Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

If any of you try this, please let me know how it goes! Thanks, Randy.

So on the subject of brains and looking at the sand castle projects, I’d like to share an experience I had a long time ago, and more recently (like 20 years ago) thanks to an IBM colleague who introduced me to a book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. If you don’t already know the book, and if you are one of those people who think they can’t draw or paint or otherwise do anything artsy or creative, I’d like you to please let me try to convince you otherwise. I hope I don’t come off as preaching, just want to share.

In the US, at least, were are educated in a very left brain dominant fashion, your left brain does calculating and planning and categorizing and organizing and a lot of us are very good at that, but our creative right brains take a back seat, are suppressed, and passively and quietly do what they’re told. There’s an exercise in this book, where you will draw an upside down version of a Picasso line drawing of a human figure; it’s upside down in the book, if memory serves, but at any rate do not turn it over and look at it right side up. I want you to try to draw this image as follows (you should read the book and do what she says – but here’s my interpretation that works for me (I discovered this on my own trying to draw at home while listening to music when I was a teenager and later on (I still have these drawings) , but the book articulates it all quite well).

First get yourself alone and relaxed as much as possible in a quiet place without too many distractions. Get a pencil and paper and the upside down source image from the book (I did a quick google search on Picasso line drawings and found the image, that I inverted in PS and have posted here (I hope I don’t go to copyright jail for doing this – I still highly recommend the book). In your mind or you can lightly on this source image draw a 3x3 or 4x5 grid or larger, still upside down, don’t turn it over and look at it right side up (the reason, the left brain will start to categorize and identify all the pieces and we don’t want the left brain involved in this activity). It can help before you start to first do a very rough, quick sketch of the overall outline to get the general proportions sort of setup (or just make some little marks, this blob is here on the maximum top right, this blog is here at the lower left, etc.) .

So, you need to get you dominant left brain doing some busy work, like listening to music and maybe thinking about the words, or planning some activity you need to do (a case where multi-tasking may be good (don’t get me started down the multi-tasking discussion)); or, since we need to progressively scan across this source image, get a clock and plan for an hour or so, give or take and divide that by how many grid cells you have, say 4x5=20 cells, so maybe 60minutes/20 cells = 3 minutes/cell, let your left brain focus on the music and spending 3 minutes drawing what’s in each cell, not what you’re drawing, but how long you’re taking per cell, or just let it focus on the music/etc. Or take longer or shorter time as you feel you need.

Here’s the problem: your left brain thinks it’s a genius (which I’m sure yours is), if you try to draw and it sees and identifies a nose, then it says, ah, that’s a nose – I know what noses look like, and this is how you draw a nose; and usually it’s not very good rendering for most of us. You must let your right brain draw the lines and shapes and shades/colors/textures/etc that it sees; don’t let your left brain do it’s categorizing and identification. Just start at one corner and draw the lines and shapes you see in relation and proportion to the edges of the cell grid lines and to the other lines/shapes you’ve already drawn. Say, here’s a little squiggly line starting about here in the upper left, that goes from about here to about here and is this shade (lighter or darker) and just draw what you see; not a known object but a little squiggly line/shape; if you mess up, erase that squiggly and do it over, or use a finger to smudge it a bit. Keep you left brain uninvolved as much as you possibly can for the actual drawing what you see part, let it rigorously track how much time your right brain is spending so you move across the source image at the correct rate, maybe 3 minutes per cell (of course the more complex the source image, the more time you spend, the better results typically will be – but if you’re lucky and can get dialed in like this you’ll probably find you enjoy spending more time).

If you can disengage your dominant left brain and let your creative right brain do its thing, I believe when you’re done, you’ll turn over your drawing so that it is now right side up (this should be the first time you see the image right side up) and I hope you are amazed at what you find you’ve just drawn. If not, don’t be discouraged, try again later, use a different method to occupy your left brain (maybe following a TV show out of the corner of your eye following what they’re saying, but while doing the above drawing lines/shapes you see).

Some of us are so far gone, so completely left brain dominant, and have been convinced by others or ourselves that we are not artistic and can’t draw or otherwise be creative, that this can be a very hard barrier to cross; but I believe 100% that you have it in you and you can cultivate it and learn to release it – and if you’re like me, you will love getting into that zone (you left brain is busy doing whatever and your right brain is free to express itself and flow (creating, drawing, etc, etc). It’s almost a kind of runners high; it’s a great place to relax and reduce stress and you will probably find you like the results you end up with as well. (this is how/why I play guitar – same zone – and it works for inventing and other creative endeavors as well).

Of course as you continue you can eventually not do the actual grid pattern (just see it in your mind) and you can also get into that zone by occupying your left brain and without having to invert the picture you’re trying to draw, just draw the lines/shapes/colors/textures/etc your see - standing on your head to draw a live scene may work, but might be a bit of a challenge J. I think you should be convinced after doing this exercise, that you do indeed have the talent in you and then can work at disengaging your left brain more freely as you require for any project.

I hope I’m not coming across as preaching, I just would like for everyone to find and explore their inner creative talent, trust me: it is there, I know it is. Rachel has my copy of the book, I’ll gladly loan it when she’s done if anyone is interested.

Randy Heisch.