The New Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain Quotes
"Drawing is a global or 'whole' skill requiring only a limited set of basic components."
"Once you have learned the components and have integrated them, you can draw."
"The main theme to emerge...is that there appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal."
"The idea that one is shifting to a different-from-usual way of thinking /seeing fitted my own experience of drawing."
"Drawing ability has always been regarded as difficult to acquire, and has nearly always been additionally burdened by the notion that it is an extraordinary, not an ordinary, skill."
"My view, in contrast, is that the arts are essential for training specific, visual, perceptual ways of thinking."
"In frustration, I began to observe myself: What was I doing when I was drawing?"
"The global skill of drawing requires only five basic component skills, no more."
"Artists are often regarded as persons with a rare God-given talent."
"The slightly altered consciousness state of feeling transported, which most artists experience while drawing, is a state probably not altogether unfamiliar to you."
"In English, left comes from the Anglo-Saxon lyft, meaning 'weak' or 'worthless.'"
"The left hand of most right-handed people is in fact weaker than the right, but the original word also implied lack of moral strength."
"The derogatory meaning of left may reflect a prejudice of the right-handed majority against a minority of people who were different, that is, left-handed."
"The political right, for instance, admires national power, is conservative, and resists change."
"The political left, conversely, admires individual autonomy and promotes change, even radical change."
"The left hemisphere analyzes over time, whereas the right hemisphere synthesizes over space."
"Every creative act involves a new innocence of perception, liberated from the cataract of accepted belief."
"In the context of cultural customs, the place of honor at a formal dinner is on the host’s right-hand side."
"Under 'left-handed,' the dictionary lists as synonyms 'clumsy,' 'awkward,' 'insincere,' 'malicious.'"
"Synonyms for 'right-handed,' however, are 'correct,' 'indispensable,' and 'reliable.'"
"When you think of a concrete object, you think wordlessly, and then, if you want to describe the thing you have been visualizing, you probably hunt about till you find the exact words that seem to fit it." - George Orwell
"Pure Contour Drawing is so effective at producing this strong shift that many artists routinely begin drawing with at least a short session of the method."
"Anything can be a subject for a Pure Contour drawing: a feather, a piece of shredded bark, a lock of hair."
"The paradox of the Pure Contour Drawing exercise is that it doesn't produce a 'good' drawing, yet it is the best exercise for effectively causing students later to achieve good drawing."
"In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them."
"The marks you make in R-mode are different from and often more beautiful than marks made in your more usual L-mode state of consciousness."
"The most important reason for this exercise is that Pure Contour Drawing apparently causes L-mode to 'reject the task,' enabling you to shift to R-mode."
"Your verbal mode may object and object, but eventually will 'bow out,' leaving you 'free' to draw."
"These drawings are visual records of the R-mode state of consciousness."
"Set a timer, perhaps for eight or even ten minutes. In the beginning, it takes time to cause a shift to R-mode."
"You have just drawn a corner in perspective. Now, let’s do that without the aid of the Picture Plane."
"Verticals in human-built structures remain vertical."
"In your drawing, verticals will be parallel to the edges of your paper."
"All angles are sighted on the picture-plane. This is a solid plane."
"Visual information seen on the plane is nearly always different from what you know about things."
"The purpose of closing one eye is to see a 2-D image only, not a 3-D binocular image."
"Only true vertical and true horizontal are constant and reliable."
"The decision whether to use vertical or horizontal as the constant against which to see a particular angle occasionally puzzles students."
"Drawing always produces an approximate version of the subject, even for a person highly skilled in drawing."
"For some reason, people who ordinarily would not approach a stranger do not hesitate to talk with someone who is drawing."
"To see the thing-as-it-is in all of its unique and marvelous complexity—that is always the key."
"To draw just what you see without questioning why it is thus or so."
"When you are drawing, do not name the parts to yourself."
"Perceive the central axis—that is, an imaginary line that passes through the very center of the face."
"Practice making a line drawing of a three-quarter view on your scratch paper."
"To draw the eye, don’t draw the eye. Draw the shapes around the eye."
"These perceptions of nonmatching features conflict with the memorized symbols for features."
"If I were demonstrating the three-quarter-view drawing, I would not be naming any of the parts."
"The solution to the conflict is of course to draw just what you see."
"Both modes are necessary for full human functioning and both are necessary for creative work of all kinds."
"The goal will be to develop both halves of the brain."
"Our society is changing rapidly, and the difficulties of foreseeing what kinds of skills future generations will require are increasing."
"We deprive our children of their sense of wonder and discovery by labeling and categorizing things in the physical world."
"Try to discover—which tasks utilize the style of the right hemisphere, which require the style of the left, and which require complementary or simultaneous styles."
"If you can cause your students to make a strong shift to R-mode, you will have a condition that is very rare in modern classrooms: silence."
"Ideally, all information should be presented in at least two modes: verbal and pictographic."
"You are probably already using many techniques—intuitively or by conscious design—that cause cognitive shifts."
"Drawing, as you have learned through the exercises in this book, is an effective way of gaining access to and control over the functions of the right hemisphere."
"Drawing skill will never hinder your work but will certainly help it."