Complete Idiot''''s Guide to Drawing- P5 ppsx

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Okay, ready? Spread your drawings out and consider the following:
➤ Can you see where, as a young child, you drew without particular regard for “correct-
ness,” and instead drew to tell a story or as a response to life?
➤ Did you draw your family?
➤ Can you pick out yourself in the drawings? In Lauren’s, she always has long blonde
hair, an interesting psychological point as she’s always had brown hair—long, but defi-
nitely brown! Lisa always made her eyes very large, and it turns out they’re not partic-
ularly big at all. So wishful thinking probably plays a part as well.
➤ Did you find drawings dating from when you were an older child? If so, can you see
evidence of mounting frustration as you tried to draw complicated things or things in
space or perspective? Can you see where you began to struggle for correctness to
please the exacting left side of your brain?
If your mother wasn’t a pack rat, try looking at the drawings of any child. What you’ll no-
tice is how the process of development is almost always the same. As the child grows older,
his or her purely visual response to things is hampered by the ongoing demands of the left
Spread your childhood artwork out and take a look at how your own drawing de-
veloped. Can you see where you moved from not worrying about what was correct
to a more judgmental approach? What difference did it make in your work?
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brain as language, identification, and exactness take over and pass judgment on the more
intuitive right-brain responses, particularly drawing.
Here are two of Lauren’s childhood drawings of her family.
Simple Materials to Begin
While your first exercises require only pencil, paper, and some time, we will add more and

more materials as your drawing skills improve. For now, we’d like to introduce you to the
simple materials that will get you started. Think that paper is just paper and a pencil’s just
a pencil? Think again!
Paper, pencils, eraser, and a place to keep it all—and you’re on your way!
Paper
A pad of drawing or sketching paper (9" × 12" or 11" × 14") is nice to start, but you can also
begin with some sheets of typing, computer, or fax paper. No excuses accepted here; begin
on the backs of envelopes, if you have to. Eventually, you’ll want to explore what the
shelves of your local art supply store have to offer in the way of paper—you’ll be amazed at
the variety!
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Pencils
Any #2 pencil will work, but if you’re going out for a pad of paper anyway, do yourself a
favor and get some mechanical pencils. In the past, these were used mostly for drafting, but
they’re readily available and are great for drawing. They make a clean,
consistent line that can be varied with pressure. Plus, they never need
sharpening!
Look for a pencil with a smooth barrel that feels good in your hand.
Mechanical pencil leads come with different thicknesses and hard-
nesses; a good choice is a variety of 0.5 leads in a range of hardnesses.
For starters, HB and B will do; they are less smudgy than a standard
#2 pencil, although a B is more smudgy than an HB.
Mechanical pencil leads are labeled as to thickness and hardness on
their little storage boxes. Check to make sure that the pencil barrel and
thickness of lead correspond. It is handy to have a pencil for each
hardness that you want to use. You can also buy the pencils in a vari-
ety of colors to color code the hardnesses you are using so you know

which is which.
Eraser
A kneaded eraser is best. You may remember this type of eraser from
grammar school days. Like kneaded bread dough, it can be stretched
and pinched into shapes to get at whatever you want to change—even
the smallest line—and should be considered as much of a tool as your
pencils and paper. Don’t settle for less than a good quality kneaded
eraser. It’s the cleanest way to erase—and you’ll be doing lots of eras-
ing!
Drawing Board
A simple piece of plywood (
1
/
4
" –
3
/
8
" thick) with sanded edges and that
fits comfortably on your lap is fine as a drawing board. You can also
buy masonite boards at any art supply store, a place you’ll begin to fre-
quent more and more. The important thing is to have a strong, flat,
hard, smooth surface on which you can work without worrying about
bumps and bruises.
A Few Other Things
Here are a few other art supplies you may want to consider buying now. They’re not ab-
solutely necessary this early on, but you may find them helpful.
➤ While you’re up and about, you may want to buy some masking or artist’s tape.
Artist’s tape does less damage to paper than masking tape, but the latter will work if
you’re picking up a few quick supplies along with the groceries and it’s all you can

find.
➤ A ruler will often prove helpful. If you haven’t got a ruler, anything that offers a
straight edge will come in handy sooner or later.
➤ A few strong clips to hold your work to the board are an alternative to taping and are
handy to have. More on these later.
Try Your Hand
If you live in an area where
there’s a paper specialty store,
you’ll want to stop by at some
point. Take the time to feel the
paper, to note its grain and tex-
ture. There’s more to paper than
meets the eye!
Artist’s Sketchbook
Pencil hardnesses range from
the very hard Hs, which you can
use to make a faint line, to the
very soft Bs, which are smudgier,
ranging from 6H all the way to
6B. Regular pencils are numbered
as to hardness on the point.
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Exercises to Get You on the Right Side
(of the Brain)
So you’ve got your pencil, paper, eraser, and drawing board or hard
surface. It’s time to get over to the right side—of the brain, that is.
We’re going to provide you with two exercises that will help you begin

to see the difference between how the two sides of your brain see, the
classic Profile/Vase-Vase/Profile exercise, and a copying exercise.
Profile/Vase-Vase/Profile
This drawing exercise is used by Betty Edwards and many other art
educators to demonstrate the difficulty of drawing while the brain is
functioning on its left side. The “logical left” is not helpful when it
comes to visual tasks best given to the “relational right,” as you’ll dis-
cover when you take a stab at the exercise and experience your left
brain trying to perform a right-brain task.
1. First, draw a simple profile, either the example here or an imagi-
nary one.
2. As you draw, think about each part of the profile, naming them
to yourself as you draw: forehead, eyes, nose, upper lip, mouth,
lower lip, and chin.
Try Your Hand
If you go to an art store to pur-
chase your first materials, let your-
self look around and enjoy the
place. Poke into the piles and
boxes. Get acquainted with all the
toys (they are toys, and you will
like playing with them!). Don’t be
afraid to ask questions. Learning
to explore this new territory is an
important aspect of learning to
draw—and it’s fun as well!
Here’s an example of a
profile/vase-vase/profile
drawing. Yours may or
may not resemble this

one.
3. For this exercise to be
most effective, right-
handed people should
work on a left-facing
profile, and left-handed
people should work on a
right-facing profile.
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4. When you’ve finished drawing the profile, draw a horizontal line at the top and bot-
tom of your profile, moving out from the profile itself.
5. Now, retrace your profile, thinking again about each feature and naming it to yourself
as you draw.
6. Last, switch sides and try to draw the mirror image profile that will make a symmetri-
cal contour drawing of a vase.
Draw a horizontal line
at the top and bottom
of your profile.
Draw a mirror image of
the profile.
Reviewing the Exercise
Did you find this exercise difficult? It may surprise you to learn that most people do. That’s
because the naming of the parts of the profile while drawing gets us thinking on the logical
left, the side of the brain that likes to name and organize everything. It thinks it has it all
figured out: The forehead, eyes, nose, lips, and chin make a profile.
Repeating the names after you drew the horizontal lines on the top and bottom of the pro-
file reinforces the left brain: Yes, that was it—forehead, eyes, nose, lips, and chin, a profile,

all right—even with the lines!
Next, the quick switch to drawing the opposite, mirror-image profile is a problem. The logi-
cal left is confused by the task of repeating the profile backwards. This is a task that requires
sensitivity to shapes and relationships, something the logical left is simply not good at. The
profile is not the same as the other side; in fact, you may have found it difficult to draw it
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at all. Plus, the vase isn’t even symmetrical—something that strikes horror into the heart of
the left brain (if it had a heart!).
You may have tried a tactic or two to complete the profile and make the vase symmetrical.
If that’s the case, how did you do it? Were you confused? Did you settle for a profile that
was different? That would be letting the left side stay in charge of the profile, but the vase
would end up asymmetrical.
Did you ignore the names for the parts and concentrate on the
shapes? Did you concentrate on the vase and try to make the line
symmetrical with the first side? Did you measure or mark the
curves or relationships between the curves? Did you start in the
middle or at the bottom and work backwards? Any of these solu-
tions would have been right-brain approaches to the problem,
paying attention to the visual and not what you thought you
knew.
All right, we admit it: Your first drawing was a set-up, purposely a
“left brainer,” full of identification and names. To match it on the
other, right side required a switch to the visual, to see the shapes
instead of the names. Drawing is easiest when you think the least,
and just see the shapes, without naming them.
The first profile is conceptual and imaginary, drawn from memory,
but naming the parts makes it a left-brain activity. To really draw

as you see, you must be able to make a perceptual or relational
drawing, a right-brain activity. In order to match the shapes, rela-
tionships, and curves on the second side and make the vase sym-
metrical, you must focus your eyes and mind on the first profile
in order to draw the second—and chances are, your left brain
wouldn’t let you do that.
Try Your Hand
What this exercise asked you to
do was make a shift mentally from
your normal cognitive function—
the left side—that named all the
pieces, to the visual side—the
right side—that cares about the
shapes and the relationship be-
tween them. That’s because the
nonverbal right is better suited for
the business of seeing than the
linguistic left.
The left profile, the first
one drawn, corresponds
to the left side of the
brain; the right profile,
the one copied, draws on
the right side of the
brain.
The ability to switch modes of brain function is the ability to see differently. Once you
master this switching, you’ll find that it’s very handy for all sorts of problem solving in
your daily existence!
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When the Familiar Gets Unfamiliar
Now that you’re aware of the difficulty of doing a right-brain task while you’re operating
on the left, let’s try an exercise that helps get you over the fence onto the right side.
We recognize and identify things in our world based on our familiarity with them. We see,
identify, name, categorize, and remember, so we think we “know.” That’s fine for facts:
names, dates, numbers, concepts, and ideas. For seeing and drawing, though, a more flexi-
ble, responsive way of observing is better, because things are not always as they seem.
Mostly, we’re used to seeing things one way, right side up. Our left brain easily identifies an
object and names it for us, and then we know what it is and feel confident and secure.
But the familiar becomes instantly unfamiliar when it’s upside down or backwards. We ex-
pect to see it right side up and are confused when it’s not. Upside-down shapes and rela-
tionships are strange to us because they’re different from the memory we’ve stored from
past experience. Our brain doesn’t like them.
Right Side Up/Upside Down
Here are two exercises to help you see how you feel when the familiar is somehow changed.
Write your name (this is something you’re used to).
➤ Now look at it in a mirror—is it hard to read?
➤ Look at it upside down. For some, this is even harder to read than a mirror image.
➤ Try looking at your signature upside down and backwards. Does it appear to be hiero-
glyphics or a foreign language—or no language at all?
Right-handed
Left-handed
Student samples of the
exercise drawn right-
handed and left-handed.
The numbers indicate
the order in which each
profile was drawn.

1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
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Now, look at yourself in the mirror. This, too, is what you’re used to.
➤ Look at a photo of yourself; it will look slightly different because we are all a little
asymmetrical, and the mirror image is the one we’re most familiar with.
➤ Look at the photo of yourself upside down. Does this look a little odd to you?
➤ Now look at it upside down and in the mirror. This looks even stranger, doesn’t it?
Normal signature
Upside down
Backwards
(in mirror)
Upside down and
backwards
Try looking at your sig-
nature upside down and
backwards. Here’s
Lauren’s.

Photos of Lauren, right side up and upside down.
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We know our world—or think that we do—because we can identify
and remember. Upside down or backwards, things look a little odd or
even unsettling, particularly faces and handwriting, because they’re
asymmetrical. Our logical left brain is easily confused when our mem-
ory is different from reality, and visual tricks or problems are frustrat-
ing. The organized memory is of no use here and often gives up or
over to the relative right. For us, that’s good news—it’s just what we
want to happen!
Copy a Complicated Drawing
When it comes to a complicated drawing with detail, proportion, and
foreshortening, it can be much easier to copy the image upside down
as forgers do, concentrating on the shapes and relationships rather
than on the drawing itself, which can seem intimidatingly difficult. A
complicated drawing can throw the logical left into complete revolt
and send it packing. That’s the idea behind this exercise—to see with
the relational right.
Try Your Hand
If you need a new career, you
might be interested to know that
forgers practice new signatures up-
side down, to pay more attention
to the shapes of a particular hand
and less to the letters themselves.
You might want to try this even if
you are gainfully employed. Just

don’t try to pass one of those
checks with a forged signature!
Use these images to
practice copying a draw-
ing right side up and up-
side down.
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1. Select one of the previous images above and copy it right side up.
2. Now, turn the same example image upside down.
3. Begin a new drawing of the upside-down image.
Here are some tips to try as you work on the upside-down image:
➤ Concentrate on the shapes, not the image.
➤ Don’t try to draw the whole thing first and fill in the detail.
➤ Start where you can see a shape and draw it.
➤ Think about lines. Which way do they go? Do they curve or stay straight? Where do
they connect to other lines?
➤ Where are the horizontals, the verticals? Which way do they go?
➤ Compare shapes rather than identify them. How do they relate to others?
➤ Work on one area at a time. You can cover most of the example drawing and only
look at the part you are drawing.
➤ Resist the temptation to see how you are doing or even think about it.
➤ Try not to think at all. Just look and draw what you see.
Keep Up the Good Work
Your second, upside-down drawing should be a significant improvement over the first,
right-side-up one. Problems like scale, proportion, likeness, and detail that were very diffi-
cult right side up are merely shapes and relationships when viewed upside down, and so
they can be observed and drawn easily, one by one.

You may have just done the first drawing that you liked in years by concentrating on
shapes and relationships with the relational right and sending the logical left off to sleep.
Fascinating, isn’t it? Amazing, even—and that’s just the beginning. When you can send the
logical left on vacation at will and concentrate on seeing what’s there rather than what you
thought you knew, you’ll find the door to drawing swing open!
Exercising Your Right(s)
Right side up
Upside
down
Right side up
Upside
down