Drawing On The Right Side

One of the building blocks of Thought Revolution incorporates the research and work of Dr. Betty Edwards and her theory of ‘drawing on the right’.

Edwards was an American art professor and taught at California State University in Long Beach. There she developed her theory of Drawing On The Right Side which further build upon Roger Sperry’s split-brain research. She also concluded that the left and right sides of the brain were involved in specific and unique avenues of perception and reality. Her theory began to negotiate how the left and right sides of the brain accomplish the task of drawing an accurate image and isolating the visual and perceptual components of drawing from the right brain. The theory advocates losing preconceived notions of what a drawn object should look like instead on seeing the true reality of the image in the context of its edges, lines, shadows, etc.

Try it for yourself with one of the oldest, ‘drawing on the right’ exercises:

This is a sketch of Igor Stravinksy by Pablo Picasso. Print a copy of this photo and first attempt to sketch it, as it appears, right side up.

Now, turn the photo upside down and attempt to sketch is as it appears this way.

What happened?

Did your brain explode the second time? If so, that was your left brain throwing a fit. To draw it ‘right’ is to attempt to draw the upside down image without thinking: To turn off the left side of the brain and let the right side take control. This removes the expectation of replicating the image in the logical, left brain order of “head, face, tie, handkerchief” and instead to draw the image from the right brain as just the movement of the lines.

The point of the exercise is to demonstrate that brains ability to train itself to draw from the right. Keep the process going by practicing the same method with any reasonably complex line drawing you find interesting.