The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The 1999, 3rd Edition [Paperback]

 

 

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I bought the original book years ago, and it really improved my drawing skills. I believe people who are blocked from drawing well will get the most from this book. More accomplished artists may benefit as well by understanding better how the process works.

It shows you how to look at things differently, and gives you techniques to enable you to bypass your left (logical) brain, and access your right brain, (your subconscious mind), hence the title.

Instead of using left brain- right brain theory to describe this, in my view the more correct description would be to learn to access your subconscious mind which functions at a deeper level, while reducing the way in which your conscious mind interferes with the creative process.

Your brain has four levels of consciousness, beta which is normal waking state, alpha which is a relaxed meditative state such as when you are about to go to sleep, theta which is a deeper state associated with creativity and light sleep, and delta which is deep sleep.

Normally, your brain shows shows some activity at all these levels. Artists and other creative people are able to access the creative mental state more easily.

Here is an example of how the process works.

If you try to draw a chair you may have a definite idea in your logical mind of how a chair should be, so when you draw you are thinking 4 legs, a seat and a back. You know all the legs are the same length, and therefore you may draw that way.

This can interfere with you doing a good drawing, because each leg from an artistic viewpoint is longer or shorter depending on the distance from your eye, so you have to learn how to use your vision to see it differently.

In the book is a picture of something such as a chair or a person's face, and you may draw it as it is. You can also use a picture from a newspaper or magazine. This shows your current skill level.

Now, turn the picture upside down and draw the picture upside down. As you do this drawing, you may notice that you are producing a more accurate copy of the picture. See for yourself. I was amazed at the results.

There are other examples and illustrations to show you how to see pictures differently, and use space, light and shade, optical illusions and so forth.

As you become more experienced you will learn how to use your new skills automatically. I particularly enjoyed using pictures of movie stars, turning them upside down, copying them, and then doing it again right side up.

I have referred several people who would love to draw well to this book. If you are not as artistic as you would like to be, and were to follow the exercises in this book there is no reason your skill level should not improve dramatically. If it worked for me, it can work for you. This is pretty easy.

Most people have the skill, they just have not learned how to release it yet. This book will teach you how. Can you imagine drawing anything you want to draw completely accurately, and with incredible detail, subtlety and nuance. This potential is just a few clicks away. If it worked for me, it can work for you, because my drawing skills were not good.

If you have further interest in developing your creative potential, I suggest you consider buying some entrainment CD's such as Awakened Mind System by Jeffrey Thompson, and Chakra Suite by Steven Halpern. I have reviewed these separately.

I hope you find this review helpful.

I would have to agree with many artists when they say this book doesn't make you Vincent Van Gogh just in five days. Basically this is only for improving your skills or maybe brushing up on them a bit (like I am). No, it isn't for skilled artists, who already know how to see things when they draw. Like many had previously said before me "The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study" is the only book I would recommend for "serious" artists who take Art (with a capital A, as Dr. Edwards has said) as something they want to excel in and maybe make a career of.

As much as I have to admit that Dr. Edwards is a little full of it, her way of instructing one to shift to the right hemisphere of the brain for full creativity is a great one. It's not only for drawing, it's for expanding your way of thinking. Part of the reason why I got this book wasn't only to improve my skills, but to find a way somehow to improve on academic standards. And not just my education, but the way of seeing a different way.

I don't agree with her stating that one would be a wonderful drawer after studying exercises and the literature she provides, but I do believe this whole entire book is the first step. After reading it, you have a choice of continuing on to more serious books like "The Natural Way to Draw" and taking art courses or you can just take what you learn to sketch when you are stressed and need a way to escape from reality for just a while.

My final analysis: I think a lot of people have already said this but I will say it again: Don't expect to be a intermediate artist and learn to draw like a professional. If you have your revelations about this book, here's a clue: GO TO YOUR LIBRARY AND CHECK IT OUT FIRST. That's exactly what I did before I even considered buying it; that way you won't waste money on a book then whine about it later because it wasn't what you expected. You always try on clothes before you buy them and you go to. the electronic store to play around with the devices. Do the same thing before buying any book.

The novelty of the title is appropriate to the NEW AGE genre in style and language. Were one to purchase a title such as "Drawing On My Left Elbow" one would have an equally diffuse sense of the obscure methodology of this "new" way of drawing.

I mean, really, forget Michaelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt et al of the Rennaissance. Now it is fashionable to approach art with the all the "NEW & IMPROVED" Madison Avenue advertising hype of a laundry soap commercial, where one is convinced that one actually draws with a half of a brain, and falsely suggests that former methods employed only the LEFT SIDE of the brain, titled in the fashion of naming of 1960's rock bands.

There is virtually no intermediate drawing process in Betty Edwards book. One sees completed drawings, inferring that if the student merely sees the pictures, it will result in equally completed drawings, with not even so much as an errant smudge on the neat white paper. The text suggests that the student practice of course, but the author will not be accompanying the student during the journey, and none of the illustrations contained in Edward's book indicate the intermediate drawings, the practice, the failures and disappointments at representing form that every new student feels. This is where the student is quite literally abandoned to the wolves of personal insecurity, frustration, disappointment, and the resultant low self-estimation. After all, Edwards can actually draw...and you can't. That, in my view, is a complete failure in art instruction.

Edward's book is also a perpetuation of a common myth regarding TEACHING of any kind; that, if one can DO something well, one can also TEACH it. That just isn't so. Oddly, one would never think of teaching woodworking by showing completed cabinetry; but somehow it seems fashionable to infer that there is a shortcut to training eye and hand. There are no shortcuts. It was true 700 years ago. It is true today.

There is good drawing instruction by Will Pogany, Cortina Famous Artists School, Walt Reed, and absolutely, Robert Beverly Hale, and any serious drawing student would be well-advised to examine such books, in my opinion.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Con and Pro
The book's underlying theory about the two hemispheres of the brain and their respective functions is simplistic to the point of being silly, but the drawing exercises are useful... Read more

Published 12 months ago by James Marina

2.0 out of 5 stars New Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain
This book is an interesting read but if you are looking for real direction on learning to draw there is too little instruction and a whole lot of philosophy.

Published on July 27 2009 by Carol Carruthers

5.0 out of 5 stars A phenomenal instructional book used by many professionals!
This a book is used my many professionals and is one of the best instructional tools in learning the art of drawing. Read more

Published on Jun 27 2009 by Laura Fernandez

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book for Beginners
I have just started drawing and lathart, and this is the book I needed to get on the right track

Published on Jan 1 2008 by Artist

3.0 out of 5 stars Beginner's Book
This would be a good book for someone who really has no experience with drawing. I don't think she had to keep trying to prove her methods with scientific eveidence, though, it... Read more

Published on Oct 5 2005 by Annie

3.0 out of 5 stars almost, betty.
no need to repeat the very thorough description that liquidbabe gave. i put this book down five different times vowing not to finish the rest. Read more

Published on Sep 25 2005 by fredhedd

5.0 out of 5 stars indescribable
Anyone who has anything bad to say about this book is
lost in space. There is no person on earth who cannot improve
after doing the projects in this book. Read more

Published on July 8 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars [80% text / 20 % illustration ] & an historic falsehood
"The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards

The great falsehood here is that by using some drawings from the Rennaissance, Edwards would have... Read more

Published on July 4 2004 by Bruce Bain

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny how many people can't draw in art classes...
I started my art experience with this book, and to it I give much credit. For me, it was like a "light switch" had been turned on. Read more

Published on Jun 18 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Draw Like a Grade Schooler...You Need This
If you are a numbers oriented person, it is likely you are a left brain thinker, meaning you probably have a hard time drawing and doing creative things. Read more

Published on May 13 2004

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