The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Review
A long time ago, I purchased The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, with hopes to improve my drawing. While I enjoyed reading first half of the book, and doing to projects, I lost interest—something I shouldn’t have done. However, I recently picked the book back up and completed (almost) all the projects. After completing the book, I’ve realized how amazing it is. While I’m not a great artist, I understand how to draw now—a concept that I would have never understood without this book.
Betty Edwards, the author is an experienced art teacher, and features her students’ work in the first few pages. She goes on to explain her observations from teaching how to draw—that students seem to “just get it” unexpectedly. From this observation and others, she developed a theory about drawing that she teaches in her book.
The author discusses the “L-mode”, “R-mode”, and how drawing fits into this. For anyone reading the book, I would suggest to read the entire thing, rather than just do the projects. The actual text has valuable and fascinating information. I learned how to actually “see” what I saw. If you don’t think you can draw, it’s probably because you can’t see properly. It has nothing to do with having good handwriting, drawing perfect circles, or drawing straight lines. Betty Edwards skillfully manages to translate how to draw into words, in a way I doubt any other book would offer.
Throughout the book, I saw improvement in my projects. I progressed quickly through the first projects, as a saw great improvement that sometimes even surprised me. Once I reached the middle of the book, especially concerning the sighting of angles and proportions, I slowed down. I found this chapter an obstacle, but once overcome, one of the most useful chapters. I enjoyed learning about shading and colors as well. I sense like this book taught me more than an art class I once took in the summer.
This is one of my most recent drawings in which I sat against a wall with my feet in front of me, and proceeded to draw them. They might just look like feet, but according to my mom, it specifically looks like my feet. (Insult or compliment?) I have portraits of myself that are more impressive than my feet, but I wanted to post my feet.
You probably think this drawing falls under any of the following three categories, bad, mediocre, or good. Whatever you think, believe me when I say that I was worse before this book.
I surely feel that I know more than I use to about drawing. In my current art class, I noticed that I understand things other people don’t. For example, I pointed out to my friend that she drew the top of a bottle—something not even visible from her perspective. I then explained tried to explain to her which direction the line should curved at the cap—something she didn’t see at first. I wouldn’t have known how to “see” things either before reading this book.
Betty Edwards is an amazing teacher even through the words of her book. While I haven’t become a great artist, I think I finally “get” drawing.