Betty Edwards

I can't write anything about this book that doesn't sound like an exaggeration. It literally changed my life and the way I think.

Like many others, I thought 'being artistic' was a personality trait. Either you had it, or you didn't. 'Artistic' people could quickly draw some lines on a paper and make it into something beautiful. Or they could take a few objects and arrange them in a way that would make you say 'yes, this is really nice'. Or do a slew of other amazing things that I couldn't. show more Clearly I wasn't artsy and I understood that from early childhood and accepted it.

The author noticed many people feel the same way and she was able to (accurately) trace it back to some time around the age of 10. Prior to that, everyone basically draws the same way: stick figures and circles etc. Everyone also loves art. But then, suddenly, some children are able to accurately draw what their eyes see, and some aren't. That is, if asked to draw an apple, some 10-year-olds will draw a circle with a line sticking out, and others will draw a complex object that anyone would recognize as an apple. Those of us who weren't able to draw the complex object deemed ourselves to be un-artistic and still draw a circle with a line in it, assuming that is as far as that skill will ever grow.

Simply, this book gives you that missing art lesson you should have gotten right when you felt that way. How do you go from the circle with a line in it to an actual apple? As an analytical-minded person, what should you do? She teaches you that specific skill in a really straightforward way.

Now, the part that changed my life: after this book, I started drawing and kept it up for several months. I drew some amazing things that I was actually really proud of (still am). I didn't go on to become a professional artist or anything, but I understood that the art world isn't something inaccessible to me. It turns out you can have an analytical mind and use it for art. You can learn art. You can improve on it. You can understand it. You can explore it. This book took art from "something I can never do, and, at best, admire from afar" to "something I absolutely can do, and something I can be really good at if I want to put in the practice"

5 stars :) show less

this book draws on her previous work "drawing on the right side of the brain" but takes things further in pursue of creativity. there are really interesting exercises here, some of them go beyond developing the skill of drawing realistically, in fact they shun it completely in favor of trying to find ways of approaching any given problem. i did most of them and i must say that it was an interesting path into unexpected realizations. i think this book goes far into giving an insight on how to show more think visually, or how to use visual skills to think about problems that don't seem visual at all. drawing as hacking into your brain. show less

An outdated drawing book from the 20th century. The neuroscience knowledge is largely trashy false science (maybe they thought that it's true in the last century). And what's horrible is that there are many stereotypes about learning that is absolutely a taboo at this minute (e.g. female is feminine, male is masculine, language means anaytical while visual means emotional, etc). But the basic drawing techniques is still timely.

Highly not recommended.

"The purpose of this book is not to teach you to express yourself, but instead to provide you with the skills which will release you from stereotypic expression," declares Edwards. Just as Updike taught me to look at a painting and see everything in it, Edwards taught me to look at what I sought to draw. Citing research on differences in right brain and left brain function, Edwards bases her teaching method on the premise "that developing a new way of seeing by tapping the spatial functions show more of the right hemisphere of your brain can help you learn to draw." The exercises presented are designed to train the student to process visual information through the right brain, the side that sees things as they are, rather than the left brain, where human beings store symbols for what they see. The results of working with Edwards's exercises were surprising and satisfying for me. By following the book's instructions, reasonable, realistic representations of people and objects began to emerge from my pencil.

I was working from Edwards's 1979 edition when I learned to draw in 1997. There is a lot of new information in the 1989 edition. She has a greater emphasis on what she calls drawing as a "global skill." Global skills, such as reading, become automatic over time. Thus, by learning the four basic skills Edwards teaches, you will eventually (sooner, rather than later, she claims) draw just as automatically as you read. She has also expanded and improved the skill of sighting and the skill of the perception of lights and shadows. And to aid those who plan on going into painting, she has added a chapter on drawing with color. show less