The Art Of The Seeing Eye: Learning To Draw What You Really See

When I was teaching art, I developed a simple, step-by-step method of helping my students learn to draw realistically by exercising the right sides of their brains. In most of our lives, it's the left side that gets all the action-reading, calculating, talking, identifying and categorizing... Very little attention is given to the part of us that loves detail, textures, colors, shapes, timelessness.

Not using the right side causes us to lose the ability to function well, diminishing the power to reason and solve problems with our entire brain. Most of my students had such underdeveloped right brains that they found it difficult to see accurately what was in front of them. So I gave them exercises that ranged from such basic skills as observing and duplicating lines and the spaces between them to drawing complicated objects they had to decode by using such techniques as contour drawing and negative space.

The results were gratifying. Students who could not draw could at least tackle any subject with confidence, and those with artistic talent found drawing even more enjoyable. And one of them, Stephanie C. Del Bosco, went on to become a professional artist and co-authored this course with me.

Includes ten lessons with explanations, examples, exercises and evaluation instructions designed to encourage the Right Brain to see more accurately-to judge space and relationships, and to notice detail.

Supplies needed:

Pencil with eraser
• Paper
• Eraser
• Small-tipped, black marking pen
• Colored pencils or small-tipped marking pens
• Pencil sharpener