What has "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" done for you?

[axeman61]

Although some say it's a tool for beginners, I hear a lot of praise for it. Soem say it's helped them in other areas besides drawing. What has it done for you personally. Talentwise or lifewise?

[Revenants]

hey, if you have a bookstore near you, probebly they'll carry a copy of that book. Look through it to get a grasp of what it does. For me, when I was looking at it, it's rather flawed. The excersises were good, and the explaination is suitable for beginners, but everything else it talks about, doesn't make too much sense. Esbecially the brain stuff. Thus, (adhereing to mentler's advice) I bought this other book, "The natural way to draw" by kimon nicholaes(spelling error..). I think this book is superior to drawing on the right side of the brain and more suitable for anyone who have an urge to draw. I wouldn't recommand it to beginners though, since it prescribes hours of excercise, and my friends who want to get a bit better at art(they're high school kids), just isn't willing to sacrafice that much time.

err....I know this wasn't 100% on topic, but hope it helps.

[Big-Dave]

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is pretty good. Like Revenants says, the exercises it shows are useful for practicing and will help you improve your drawing.

That said, the theory about right-left brain functions having an effect on art was debunked in all cases except where a person had problems with the two hemispheres comunicating properly. It will help you learn to draw though, and the comments it makes on drawing are good, even if the scientific theory behind it isn't

[Kartoffel]

What it teaches you about drawing is very good and it will definitely improve your skills when you start.
I don't know if it is also helpful for people who already can draw to a certain extent, since this was, like, my first art-book at all. Maybe you learn all that stuff anyway if you have some practice, maybe not.

On the other hand, about half of the book is about how evil your right brain-side is ... but if you can ignore this you will have a really good book.

[3dway]

Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain is good because it's author has a capable left brain. Most of my art teachers through school were so right brained that they were utterly unable to put into words how it was that they draw, or paint. The book does a good job of putting the process into words.

When it talks about the Right/Left shift it verbalizes something that is very elusive.

[Shaun Whoriskey]

i bought the book, i'm just about to begin a fine art degree, for a complete beginer theres alot u can learn from the book, but for a more advanced student i personally didn't gain much from it ( tho the theory sections about brain functions and areas resposbale for drawing skills were kinda interesting). but to perfectly frank theres only one sure solution to improving your drawing skills-
PRACTICE PRACTICE AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH PRACTICE! especially drawing from life, i keep myself occupied at work when its quiet doing quick charcoal studies, bring a pen or pencil everywhere u go and just keep urself doodling on everything :wink:

[axeman61]

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is pretty good. Like Revenants says, the exercises it shows are useful for practicing and will help you improve your drawing.

That said, the theory about right-left brain functions having an effect on art was debunked in all cases except where a person had problems with the two hemispheres comunicating properly. It will help you learn to draw though, and the comments it makes on drawing are good, even if the scientific theory behind it isn't

Out of curiosity, how was it debunked? I have the book, and it seems almost solid enough.

[kgb]

Book made me realize anyone can draw.

[aphexboy]

I found it mainly to be for people who cant draw and draw things the way they think something should look and not what they actually see. Very basic but good for students or anyone who wants to learn 'how' to draw. Anyone can.

[RedSox]

I found it mainly to be for people who cant draw and draw things the way they think something should look and not what they actually see. Very basic but good for students or anyone who wants to learn 'how' to draw. Anyone can.


First of all, there are no 'people who can't draw', just people who don't have enough patience to look well enough ;)

If we're talking about the basic exercise of drawing closed contours without looking, I'd say it's VERY helpful for anyone who doesn't work on art all day 24/7. Some of us have to do a lot of logical thinking, using the 'wrong side' in a very extensive way.

It's a very nice warmup exercise, just like many others, mainly to relax or empty your brain.

You see, if you have a design job like me that includes a lot of programming and planning work, usually my eyes check on what my brain makes up (sort of), but with drawing things I need to have my brain do what my eyes see.
The little exercise helps me turn the switch more easily and calms my 'logical' brain down.

[aphexboy]

Redsox by people who 'cant draw' I meant people who are just crap! but this book can help those people to realise that they can learn and its not just somethng your born with although some people are born with it and just find it comes naturally to them.

[Big-Dave]

axeman: sorry I didn't reply earlier. I can't find my book anywhere just now, so I can't check what parts it was exactly, but it was something to do with the section on how you have to change between left and right brain hemispheres to draw.

It was thought to be true when the book was written (hence why it seems convincing, there *is* scientific backing to it. just ont entirely accurate), but later experiments proved that the underdeveloped right side argument wasn't the case in normally functioning brains (some people have brains that have communication difficulties between hemispheres, in which case it is true)

Basically the idea of a left brain/right brain switch being needed to draw isn't actually true (after all, once people start getting better at drawing they alter the images stored in the left brain to more accurate ones. At that point they can use the left side as well as theright side to draw), it's still possible to use the left side of the brain to draw accurately, it just varies rom person to person

On the other hand, it starts to become a bit like the ideas of science. The more advanced it becomes the more it seems like magic. Telling someone their car is powered by little daemons under thebonnet won't stop the car from working, they just wont understand why. Same goes for the book. Even if it's not entirely clear why the exercises work (nothing in brain sceince is after all) they do still work and are worth using. Hence why the book is still a good seller

Sorry if that seemed to ramble on a bit, it's not easy trying to explain things like this over the internet :p If there's anything that didn't make sense (wouldn't surprise me, I sometimes miss points when I write comments like this) just let me know and I'll try and elaborate on them a bit. Oh, and sorry for spamming up your thread with science stuff :p

[axeman61]

I don't mind. So are you that the whole 'using your right brain is a great approach to drawing' logic is wrong, or that 'you need the shift' is wrong? I, like you (I'm assuming) got the same thing from the book looking at the 'epilogue' where she said it's a tool to get you going. Although the theory was almost solid enough for me, I still got 'Do this for now, and don't question it. You'll get better to the point where you don't have to do it' from it.

Sorry for all the apostrophes.

[Fahd]

It made me realize that my thinking was clouding my seeing. It's a "basic" idea, but basic ideas are extremely important of course.

[mburrell]

This book has stimulated many ideas for me. First really big one is what people refer to as negative space. The left brain language side can interfere with our mapping skills. If we are drawing an eye then we get overly tied to a symbol or process. If one looks at the little triangular white spaces on either side of the iris they are very unique in shapes and easier to draw, they have no name. I think the name negative space has carried a negative connotation, making it a hard concept to get into. So I like unnamed spaces and /or alternate spaces. This way of looking at unnamed spaces frees up our minds to map. It also leads to designing and seeing these spaces as important. If your alternate spaces are interesting then your form or subject becomes more interesting. If you study Norman Rockwell's covers you will see how advanced his use of alternate space is. When I start someone down the road to learning about drawing I often toss a small object like an eraser at them. They catch it or a least get a hand on it. Bingo!!! They tracked a moving object through the air! It's on an arch accelerating and decelerating, Man oh Man the computations needed to do that are amazing! So! why can't they catch a line of a form? They can, they just have to quite the verbal side or get it distracted or make it a cheer leader.
You may have done this before your playing a game against someone that is real good at it, so your try to distract him or psych him out. That is what happens to people when they draw. It is important to build strategies that make your left brain support using your right half. This Idea of complementary thinking is very useful. this book questions our normal way of looking at things. I have taken the hint and look for the opposite, the yin to the yang of things. It does not stop there things often have more than a yin yang setup Light acts as a ray, a particle and a wave. After reading Briggys color thread and website multiple systems are at play and often at the same time. We process all this info often in the right side our left side makes these connections so that I can address them in this article, Yes I notice the cool shapes between the legs (right side) and yes I then remember them for future drawing were I have to make something up(left side) these two can work with each other very well. Turn the painting upside down (left side) oh I see what feels wrong now(right side).
Visual clues vs Verbal clues. Try this give someone directions point left and say go right. where will they go. Some follow the visual ,some the verbal and some will catch the cross signals. I find this of interest and root it back to this book. The book is a jumping board where you jump, how far or how many times is up to you.
I really like jumping from here.
Mike