Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive Edition

by Betty Edwards

Perhaps Albert Einstein put it best: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

“The painter draws with his eyes, not with his hands. Whatever he sees, if he sees it clearly, he can put down. The putting of it down requires, perhaps, much care and labor, but no more muscular agility than it takes for him to write his name. Seeing clear [sic] is the important thing.”

And learning to draw, without doubt, causes new connections in the brain that can be useful over a lifetime for general thinking. Learning to see in a different way requires that you use your brain differently.

“If a certain kind of activity, such as painting, becomes the habitual mode of expression, it may follow that taking up the painting materials and beginning work with them will act suggestively and so presently evoke a flight into the higher state.”

Facts

slight change in awareness or consciousness that occurs in drawing is not that unusual. You may have observed in yourself other slightly altered states. For example, most people are aware that they occasionally slip from alert consciousness to a state of daydreaming.

The drawing state is one of high alertness, engagement, and acute, focused attention. It is also a state without a sense of time passing or awareness of one’s surroundings.

To put it another way, it seems probable that you have all the brain power needed for drawing, but old habits of seeing interfere with that ability and block it.

“The greatest satisfaction comes from mastering something that is truly difficult.”

“I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle.”

A second important reason for using portraits as subject matter is that the right hemisphere of the human brain is specialized for recognition of faces.

“From this, the treasure secretly gathered in your heart will become evident through your creative work.”

How far you go with these skills will depend on your other traits, such as energy, curiosity, and discipline.