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Beginners Drawing Class - Week 2 - Shifting from Left to Right
anable
North TexasRegistered User regular
North TexasRegistered User regular
Week One can be found in this thread. For anyone just coming on board, it is recommended you start there.
This week we are going to talk a little bit more about the theory in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and then go through three exercises that illustrate (ha! pun) these ideas.
The Left and the Right
The majority of our day is spent using the verbal portion of our brain. For most people this activates the left portion of the brain and thus, our first instinct is to approach a situation with a left brain thought process. What does that mean exactly? The left brain can be thought of functioning via directed, analytical, and sequential thoughts. The right brain, on the other hand, approaches situations from a free, relational, and simultaneous thought process. Think of it as intellect versus intuition. This is important because drawing is a right brain activity that we are taught -just by every day living- to approach with our left brain.
These three exercises help start our shift from the left (or L-mode), to the right (or R-mode).
To ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise.
Vases and Faces
The image above can be seen as either the profile of two faces looking at each other, or a vase.
Upside-down Drawing
Pure Contour Drawing
If you are interested in learning more about the left and right brain, I recommend you pick up a copy of Betty's book yourself. There is a lot of information in there that I am paraphrasing pretty heavily.
This week is heavy on theory and short on drawing time. Lessons 1 and 3 shouldn't take more than a combined 20 minutes to complete. Use the extra time this week to pick up the rest of the supplies from week one. We will need these for our next set of lessons.
This week we are going to talk a little bit more about the theory in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and then go through three exercises that illustrate (ha! pun) these ideas.
The Left and the Right
The majority of our day is spent using the verbal portion of our brain. For most people this activates the left portion of the brain and thus, our first instinct is to approach a situation with a left brain thought process. What does that mean exactly? The left brain can be thought of functioning via directed, analytical, and sequential thoughts. The right brain, on the other hand, approaches situations from a free, relational, and simultaneous thought process. Think of it as intellect versus intuition. This is important because drawing is a right brain activity that we are taught -just by every day living- to approach with our left brain.
These three exercises help start our shift from the left (or L-mode), to the right (or R-mode).
To ensure you get the most out of the lessons, it is a very good idea to read all of the instructions before beginning a given exercise.
Vases and Faces
The image above can be seen as either the profile of two faces looking at each other, or a vase.
- Begin by drawing the profile opposite of your drawing hand (left profile first for right handers).
- Next, draw horizontal lines at the top and bottom of your profile, forming top and bottom of the vase.
- Now go back over your drawing of the first profile with your pencil. As the pencil moves over the features, name them to yourself: forehead, nose, upper lip, lower lip, chin, neck. Repeat this step at least one. This is an L-mode task: naming symbolic shapes.
- Next, starting at the top, draw the profile in reverse. By doing this you will complete the vase. The second profile should be a reversal of the first in order for the vase to be symmetrical. Watch for the faint signals from your brain that you are shifting modes of information processing. You may experience a sense of mental conflict at some point in the drawing of the second profile. Observe this, and how you solve the problem. You will find that you are doing the second profile differently. This is R-mode drawing.
Upside-down Drawing
One of the important things about the upside-down drawing is that is allows our mind to shift almost completely to R-mode. Because of this, it is essential that you avoid any L-mode activities during this exercise (I'm looking at you Crowleston :P). Basically, you need about 45 minutes of time with no distractions.
Unless you are comfortable drawing in front of your computer, you may need to print out the following picture.
This picture is from one of Betty's students:
Unless you are comfortable drawing in front of your computer, you may need to print out the following picture.
- Start anywhere you wish - bottom, top, either side. Simply start copying the lines you see and try not to figure out what you are looking at. For some people it is helpful to cover up portions of the drawing as you are going along.
- Work your way through the drawing from one end to the other. Avoid drawing the outline of the image and then filling in the parts.
- Avoid the language of vision. Focus on the way a line curves rather than the part of the body it represents. This is especially important for parts of the body that force their names on you (hands, face, etc). Again, feel free to cover part of the image to avoid this.
- Simply continue following the lines until your image is complete!
This picture is from one of Betty's students:
Pure Contour Drawing
As we have touched on already, one of the functions of the left brain is to recognize and interpret symbols. This lesson completely bypasses symbol recognition.
If you experience painful objections from the verbal portion of your brain (this is stupid, why am I doing this), try your best to continue drawing. Soon, the chatter will cease and you will be able to focus exclusively on the intricacies of your palm.
The purpose of this exercise is to again make the shift from L-mode to R-mode. While it may be that your drawing does not look like a set of wrinkles in a palm, it is important to understand the distinction between left brain and right brain activity.
- Look at the palm of your non-drawing hand. Bring your fingers and thumb together to create a mass of wrinkles in your palm. This is what we are going to draw.
- Sit in a comfortable position with your drawing hand at your paper, ready to draw.
- Set a timer for 5 minutes so that you don't have to keep time (an L-mode function).
- Start the timer and face away from the paper, keeping your drawing hand on the paper. Be sure to rest your hand on some support (like the back of your chair) because you will need to keep this position for the entire 5 minutes.
- Start with a single wrinkle in your palm and keep following the contour of the wrinkles until the timer goes off. Do not turn around to look at the drawing until the time is up!
If you experience painful objections from the verbal portion of your brain (this is stupid, why am I doing this), try your best to continue drawing. Soon, the chatter will cease and you will be able to focus exclusively on the intricacies of your palm.
The purpose of this exercise is to again make the shift from L-mode to R-mode. While it may be that your drawing does not look like a set of wrinkles in a palm, it is important to understand the distinction between left brain and right brain activity.
If you are interested in learning more about the left and right brain, I recommend you pick up a copy of Betty's book yourself. There is a lot of information in there that I am paraphrasing pretty heavily.
This week is heavy on theory and short on drawing time. Lessons 1 and 3 shouldn't take more than a combined 20 minutes to complete. Use the extra time this week to pick up the rest of the supplies from week one. We will need these for our next set of lessons.
anable on
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I didn't actually have any problem with this, in the sense that I didn't experience the type of lockup that is usual for most people (see Crowleston's posts). This was surprising to me because during the Pure Contour drawing, which is supposed to be an entirely R-mode exercise, I had a lot of L-mode thoughts going through my mind. I am left handed though. Betty mentioned that left handed people generally have an easier time transitioning from left to right. I dunno. :?:
Upside down drawing:
I had some spacing issues with my paper here. I started drawing pretty large and in the end I squished his head just to get it on the paper. I had the most problems with the hands. I think I redrew them about 5 times before I just moved on. For me personally, it was really important to cover parts of the picture as I drew so that I could focus on the lines instead of the image.
Pure contour drawing of the wrinkles in my hand:
It's pretty much just some scribbles, but it matches the pictures in the book. It's more about changing the way you draw than looking nice, so I don't really feel bad. :P
I went ahead and did another pure contour drawing because the environment was a bit distracting the first time around. Unsurprisingly, the picture turned out much the same, but I noticed that even when I had seclusion, I could never "clear my mind" so to speak. I was usually thinking about random things, much like when trying to go to sleep. Hopefully my transition to R-mode thinking while drawing will help me focus more on what I'm drawing.
This vase is not symmetrical. This was also very hard to do. Was it supposed to hurt my hand?
wrinkles!
Okay, here is the last drawing. Tough to do.
Well, it isn't supposed to "hurt" per say. It is supposed to create a conflict between your left and right hemispheres that makes it difficult to draw. Some people freeze up, but I don't recall reading that it was painful for anyone.
So crappy...
Didn't work any more than 45 min on this - so difficult to make ends meet
vases - what faces?
at least ya can't screw these up :P
this was difficult and fun
I don't think it looks that bad. I had a lot of problems with the hands and face myself, but the rest seems pretty good.
I'm curious, did you experience anything like Crowleston?
I found when I was finishing up the upside-down drawing I couldn't help but think of the lines I was drawing in relation to the other lines! I couldn't focus only on the line I was drawing...