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In his reading, my husband fell on the two referenced books, which are "Drawing With The Right Side of the Brain" and "Drawing On The Artist Within" by Dr. Betty Edwards. Although the as of late super tighten family budget, he decided to order them and to offer them to me!

  

To summarize the work of Betty Edwards (Doctor in Arts, Education and psychology of perception), she finished college to teach art in high-schools in California sometime in the 1960, with the Utopian idea (like many young teachers) that in her class, young people really learn to draw, because she really wanted to teach them.

Obviously, it did not happen as she thought. But she wondered: "Why does every student, when they are taught, they do learn to read, to write and to count, but even when showing them how to draw, art seems only to be reachable to a small elite? How can we believe that the "talent" for the art of drawing could mysteriously walk in the blood and genes? It is often said: "This is an artist, his/her grandmother was painting!" or "It is genetic in that family!"  But we never says this kind of remark about the other subjects taught in school ..."

While she had this questioning, was released in the '60s, the famous study on the two hemispheres of the brain, and their very distinct perceive and interact with the world. She immediately made a connection with art. She based her doctoral thesis on this principle and has developed several easy exercises to:

   1. See the difference between "left-mode" (dominant thinking with words, etc..) and "right-mode" (silent, but actually *sees* things)
   2. Deceive the "left-mode" so that it leaves room for the "right-mode", try and tame the conflict between the two modes of perception.
   3. Getting to "change mode" at will and give free will to drawing (and a different way of looking at things, a different way of thinking, but is still part for ourselves!)


And from that moment, she really teaches drawing. I still have not finished reading, but I was eager to tell you about this, because it's really super!

She has a success rate in its class of almost 100%! The books show examples of drawings of her students before instruction and after instruction (in some cases it was a 5-day seminar, at 8 hours per day) and it's amazing the difference and evolution of drawings!

With this book, I understand better the blocking that I lived. Indeed, when I blocked, I could still write but not draw! My "left-mode" (verbal) was present, but had lost contact with my "right-mode" (visual), which prevented me to draw!

I also realized that, last year, when I decided to quit my job to update myself in computer graphics and drawing, with a serene calm that this time (the first in almost 10 years!) it was the right moment, because I felt that something had changed inside of me ... I think I felt that I was reconnecting to my "right-mode" and that I was finally ready to get back into drawing, painting... with traditional or digital medium!

The author teaches methods and I'm like: "Yes, yes, I do that. I work like that" and when she explains, it's like I knew these things ... but I wound have NEVER been able to put it into *words* about "how I draw."

In short, the author clearly demonstrates that the ability to draw has nothing to do with dexterity (yes, a little... well, if you can catch a ball, you can write your name and thread a needle, you're skilled enough to draw, to take the example of the book!) or the "inner-God-given-talent" or "genes", bla-bla-bla-bla... No! It's simply to listen to your quiet side, which doesn't expressed itself with words...

According to the comments of her students, following training, they firmly see the world differently, in short, they find themselves completely changed!

In any case, the best books (aside from the novels, of course) I've read in years!
It was a GREAT gift, my love! Thank you!

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