Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
If you're feeling like you're stagnating, here are some ideas to help get you jump started that I've done over the years. There are a lot of things you can learn that are inherently *fun*. Maybe try learning something that sounds fun and interesting to you! Some examples for myself include things like Ham Radio, how and why radio signals bounce off the atmosphere. Or cooking, figure out how to make the best salsa you've ever had by getting a molcajete and fire roasting some tomatillos and peppers. Or go learn Unreal Engine, and the endless wonders and rabbit holes therein. Or make your…
If you want to start painting (or at least the subset of the painting skills required to draw stuff), I suggest "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. It has some simple drills and presents just enough of the underlying theory to make you understand what the drills are for.
The entire left brain/right brain premise that the book is based in is totally bogus. The author constantly refers back to this nonsense theory throughout the book (yes I have read it). What she refers to (constantly) as "R-Mode thinking" simply isn't real. The book works as a learning aide because she largely takes regular learning techniques and drills, and dresses them up with nonsense scientism. https://www.smartermarx.com/t/regarding-betty-edwards-drawin...
> Anyway, Edwards’s theory is that ‘bad’ drawers don’t look at the thing itself and draw its shape, they translate reality into abstract concepts first and then draw what that concept visually looks like. This is so true. By squinting one of your eyes (looking through only one eye) you can approximate the 'upside down' effect pretty remarkably. Drawing is all about the relation of shapes to each other. Portrait drawing is too - but has the additional constraint of very little tolerance for off-by-one errors. Everyone is particularly attuned to facial recognition - lines that are off by…
An experience I had as a teenager really drove this lesson home for me, and is partly responsible for successes I’ve had since. My Dad had copy of ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards lying around. I’d always been really bad at drawing - never progressed beyond the kids-drawing phase, got bad feedback on drawing at school, so stopped. Anyway, Edwards’s theory is that ‘bad’ drawers don’t look at the thing itself and draw its shape, they translate reality into abstract concepts first and then draw what that concept visually looks like. So I’ll look at a face, then decide…
I started like you but pushed the abstract idea further down to reality. I'm not good and my drawings have a mechanical aspect, or at best a crafted/regular organic style. Later I read the Loomis book, which is filled with delicious drawings of human figures, used the same principles. Use abstract references, refine, analyse. That said, the idea of abstracting away from abstraction/interpretation is a great one that I never considered
This post made me happily spend ~$100. Quick tip for anyone trying to get older editions of some of these books: use Abebooks For example, some of the drawing on the right reviews mention that the 1989 edition is better. I find this happens with many new editions of older books. You can find near good as new editions of older books on Abebooks, at very reasonable prices. I used it to get a great copy of SICP, and just now ordered a version of How To Win Friends And Influence People published during Dale Carnegie's life, as Paul Graham recommended.
+1 for Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It's superb. I'd add A Pattern Language to the list. It's actually been very appropriately valued by the programming community, but massively undervalued by its intended audience of architects and urban planners. Should've been the architecture and planning book of the 20th century; instead most design professionals have never heard of it. Their loss!
I haven't read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, but someone has uploaded a two hour long instructional video with Betty Edwards with the same title on YouTube, which might be of some interest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctkRwRDdajo
Learning to draw is something anyone can do and is incredibly rewarding. It activates a huge part of your brain (visual) that starts firing when you see all sorts of scenes, faces, patterns, colors in real life. Try the book "drawing on the right side of the brain". Another good one is the Bargue sculpture drawing course.