june at noon

I’ve mentioned before that I’m working my way through Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. The book’s premise is that anyone can draw (and draw realistically); one merely needs to learn to see with the right side of the brain in order to translate that to paper.

This doesn’t mean all artwork must be realistic, even though that’s what the book focuses on. Rather, once one has learned the “rules,” the foundational concepts of drawing and how to use one’s brain to work with those concepts, those “rules” can be bent and broken and used any which way to create great art. (That was a relief to me, because although I can do realism fairly well, it’s not my preferred style.)

Edwards walks the reader through a series of exercises designed to achieve that shift to right-brained thinking and, in theory, amaze the reader at the results! I’m enjoying revisiting some of the basics I learned in my high school art class (the only actual art “training” I have), as well as trying some things that I just didn’t “get” back then. Here are some of the exercises I’ve done so far:

I don’t find it difficult to use my right brain. I switch into what Edwards calls “R-mode” very easily, and how she describes that switch and that state of being is very much like what I experience. So I’m not so much learning how to use my right brain, but I am learning what’s going on behind the scenes when I create art, which I’m finding really fascinating.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to draw, but even (or maybe especially) to the practiced artists out there. Revisit the foundations, learn to understand how your creative mind works, and then do whatever you please with it!

P.S. How do you like that wild vintage sheet behind the drawings? Last Summer I found it at a yard sale for a quarter. It’s not in great shape, but it makes a good back drop, don’t you think?