The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Rating:
Summary: indescribable
Review: Anyone who has anything bad to say about this book is
lost in space. There is no person on earth who cannot improve
after doing the projects in this book. Just one thing I would like to note: Try to take this class with a teacher so you don't give up in the middle. Once you get over the muscle pain in your right brain you'll thank yourself a million times over that you did it. You will see things you have never
noticed before and when you show people your drawings their jaws
will drop on the floor. One more thing: Never have a coffee (with caffeine) before doing the projects. You have to be very
calm and get into the drawing like a musician has to get into
the music.
I am thrilled that I am almost finished with the course, and
now I can draw almost ANY object I see.

Rating:
Summary: The mind's eye
Review: I bought the original book years ago, and it really improved my drawing skills. I believe people who are blocked from drawing well will get the most from this book. More accomplished artists may benefit as well by understanding better how the process works.

It shows you how to look at things differently, and gives you techniques to enable you to bypass your left (logical) brain, and access your right brain, (your subconscious mind), hence the title.

Instead of using left brain- right brain theory to describe this, in my view the more correct description would be to learn to access your subconscious mind which functions at a deeper level, while reducing the way in which your conscious mind interferes with the creative process.

Your brain has four levels of consciousness, beta which is normal waking state, alpha which is a relaxed meditative state such as when you are about to go to sleep, theta which is a deeper state associated with creativity and light sleep, and delta which is deep sleep.

Normally, your brain shows shows some activity at all these levels. Artists and other creative people are able to access the creative mental state more easily.

Here is an example of how the process works.

If you try to draw a chair you may have a definite idea in your logical mind of how a chair should be, so when you draw you are thinking 4 legs, a seat and a back. You know all the legs are the same length, and therefore you may draw that way.

This can interfere with you doing a good drawing, because each leg from an artistic viewpoint is longer or shorter depending on the distance from your eye, so you have to learn how to use your vision to see it differently.

In the book is a picture of something such as a chair or a person's face, and you may draw it as it is. You can also use a picture from a newspaper or magazine. This shows your current skill level.

Now, turn the picture upside down and draw the picture upside down. As you do this drawing, you may notice that you are producing a more accurate copy of the picture. See for yourself. I was amazed at the results.

There are other examples and illustrations to show you how to see pictures differently, and use space, light and shade, optical illusions and so forth.

As you become more experienced you will learn how to use your new skills automatically. I particularly enjoyed using pictures of movie stars, turning them upside down, copying them, and then doing it again right side up.

I have referred several people who would love to draw well to this book. If you are not as artistic as you would like to be, and were to follow the exercises in this book there is no reason your skill level should not improve dramatically. If it worked for me, it can work for you. This is pretty easy.

Most people have the skill, they just have not learned how to release it yet. This book will teach you how. Can you imagine drawing anything you want to draw completely accurately, and with incredible detail, subtlety and nuance. This potential is just a few clicks away. If it worked for me, it can work for you, because my drawing skills were not good.

If you have further interest in developing your creative potential, I suggest you consider buying some entrainment CD's such as Awakened Mind System by Jeffrey Thompson, and Chakra Suite by Steven Halpern. I have reviewed these separately.

If you find this review helpful, please click yes.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! I was surprised.
Review: I bought it to strengthen the right side of my brain (as a writer)and was amazed when I actaully started drawing decent pictures. My wife was amazed. Here was someone who could barely draw stick figures when she married him---with bad handwriting, cranking out some decent drawing exercises. She tried it, and it's working for her too. Good book for creative people. Artists of paint on canvas, pencil on paper, pen on paper, or computer printer on paper. All will benefit from reading and participating in the book's exercises.

Rating:
Summary: The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Review: Whomever was the idiot who reviewed Betty Edwards book and gave it a historical review has lessened his mind and (in my opinion) this person has only presented their one-sided view and not really afforded the critique any objectivity, and this may in fact demonstrate his or her true personality. This opinion may also be their first encounter with art history; (which as most people do know, the first view given is usually the most bias especially if other theories which contradict even the most accepted views is offered). But I digress. However, s/he is right, in one aspect, if you want art history do not use this book, but if you want to learn how to draw...kudos..knock yourself out. As for our historian, Next time you buy a "How-to" book, use it, don't abuse it. She (Betty Edwards) didn't write this book as a historian, s/he only presents that information as an aside within the lessons. As one friend of mine said (who teaches computer science) I like to teach the entire course in two weeks, and then I can get into the juicy stuff. The basics is easy, but creativity comes with experience. As for our rave reviewer: try the course buddy, you may actually like it. My personal favorite is the part in the appendix on hand-writing. I own two editions of this book: 1989, and 2001. Again, if you really want to draw realistically and you really are horrendous at it, then buy the book, save yourself the pain, and expand past landscapes. Bon ami. Bravo Zulu Betty Edwards.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: I had to give my input here when I saw people giving this book less than good reviews. I have been an artist my whole life (26 years so far), and I gained so much from this book. I used it for a drawing course I took in college. I wish someone had given me this book years ago. Learning to switch from left to right brain mode makes such a difference! The only reason I can think that people might not like this book is that they didn't learn how to switch over to right brain mode. My drawing improved greatly from studying this book!


Rating:
Summary: Great book for non-artist
Review: As an engineer I spend most of my time thinking analytically. I had always assumed that I could not produce realistic drawings because of the 'wiring' in my brain. I assumed that realistic drawing was a talent that one was either born with or not, and I was not. This book completely changed my opinion.

The book takes the reader through exercises that work on one basic skill at a time while still producing amazing works at each step along the way. After the first few exercises I felt like I was cheating somehow. How could I have possesed the ability to draw so realistically but failed for 26 years to produce a single realistic looking drawing? It can't be this simple. There must be a catch. There is no catch. Drawing simply involves learning a few basic skills that are easy to learn.

This book simply walks an unexperienced artist(wanna-be) through the basic skills of drawing using excellent exercises that keep the reader motivated and excited. The book is good knowledge plus good instruction.

For an experience artist I think this book has very little value. I don't expect to be producing master works of art after reading this book any more than a person that learns to write can expect to produce great works of literature. The lengthy psycho babble about left brain right brain is a bit of a bore and much of it adds nothing to the goal I had in reading the book: to learn how to draw.

If your drawings today look the same as the drawings you made as a child/teen buy this book and learn how to draw.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: It has been over 10 years since I have drawn or painted. I recently started to get interested in it again. I bought this book and can say nothing but good things about it. Some of it is a review of what I learned in the past, but a lot of it is a new approach. I really like the psychology aspects of this book, it is very interesting reading. It seems like you can apply many of the concepts to other aspects of life besides drawing. I think it is obvious that no one book can make you an awesome artist overnight. Only time and practice and patience can do that. Just like any other worth while pursuit in life. This book, however, can definitely lay the foundation for you to build your skills off of. I definitly saw a major improvement in my drawings after this book and it motivated me to seek other books and to spend the time to practice to become the artist that I will become.

Rating:
Summary: Forcing realistic drawing
Review: This book is somehow controversial. It teaches people who can't draw at all how to succeed in producing realistic drawings. And obviously many do. But art is not about reproducing reality, it is about creativity and intuition. And that is where the right side of the brain can really be strong. So Edwards tells us to use the right side only for producing something that will please the left side, and not for searching the deeper reality that can't be seen on the photo-realistic surface.

Rating:
Summary: worthwhile but the "science" is silly
Review: As an adult taking a beginners' drawing class, I enjoyed Betty Edwards' book and found it to be an interesting and useful supplement to other materials. I always enjoy reading about my hobbies, when I can find thoughtful points of view that go beyond how-to guides. I enjoyed the book, in that way. Also, Dr. Edwards offers practical exercises -- not that they are necessarily unique to this book -- that I found helpful. On the other hand, some of the underlying philosophy is... well, a little goofy. For example, one of the experts she cites repeatedly, professor Charles Tart, is best known as a proponent of the "sciences" of the paranormal (ESP, psychic communication, near-death experiences, and so on). But if you don't mind that sort of nonsense, you probably will feel that the book is worth the price. I did.

Rating:
Summary: indescribable
Review: "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards

The great falsehood here is that by using some drawings from the Rennaissance, Edwards would have the reader believe that "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is in the spirit of the "classical tradition"; but that is not so in the light of certain historical facts which even the most amateur of art historians can present.

FACT THE FIRST:

As stated in the most recent translation of "The Lives of the Artists," by Julia and Peter Bondanella:

"Vasari's interpretation of his subject matter was documented and argued so persuasively that it has, in large measure, remained the dominant view of Italian Renaissance
art ever since".
-p. x, Introduction, "The Lives of the Artists" by Giorgio Vasari, translated by Julia and Peter Bondanella [therefore, VASARI is the authority on the "CLASSICAL TRADITION" to which Edwards refers...]

FACT THE SECOND:

Having established Vasari as the genuine authority on the "classical tradition" of drawing, we must consider Vasari's viewpoint on the type of art theorizing which Betty Edwards uses.

"Vasari was opposed to any artistic style that exhibited pedantic book learning, academic exercise, or unusual, laborious effort." -p. xii, the Introduction, Vasari's "The Lives of the Artists" translated by Julia & Peter Bondanella

The same page cites another authority, Baldesar Castiglione, (1478 - 1529 ) author of "Book of the Courtier" which argued:

"True art, according to Castiglione, was art which did not reveal itself to be art and was produced efforlessly and without obvious signs of study and emphasis upon technique." -from p. xii, The Introduction, Bondanella translation, Vasari's "The Lives of the Artists".

In view of these two substantial facts, Edwards employs fuzzy New Age jargon to present a HOW-TO-DRAW book, heavy on wordy art theorizing, metaphysical rambling, and philosophical mythology. Ewards has served up a FAST FOOD menu of New Age rhetoric as a classical feast. The combining of Asian religion with Western art was already the core of 19th Century Impressionism movement [Gaugin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, Cezanne, ... etc], over a century and more in the past. If you view figure drawing as some kind of pathological disorder for which New Age religion is the holistic cure, this book is for you. If you subscribe to the theory that HEAVY ART THEORIZING is necessary in order to draw, this book is for you. Otherwise, Edward's jingoism is a solution for a problem which never existed.