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Everyone can learn to draw
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I feel passionate about getting people drawing, it is the most delightful experience and goes deep to the root of our souls. Many people feel that it is a gift, that it comes naturally (a myth that is perpetuated by artists I’m sure) and I absolutely refute that. We are all capable and all we need is the desire to learn and a few techniques.
In 1968 Nobel Prize winning neurobiologist, Roger W Sperry published research showing that the two halves of the brain have very different yet specific functions: the left side deals with the sequential, analytical and verbal, whereas the right side is visual, perceptual and simultaneous. The side of our brains that is best suited to drawing is often overruled by the side that has language. Our noisy left hemisphere tends to talk over the right, it names things:“that’s a face”..”that’s a horse” and it provides symbols for these words so when we draw we are often drawing what our left brain is telling us rather than what we see.
Our education system favours the left brain, as we give greater emphahsis to analytical and verbal skills and our visual skills get left behind. We can all re-learn how to listen to our right brains and how to silence the noisy left hemisphere who thinks it knows better.
If you want to unleash your left hemisphere then get “Drawing on the right side of the brain” by Betty Edwards or go to the website. It is the most fantastic book and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It fills me with excitement to think of all that latent talent being unlocked! There are some simple exercises you can do to get started right now, go to the link and have a go, you’ll be amazed at what you can do!
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