I’ve started reading ‘Drawing on the right side of the brain’ by Betty Edwards. She says drawing is both an end in itself, and also a means to perceive the world and activate the right side of the brain.
So far, being in ‘right brain mode’ feels like flow state to me, and it’s phenonmenal.
Betty breaks down the skill of drawing into 5 component skills:
- The perception of edges (seeing where one thing ends and another starts)
- The perception of spaces (seeing what lies beside and beyond)
- The perception of relationships (seeing in perspective and in proportion)
- The perception of lights and shadows (seeing things in degrees of values)
- The perception of the gestalt (seeing the whole and its parts)
Skill 1: The perception of edges
The first chapter is drawing ‘pre-instruction’ - ie the ‘before’ part of the ‘before and after’.
The first exercise is to look at yourself in the mirror and draw what you see. Surprisingly challenging and engrossing! I really enjoyed drawing my eyes, glasses, hair, and found the mouth, chin, nose, ears, and general proportions particularly difficult.
Similarly, drawing the hand. I noticed how many small subtle details there are in a hand, like the folds of the skin between the fingers, my veins, the crease marks on the backs of the fingers.
Next exercise was to draw someone from memory. Betty says the untrained artist falls back to ‘symbols from childhood’ when trying to draw from memory, which is often why these drawings look childish and unrealistic.
Copying an artwork upside down sidesteps the ’left brain’ activation (which normally tries to label, categorize, and verbalise what it sees) makes it easier for the right brain to activate.
A bonus exercise drawing the corner of a room, which I’m sure I’ll revisit when I learn more about perspective. I definitely got the proportions wrong.