next, let‟s review your childhood drawings and how you
learned to make symbol drawings so we can set them aside
and move on to the adult level of perception needed for
drawing. You are ready.

 In our culture, most adults
draw like children.
 Check out these drawings that
were completed by a young,
professional man who had just
completed his doctoral
degree at a major university.
 He drew a bit; got restless,
tense, and frustrated. He said
he hated drawing, period.
 We say students who cannot
read have dyslexia. You might
say this man has dyspictoria or
dysartistica.
 Many adults would like to
learn to draw better but they
stopped because they thought
they could not learn to draw.

 Adolescence often marks the end of artistic
development.
 Children are confronted with an understanding
of how they would like to be able to draw and
their current ability level.
 People can make insensitive remarks about their
drawing ability and sometimes children will just
quit. They conclude, “I can‟t draw,” just because
of someone‟s insensitive remarks.
 If students do not learn to draw in the early or
middle grades, they rarely try to learn later on.

 Making marks on paper,
or walls, or in story
books, begins at age one
and a half.
 Imagine the wonder of a
child experiencing a
black line emerge from
the end of a stick.
 Most drawings emerge
as circular movements.
 Children discover that a
drawn symbol can stand
for something. It is a big
discovery. It is “Mommy”
or “Daddy” or whatever.

 At 3 ½ a body is attached to a
head. Arms may grow out of
the head or from the body.
 At 4, children are aware of
details of clothing. They show
the number of toes or fingers
as well.
 Children draw and re-draw
these images over and over
until they develop a special
image, a symbol, that stays the
same.
 In this image, the features are
the same for each figure. The
cat even has the same hands.

 This is the beginning
of a family portrait
drawn by a shy five-
year-old whose every
waking moment was
dominated by his
older sister.
 Using his figure
system, he drew
himself.

 Then he added his
mother using the
same configuration,
or symbol, but
making adjustments
for long hair and a
dress.

 Headded his father
who was bald and
had glasses.

 Then he added his
sister.
 Even Picasso could
hardly have expressed
a feeling with greater
power than this.
 The child had given
form to a formless
emotion showing how
he copes with his
overwhelming sister.

 At five or six a child has
developed enough symbols to
create a landscape. Perhaps
you can remember yours.
 Usually it had windows,
maybe curtains, a door with a
doorknob to get in. It had a
sun, maybe in the corner,
flowers, and maybe a tree with
maybe a swing.
 Stop for a moment and draw
the home you used to draw.
 Recall the pleasure this
drawing gave you and how
you needed all the symbols to
be part of it – that nothing
could be left out or it would
be unfinished.

THE STAGE OF
COMPLEXITY

 During this time you add
more details hoping to
make your drawings more
realistic.
 You care less about where
things are and more about
how things look.
 Girls draw sweet things –
flowers in vases.

 Girlsdraw fashion
models with big hair,
lots of eyelashes, and
often hands behind
their backs because
they “can „t draw
hands.”

When drawings don‟t “come out right” and look realistic, children become discouraged.
Say a ten-year-old wants to draw a cube that “looks real.”
The child knows in his left brain that the cube has square sides so he tries to draw like this.
But what he “knows” is not what he sees. This is when the child decides that he cannot draw.

 Sometimes a teacher
solves the problem by
showing the student how
to make it look real.
 Some children stumble
upon how to make it look
real.
 If you do not discover the
R-mode of seeing things,
the left brain takes over.
 It says, “I have a symbol
for a box or a chair, don‟t
bother looking, and it
works very well most of
the time.”

 Adult or adolescent students do not usually see what is in
front of their eyes.
 By learning to recognize the right-hemisphere mode, you
are beginning to know how to see more clearly.
 To review: In R-mode there is a seeming suspension of time.
 Second: You pay no attention to the spoken word. You hear
sounds but do not decode words. If someone speaks to you,
you have to “come out of it” to understand.
 Third: what you are doing is intensely interesting. You feel
energized, confident, and “locked on” to what you are doing.
It is a pleasurable task that leaves you feeling refreshed nit
tired.
 Our next exercises will try to get you to increase your
control over the cognitive shift so you can place yourself into
R-mode at will.

 Find a place where you can be alone and
uninterrupted.
 Set a timer or let Mrs. Phillips tell you
when 20 minutes is up. This is so you
won‟t be trying to keep track of time, an
L-mode function.
 Tape a piece of paper onto your table so
it won‟t move.
 You are going to draw your hand.

 Face all the way around
from your paper and look
at the hand you are going to
draw. Be sure to support
your hand against your
body so you can hold the
pose
 Focus your entire attention
on the visual information in
front of you and remove all
attention from the drawing
which might trigger your
childhood
symbol=patterns of “how to
draw a hand.”
 The impulse to look will be
strong so turn all the way
around from your paper.

 Focus on some edge of your hand and very slowly, a millimeter at
a time, begin to draw every variation and undulation of the edge.
 As your eyes move, also move your pencil at the same pace on the
paper. Be convinced in your mind that what you perceive with your
eyes is simultaneously recorded by your pencil which registers
everything you are seeing.
 Don‟t turn around and look at your drawing. Don‟t be concerned
with how it looks; be concerned with the process of seeing
something as it actually is in front of you.
 Match the movement of your pencil to the movement of your eye.
Do not let either get ahead of the other. Do not pause but stay at a
steady pace. If you panic, it may be your left brain sensing that this
is a serious threat to its dominance. It kind of says, “Stop this stupid
stuff right now. I don‟t need to look anymore. I already have a
symbol for this. I‟ve already “named” everything, even small
things like wrinkles. This is boring, if you don‟t stop. I‟ll give you a
headache.” Persist and ignore.
 For most students, this produces a deep shift into R-mode. There is
a loss of time and the slowness of the drawing pushes away the L-
mode. If this did not happen, continue to try. Eventually you will be
able to suppress the L-mode at will.

 Modified contour is just like contour, but you allow
yourself to glance at the drawing for the purpose of
repositioning your pencil or judging angles.
 This time look at your hand and imagine a horizontal
and a vertical line next to your hand. Imagine the
angle as though it was drawn on paper. Draw moving
from contour to contour, form to form. Don‟t draw the
outside and move to the inside. Do not talk to
yourself and name the parts. Just concentrate on what
you see.
 Look at your paper only to locate a point or check a
relationship. Ninety percent of your time you should
be looking at your hand.
 When you come to the f-i-n-g-e-r-n-a-i-l-s- draw the
shapes around the nails.
 Sense and observe what is in front of you because
everything you need is there. Fit things together like
a jigsaw puzzle.

 At first when learning to drive, you learn
to brake, accelerate, signal, watch ahead,
behind and at the sides.
 It takes coordination and practice.
 Drawing is the same way. The more you
do it, the easier it gets.
 The next assignment will give you more
practice.

Drawing on the right side of the brain

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Drawing on the right side of the brain