Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

2 ideas

1. Drawing symbols instead of observed things

   Beginners draw poorly because they draw their stored mental symbol of an object, such as an almond-shaped eye or a stick-figure hand, rather than the shapes actually in front of them. The symbol overrides perception, so eye proportions, foreshortening and edges get 'corrected' toward what the mind expects. Improving at drawing means learning to notice and suppress the symbol so that visual information reaches the page unedited.

2. Perceptual exercises that defeat object recognition

   Each exercise makes the object hard to name so the drawer must record raw shapes. Upside-down copying scrambles a familiar image. Pure contour drawing has you trace edges slowly without looking at the paper. Negative-space drawing has you draw the empty shapes between and around objects, which carry no symbolic label. Taking away recognizable wholes forces attention onto lines, angles and relative proportions, and it reliably produces more accurate drawings.

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