Drawing on the Right Side of Brain

7/31/2019 Drawing on the Right Side of Brain

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Warm-up

1. Copy this upside down workof Pablo Picasso in your

sketchbook to the best of your

ability.


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Warm-up

2. Now draw the same workRight side up.


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If you are like most people, the upside down version will look the

best. Why is that?


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It is because the left side of our brain is very good at what it does

and is in charge most of the time. One of the things the left side is

good at is assigning symbols to common objects which makes them

quick and easy to reference. For example, a wheel is always round,

an eye is almond shaped, etc. The left side is also very good at being

abstract--taking a small bit of information and using it to represent

the whole. Both are very powerful and useful skills for quickly

dealing with most obstacles we face.


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Here is an example. The following letters in the following

paragraph are all mixed up but I doubt you have any problemunderstanding it:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it

deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, theolny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the

rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and youcan sitll

raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed

erveylteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.Let's hear it for the left side of the brain! It quickly solves

thousands of puzzles a day without us even thinking about

it. So why do we need the right side?

Left side


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The very things that make the left side of the brain such a powerful

problem solver, limit our ability to see creative solutions. Because itis quick to make assumptions and jump to conclusions, we are not

even aware of the assumptions that are limiting us. In addition,

symbols and names that it assigns have meanings attached that we

dont question. The left side of our brain fills in the gaps when wedo not observe correctly and thus weakens our ability to make good

observational art. Most people need to train themselves to use the

right hand side of the brain.

Right side


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If the object is upside down, it makes everything unfamiliar, which

blocks the symbol-based recall of the left hand side of the brain. In

other words: You are forced into using the right side of the brain

because your left side doesnt take over saying ignore the object in

front of you I know what lips, eyes, a mouth, a head and arms look

like You are forced to actually draw from observation using the

right hand side.

How did that drawing work?


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Drawing on the Right Side of Brain