When I was in high school, this Book Drawing on the Right of the Brain was quite popular with the art teachers. It was said to be a new way to teach people to draw. From what I remember it worked quite nicely for me and did not require magnetic fields.
To use the technique, we were told to lay out our drawing pads, place our hands into the middle of the pad and never to look at our hands as we were drawing. We were supposed to focus on what we were drawing and then try to remember where we left our hands in space without actually seeing where they were. I was told that I could glance down at my hand from time to time, but that I should not look at my hands while actually drawing.
Whatever the technique did do my cognitive process seemed to work. My normal drawing style looked like figures 1 and 2. While I used the right side technique, my drawing looked like figure 3, with my lines conveying more movement and being more a stylized reproduction.
Maybe this guyâ(TM)s apparatus is simply forcing the participants not to look at their hands while drawing. Seems a lot more controls would be needed to say magnetic fields have anything to do with this phenomenon.
"Don't draw the object, draw the space around the object" was a zen moment for me.
Most people draw "symbols" of what they see like "a head is a circle, a neck is a tube" and they just break down entire objects like that and it looks like crap.
But by having people draw the space around the object, it forces them out of "symbol mode" because the space doesn't have a symbol you can identify with and break down, just the actual lines.
It's like why you can usually draw a picture better if you draw it
One theory expressed in the book was that when we are first starting to draw, say at around age 2, we form mental images as best we can of everyday objects, like trees and people. When we later attempt to draw trees and people, we don't actually try to draw what we see, but our initial (2-year-old) record of what a tree is supposed to look like. That's why drawing an upside-down picture without having seen it rightside-up works, because our brain can't get in the way.
Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:5, Interesting)
To use the technique, we were told to lay out our drawing pads, place our hands into the middle of the pad and never to look at our hands as we were drawing. We were supposed to focus on what we were drawing and then try to remember where we left our hands in space without actually seeing where they were. I was told that I could glance down at my hand from time to time, but that I should not look at my hands while actually drawing.
Whatever the technique did do my cognitive process seemed to work. My normal drawing style looked like figures 1 and 2. While I used the right side technique, my drawing looked like figure 3, with my lines conveying more movement and being more a stylized reproduction.
Maybe this guyâ(TM)s apparatus is simply forcing the participants not to look at their hands while drawing. Seems a lot more controls would be needed to say magnetic fields have anything to do with this phenomenon.
Re:Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:3, Interesting)
"Don't draw the object, draw the space around the object" was a zen moment for me.
Most people draw "symbols" of what they see like "a head is a circle, a neck is a tube" and they just break down entire objects like that and it looks like crap.
But by having people draw the space around the object, it forces them out of "symbol mode" because the space doesn't have a symbol you can identify with and break down, just the actual lines.
It's like why you can usually draw a picture better if you draw it
Re:Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:2)
Re:Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:1)
Re:Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:3, Funny)
Which turns out to be a miserable technique when you are trying to sculpt a monkey...
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Re:Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:1)
Re: Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:1)
> "Don't draw the object, draw the space around the object" was a zen moment for me.
I drew in the dark spots and left the rest of the paper white. Or vice versa, if drawing in white chalk on dark paper.
Re:Drawing on the right side of the Brain (Score:1)