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Drawing made easy.

Betty Edwards produced a book (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) this book claimed to offer people the opportunity to learn to draw using the right hemisphere of the brain. Much of the knowledge contained in this book was based on claims of research carried out by Caltech neuroscientist, Roger Sperry, Nobel Prize winner who identified the left and right hemispheres of the brain as having very different functions.

Some of the identified left brain, right brain attributes.

Neuroscience has established that the right hemisphere of the brain is more visual, focusing on images, patterns, is more intuitive, emotive and able to simultaneously process ideas. It is also more able to identify lateral connections in information and see the whole first rather than the details is less inclined to organise so more reliant on free association but at the same time is questioning thus tending to be the more creative and explorative.

The left hemisphere on the other side tends to be verbal, focusing on words, symbols and numbers it is more analytical, led by logic, processing ideas sequentially in a step by step fashion is more likely to make logical deductions from information. This side is also highly organised and likely to follow rules without questioning and has been identified as being the more dominant side especially since these attributes are seemingly more desirable within our present highly organised cultures.

With these left side attributes being seemingly more desirable within our present day highly organised cultures it would follow that most people are dominated by logic and less creative or expressive with a tendency to have a lob sided, unbalanced thinking process. It also follows that because of this seemingly left brain dominance it is likely that the other right side is being under utilised and less likely to play a significant role in our lives. It also follows that the right brain is likely to be more susceptible to new thinking because it is potentially underutilised.

There is good evidence to recognise that in forcing your self to think in new ways is a powerful educational technique that can in a strict sense change the brains wiring according to David Sulzer, Colombian Neuroscientist. Especially if they are a little bit complex at first, so are forcing you and engaging you, and essentially making new synaptic pathways. Producing a spike in the neurotransmitter dopamine with that pleasure serge reinforcing the neuro pathways and providing incentive through pleasure surges.

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2006/09/14/segments/66136

Neuro connections.

Your brain and thinking patterns are made up of neuro connections once those neuro connections have been made and revisited a number of times they become stronger and stronger reinforcing synaptic pathways. If you practice something you actually burn these connections right into your brain weather you want to or not and this information or learning actually makes it easier to recall later because of the new synaptic pathways being reinforced.

It seems that this might actually be advantageous to us because we know that the right hand hemisphere of the brain that isn’t being used as much is the part that is more active when practising drawing skills. So it is actually possible to stimulate this part of the brain through activities such as drawing. It is also believed that this side of the brain is more responsible for creative activities and thus being creative benefits us all in every aspect of our lives including success.

This in it’s self is encouraging but wait there is an added bonus!

Statistically there are a higher percentage of left-handed people who naturally tend to make more use of the right brain and also reach a higher standard of success in many different areas of achievement usually career driven. Even those considered geniuses have a high percentage of left handed people in their group yet there are far more right handed people in the world in which we live that are driven by logic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handedness

Left handed people have to live in a right handed world with a significantly higher proportion of right handed people so are forced to use the opposite hemisphere according to theories and logic. Left-handed people are more inclined to the right hemisphere because the right brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa.

What does this actually mean, doesn’t it suggest that there is a higher probability that left handed people use both sides of the brain whether they like it or not, so isn’t it more likely they have a more balanced brain activity?

Could this explain why they have a higher success rate than the right-handed world?

Are you losing out because you live in a world that is right hand dominant excluding you from using the opposite more creative side of your brain especially if you are right handed?

If you want a relatively quick understanding of your dominant brain function then the following link will enable you to discover the Differences Between Left and Right Hemisphere using the right brain attributes of participation.

I Highly Recommend You Do.

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~studskl/hd/hemis.html

Learning is finding out what you already know.

Doing is demonstrating that you know it.

Teaching is reminding others that they know it just as well as you.

Richard Bach, Illusions

Alice Flaherty is a neurologist at Harvard Medical School states that it turns out that creative drive is way more important than talent or left, right brain dominance. Flaherty says that creative drive is mediated by a relationship between the brains temporal and frontal lobes the front and back of the brain and are as important as the right and left hemispheres. Even with this whole brain concept and understanding, the right hemisphere is still an important element that is potentially less used so therefore more susceptible to making new thinking that produces new synaptic pathways and pleasure surges.

Let me summarise this for you, using the right hand side of your brain is more likely to stimulate new synaptic pathways/connections that help you feel good.  Plus by stimulating the right brain you are also encouraging creative energies that benefit human beings in every aspect of their lives bringing about feelings of pleasure, satisfaction and developmental growth at the same time.

Could it also be that living as a right-handed person in a right-handed world using the already dominant left brain is producing an unbalanced unhealthy lob sided brain activity where as basic principles define balance as being important to your health and life in many ways.  Why should your brain be any different, think about it, why should your brain work well when it’s unbalanced?

Creative thinking is much more than using your imagination to crank out lots of new ideas. Creative thinking is a lifestyle, a personality trait, a way of perceiving the world, a way of interacting with other people, and a way of living and growing. Living creatively is developing your talents, tapping your unused potential, and becoming what you are capable of becoming. Being creative is exploring new places and new ideas. Being creative is developing a sensitivity to problems of others and problems of humankind. And being creative is using your imagination to crank out lots of new ideas to solve those problems.

Davis, 1981

(http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/creativ/things.htm)

Do you know?

Drawing is a really easy way to stimulate right brain activity but many people think drawing is very hard, but just like everything else we do; it usually is difficult at first when you don’t really know what you are doing.

People pick up a pencil and try to draw the way they have seen other artists draw without having practised or learned anything about drawing. Do you know the hardest most acclaimed way to draw is free hand by just looking and that is most often how people see other accomplished artists practice their skills?  This is the same way most people try to draw first off without knowing what they are doing so don’t you think it is little wonder they fail. There are also many well practised, successful artists that cannot construct an accurate drawing to their own satisfaction without using other tools to assist them so don’t you think people set themselves up to fail when they try to draw free hand by just looking?

Now if you want to put some of this into practice then take a good look at the information and ideas being presented on this site start by taking a look at how to draw easy blog updates this will provide you with the knowledge to help you learn to draw easy by learning easy drawing techniques.

A good place to start is How to practice using a pencil without boring yourself to death.