Thanks for responding. The great thing the Right Side of the Brain book does is apply techniques to help us see things differently. For example she uses a small pane of glass (8X10 photo glass works great) with cross lines drawn in to help your vision translate 3D images into 2 dimensions on the plane of the screen. I guess some people have a natural affinity for this but I sure don't.
I'll bet you have a much more developed artistic eye than you are giving yourself credit for if you love and notice art. I like to tell people who are dubious about my "you can play guitar" spiel that if I am off one half step on a note they will notice because we have all internalized great pitch from listening to music. So the trick is to translate that into our bodies, more athletic than artistic. For drawing it seems to be a little trickier because some of our distorted perceptions are actually important survival mechanisms. So to SEE perspective clearly enough we may need some counter-intuitive help. Betty's book is excellent at this. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Emily Reyn wrote: > > Interesting story.  I am not a visual artist, and in fact, have issues with > spatial translation.  I cannot draw at all, but have, like you, attempted to > follow the lines or learn the lines of simple things.  In looking at a tree, > for example, I can follow the lines, but often the dimensions are off when it > translates to paper.  I can bring up a visual of a fox, but cannot translate > the image on paper.  I see this as a brain issue; I cannot SEE to > translating image on paper.  I could never be an architect, but once the > drawing is visualized for me, I can describe it in space.  I love art > however; it communicates so much in ways that words do not.  One of my > children has a more natural talent of "seeing" visually; the other is like me > and is reduced to elementary drawings replete with stick figures.  My last > art class was in 9th grade - I found that, for me, I am better at geometric > shapes, abstract translations at best.  > > > > >________________________________ > > From: curtisdeltablues > >To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > >Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 10:21 AM > >Subject: [FairfieldLife] When I stopped believing my own lie⦠> > > > > > > >I know, a little "Man Bites Dog" headline, huh? But since you are here > >anyway⦠> > > >I was lying to some little kids again. I mean not lying, lying but tossing > >some bullshit that all of a sudden I began to smell. I was in a Title One > >school (poorest kids in their county) teaching them to write a blues song to > >help them understand the difference between character traits and feelings, > >which for a first grader is at the top of their cognitive limits. (Feelings > >change in the story, but character traits persist to define how a character > >will behave in the story. Hopefully character traits can also change through > >education, or we are all kinda screwed, but you see the simple difference > >right?) > > > >I was drawing a picture web of ideas using characters from their story about > >a fox and a mouse and was drawing a really, really shitty fox. I mean worse > >than cave man on cave wall shitty. (No offense to our ancestors meant some > >of them drew better than I did.) I told the kids that as a musician I tend > >to pay more attention to my ears so I practice music but not drawing. All > >this is sort of true, but what was a stinking lie was the implication that > >somehow this preference defined my character trait as a musician guy who > >can't draw. It sent me into introspection on my long drive home. > > > >WTF? Why was I shitty at drawing and was it really based on my sensory > >preference? Or was it something that had just been overlooked in my > >education, cast aside as something adults don't need to know how to do? What > >other area of knowledge is it acceptable for adults to perform at a first > >grade level? (Oh sorry that is a two digit number and I don't do math that > >high!) > > > >As I reflected on my art classes I remember being taught how to use certain > >mediums, but never having anyone show me how to draw. It seemed to be > >accepted that some kids were "talented" (I am beginning to hate that word as > >a total cop-out in art.) and they could do this magical thing called > >drawing. And then there was me, a special Ed artist to this day. Was this > >just a limit I needed to accept, or had my educational system failed me? > > > >I needed to know, so I went to the library and took out a big stack of > >how-to-draw books including one on drawing animal cartoons. In a few > >moments I knew I had been selling myself and others a bill of goods about me > >being able to draw as a limit. With some simple instructions I could draw a > >very passible fox for my class the next day, as well as a very cute but > >simple mouse. I had just never been shown how to draw one, and some of it > >was counter-intuitive. So I still sucked at drawing in general but in the > >specific I could pull off a fox and a mouse. And it was still magical how > >they went from a real picture of these animals to the stylized few lines > >that defined them, so I had even more questions now. How did the guy (or > >doll, I'm still in my Film Noir phase) first discover how to SEE what lines > >mattered most? > > > >Relevant side discussion: If you come up to me after my blues show and tell > >me you like my music, I will thank you and then ask if you play an > >instrument. If you tell me you have no musical talent but would love to > >play guitar I will tell you that anyone can learn to play simple chords on a > >guitar and have a blast playing most of your favorite music. My practiced > >spiel includes the fact that I have taught many people to play guitar who > >never thought they could, and it is a simple matter of having someone show > >you where to put your fingers (Youtube) and then putting your fingers on > >strings for 15 minutes every day till you groove it in. Some go away > >inspired, some go away dubious, and some just go away. But some actually do > >what I suggest and write me glowing thank-you emails. So for music I > >believe that talent is overrated as far as personal satisfaction is > >concerned. We may never have the raw talent of Jimi Hendrix, but he was a > >legendary > practicer too, so it is still up in the air concerning this Natureâ"Nurture > balance. > > > >But I had never applied my own theory to myself with drawing till now. > > > >Back to the main story: > > > >We have all probably owned this book, I know I did, but never worked through > >it: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. I got the > >latest edition from Amazon and let her guide me. Within two chapters I was > >drawing so far above what I thought I could ever do. I realized that this > >is a huge gap in education, and an amazing opportunity to understand altered > >states of brain functioning. (more on that later.) Now don't get me wrong, I > >am a beginner and am still on the "suck" continuum in my final products. But > >now I see where I need to go, I see the path before me. It will take time, > >but the time spent is so enjoyable I am sorry I didn't discover this before. > > > >In a nutshell, what my girl Betty (Now THAT is a noir-chick name!) turned me > >on to were some critical concepts about how people SEE in order to draw > >accurately. It turns out that most of us draw through the filter of our > >conceptions because we don't know how to tell our hyper-verbal brain > >functions to chill the F out while we try to actually SEE something that may > >not make conceptual sense, but happens to be the way things look from that > >angle. If we see a cube we KNOW that each side is equal, but if you draw it > >that way it will suck because it does not appear that way to our eyes. When > >drawing faces we really go into hyper-drive with our conceptions because we > >are so focused on getting information from people's faces. (We naturally > >suck at eye placement because it is actually in the exact middle of our > >faces and we all think it is about one third down from our hairline, and we > >all place ears too far forward on a profile as well as lopping off most > of the top of people's heads in sketches. Our intuition betrays us.) > > > >So brilliant Betty had me draw from a picture that was upside down so I only > >saw shapes, or draw the spaces and shapes around and inside a chair instead > >of the thing itself, to let my perception have a chance to shift into less > >concept laden seeing. And the results have been a revelation. I actually > >drew a cool chair this way, as well as the corner of my room. (I even got > >the counter-intuitive perspective lines right-ish.) > > > >One of the coolest parts of the book was a quote from Van Gogh pissing and > >moaning about how hard it was to draw as he was teaching himself, and even > >some examples of what he drew when HE sucked! (Yes, Van Gogh sucked at > >first just like some of us do, even though he may have been able to take > >that ball and run with it much further than I can once he got going.) > > > >Which brings up my current perspective on art. We have been betrayed by our > >educational system if we can't bang out chords on guitar or piano to delight > >ourselves if we want to, or draw an accurate representative likeness of > >something we see. Those are the basics, and it is within everyone's ability > >to master that. What makes art become ART is what we do with that > >foundation. How can we use those chords to move someone's emotions, or > >represent not just the surface of how a person looks, but how they feel to > >us on a deeper level in a picture. (Think Picasso's brilliant insight > >drawing single eyed women because that is how their eyes fuse into one when > >we are leaning in for a kiss.) > > > >So now drawing through my art book lessons (I have a stack) is a part of > >every day, and I relish the state of non-verbal thinking that it shifts me > >into. It is truly a meditative, restorative state that I crave. It is > >different from the flow state I am in when I play music, but I can't > >articulate how yet. It has some similarities in the time distortion and > >expansion of awareness feelings, but It is definitely running different > >brain software. How it fits into the model of how we alter our minds > >through meditation is anyone's guess. > >So I hope Marek is lurking, but I will send him this if he isn't. I would > >love to hear his take on this since he is so developed both as a visual > >artist as well as a verbally expressive thinker. > > > >Anyone who is a visual artist or anyone who wants to share experiences about > >their relationship with art are most welcome. This has so many profound > >implications about how we approach education for me, especially concerning > >non-verbal intelligence,but I have bent your eyes (ears?) long enough. > > > >Thanks for being a place to send such a piece. I'll hang out for any > >responses. > > > > > > > > > > >
