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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted -  06/04/2008  :  15:18
Drawing  is a new development for me. Ever since I looked at all those beautiful pen and ink drawings in other forums I have thought 'I wish I could do that'  I have bought various Beginners Drawing books, some recommended on this site. After the first few pages few of them held my interest as they became very technical about perspective etc.

My watercolour teacher, Jeremy recently recommended another book to me called  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. by Betty Edwards. It comes with a workbook of the same name. Its an excellent book, if you can cope with the psychology/scientific theory that goes with it describing how the two sides of the brain work both togejher and opposing each other.

The technique involves training yourself to use the creative right hand side of the brain rather than the logical nature of the left. I am not sure I agree with all the theory but certainly the technique works. The theory book and the workbook do a series of exercises , starting with what you can do with no tuition, and moving on to specific short exercises to develop your skills .

As I have spent a fair amount of time sitting recently I have been able to just pick up the workbook and work through the exercises. I have only done 4 drawings and already I can draw myy left hand in 3 positions, and have drawn a lily flower. Todays task is a peeled orange.

I am very impresed with my efforts, although nowhere near perfect they are a lot better than I ever thought I would achieve. The next stage is to combine these drawing skills with pen and wash techniques. Now I can look at all my other How to draw books and  try to blend all the techniques to produce my own style. I love to see the way a true artist and his ( her) pen/brush move as one. I have along way to go, but at last am beginning to think I may achieve it given time, of which I have plenty


Sue

Edited by - Sue on 06/04/2008 3:22:14 PM


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Julie in Norfolk
Senior Member


1632 Posts
Posted - 06/04/2008 : 17:42
Yesterday, my daughter bought me a drawing book and a bar of chocolate. Now there's a turn up for the books. Watch this space.......


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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 06/04/2008 : 17:45
Now here is a question, What are you doing with the chocolate?
Sue


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Julie in Norfolk
Senior Member


1632 Posts
Posted - 06/04/2008 : 17:55
Forgetting that it has carbohydrates and eating it. It was lovely, I fancy some more. Dieting is for those who have willpower, life is for the rest of us!!!!!!

Damn, damn, damn and I had been doing so well.


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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 06/04/2008 : 23:08
Ah thats what i like to hear!


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 07/04/2008 : 16:57
Julie, we all deserve a treat every now and again.  Better for you than drink!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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belle
VIP Member


6502 Posts
Posted - 08/04/2008 : 12:01
Now a post that combines two fo my most favourite things, Drawing and chocolate! How fantastic is that! Sue The joy of drawing is one of the dearest things in life, my failing eyesight is a little annoyance these days but I still find such delight in putting pencil, or drawing pen to paper. The trouble is it is taken so much less seriously than painting, yet  like you say it requires quite a bit more technicality! I have a head start with the "drawing on the right hand side of your brain" stuff as I am left handed....will try and scan a couple I did years ago when there was time to only draw!

Edited by - belle on 08/04/2008 12:02:12 PM


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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 08/04/2008 : 17:20
I am actually finding it very pleasurable but not easy. I find getting angles of lines correct is not easy. Some aspects of drawing I have done as a biologist drawing diagrams etc, but I need to modify this to produce artisitc work

 Sue


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belle
VIP Member


6502 Posts
Posted - 09/04/2008 : 09:27
One of the things I learnt from life drawing is to continually ask myself 'what am i seeing?' We tend to draw what we know, not what we see (Vangogh's room is a great eg of this his chair is more to do with what he knows than what he sees.) so when it comes to getting perspective right you have to battle against what you know, in order to draw what you see. For instance if you  are drawing someone from their feet end on a similar level to yourself, you have to make the feet  much bigger than the head. and the only way you can get it right is to measure with a pencil, because all the time you are fighting the knowledge you have that your head is bigger than your feet! So you tend to find it hard to make it as small as it should be.Does this make sense?


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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 09/04/2008 : 09:55
That is exactly what this book ( Drawing with the right hand side of the brain)  says. One of the exercises is to copy a picture upside down to practice exactly that. In another exercise you build up a picture by drawing all the negative shapes.

At  least I have drawn befpore but from a technical biologist point of view. In that case  drawing what is there is important but not necessarily in proportion to everything else. In drawings such as this the labelling of the diagram ( annotated labelling)  describes everything that the artist has to actually put in the picture. I just need to redirect  some of my previous skills. I mean I could draw a section of a heart or a kidney blindfold. I have drawn them so many times I would easily be able to convert them to artisitc drawings, but from what I perceive to be there

Sue


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belle
VIP Member


6502 Posts
Posted - 09/04/2008 : 12:57
How interesting, i have been teaching some of these methods for years and it seems they are all in a book somewhere, just shows you there is nothing new! The other thing that helps is to change the thing you are looking at into basic shapes, rather than trying to see it for what it is. One of the best successes I have had is portrait teaching, and people always begin by saying things like i can't draw noses, but that is because they know a nose shopuld rise out of the paper, it's solid and three dimensional, but they have to represent it and that takes careful looking at the shapes and shadows that form what we see.


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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 09/04/2008 : 17:37
I think that is one of my last tasks in the book. We started with a self portrait , pre-tuition and we end on one. We then compare the two. I think I am a bit off that yet.

I have a question for you Belle. If you do a self portrait it is a mirror image, unless you use a photograph of your self. Is there a way to overcome this problem

 Sue


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belle
VIP Member


6502 Posts
Posted - 10/04/2008 : 16:27
You have already  come up with one way to overcome it, you can use a photograph of yourself.....one of the things i do with all my pics, but with a self portrait it is even more important,  is to hold the picture up to a mirror and look at it through the mirror it really highlights the probs and discrepencies...it's amazing how lob sided things can be when you see them reflected!


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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 11/04/2008 : 13:51
Ooh I know that.. I never realised how lopsided Bobs face is until he looks ina mirror, it never seems to show up in a photo but I suppose the brain is used to seeing that image



Sue


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 13/04/2008 : 08:38
Fascinating stuff......  so much I didn't know about.  Who says there are no illuminating conversations......


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 13/04/2008 : 09:59
It certainly is Stanley, I have always had a bit of an interest in psychology ( like so many other things). I don't agree with everything the book says, but then who does for any book that involves opinion. Whilst sat in France, wathcing the birds and the world go by, I have been doodling a few small drawings of the garden. I have bought myself a little notebook to keep in my pocket. I am now pretty good at , of all things, plant pots sitting on gravel!
 Sue


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