Right Side Drawing – First Exercises

Drawing fascinates me. I’m envious of people like Tim Burton who imagine fanciful, beautifully obtuse worlds and can draw and share them with the world. While I love art and creating color-filled, painted, swirly, beautiful messes, I’ve always been a bit weary of my drawing ability. Because one day, I would love to be able capture a bit of my imagination on the page, I bought a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and am trying a bit of realistic drawing.

The book has been incredibly effective. However, while all of the theory makes sense, it is a bit dry and there is too much explanation before each exercise. Basically, she describes how our brains are stuck in left-brain, naming, categorizing thinking, and to be more effective artists, we need to find ways to shift into right-brained, creative, seeing and thinking (only in a lot more words). Also, while I was prepping, the instructions for each exercise seemed overly complicated, which made me hesitate to start. However, once working, the exercises are easy and fun. I’ve learned that I can’t take every instruction in the book too seriously, and with each exercise, I am more amazed with the results.

Upside-Down Drawings

The trick is to use line art and draw it upside down. This tricks the brain out of naming and into seeing. The peanut head guy (see Picasso’s original drawing) is scary, but I love the knight and the horse.

Pure Contour Drawing of Hand

I put off these drawing for far too long because the instructions were long and confusing. The morning that I finally started, I had the hardest time stopping myself because it was fun. I bought an acrylic sign holder and grease pens for this exercise.

Modified Contour Drawing of Hand

My mind was completely blown when I finished this drawing. Did that really come from my hands? No seriously?!?