How can we shift our perspective to improve our drawing skills?
Class collaborative drawing - Let's start by drawing a house together.
People tend to think in terms of symbols and this can get in the way of the real seeing necessary for accurate observational drawing. “Left Brain” is a short-hand term used to describe this analytic, symbolic mode of thinking. “Right Brain” refers to our artistic and intuitive mode of thinking. Dr. Betty Edwards pioneered studies for unlocking the right brain thinking mode to build drawing skills. Her book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is the world’s most widely used instructional drawing book.
Recent developments in brain imaging technology show that we use many parts of our brains—in the right and left hemispheres—for creative endeavors. However, it is widely agreed that a MENTAL SHIFT away from our analytic-symbolic mode into our more intuitive-artistic mode of thinking is essential in the process of learning to draw. Upside-drawing helps us make this mental shift.
Flip it upside down!
The Virtual Instructor
Portrait of Igor Stravinsky
Pablo Picasso​ 1920
https://www.wikiart.org/en/pablo-picasso/portrait-of-igor-stravinsky-1920
Drawing upside down is an exercise first introduced by Betty Edwards in her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This exercise intends to help people draw better and change the way they approach drawing. When you draw upside down, all concepts of how you perceive things disappear, limiting you to draw what you see. Upside-down drawing is now one of the first exercises art schools teach to artists in their beginning stages.
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Assignment: Copy Picasso's drawing of Igor Stravinsky using the upside down technique.
Cover your reference image so that you only expose an inch or so of the image with a piece of paper, duplicate the lines you see exactly - note angles, line thickness, where edges meet and the shapes of negative spaces - the space in between and around the subject.
Tip: Draw the lines exactly as you see them. Try to disconnect what you’re drawing from what you think it is. To make the most out of this exercise, refuse to identify or name the subject the most you can. Just draw what you see.
Continue uncovering more areas of the drawing and draw the lines until you finish the exercise.
Take your time and enjoy the process!
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky[a] (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with citizenship in France (from 1934) and the United States (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music.
Listen to Stravinsky's Orpheus
Assignment: Reflection
In your sketchbook,
Write a reflection responding to the following prompts:
How did I begin my drawing? What messages did I tell myself?
What strategies did I use to to copy the lines?
Was I able to not "name" what I was looking at?
Was I able to notice shapes between lines (the empty spaces becoming shapes between marks?)
Was I able to make lines the same thickness and directions?
Was I able to duplicate lines and spaces proportionally?
How did this feel - in the beginning, throughout and at the end?
Did anything surprise me?
How might I use these techniques in the future in my drawings?