The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Betty Edwards Get the bookReport a mistake

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

First published 1979 · 291 pages · English

10 quotes ★ 3.87 (385,346) Nonfiction

Quotes from the Book

Over the last forty years, many educators, decision-makers, and even some parents have come to regard the arts as peripheral, and let’s face it, frivolous—especially the visual arts, with their connotation of ”the starving artist” and the mistaken concept of necessary talent

Paper: Some inexpensive plain bond paper A pad of Strathmore Drawing Paper, 80 lb., 11" × 14" Pencils: A #2 ordinary yellow writing pencil with an eraser at the top A #4 drawing pencil—Faber-Castell, Prismacolor Turquoise, or other brand Marking pens: Sharpie (or other brand) fine point non-permanent black A second marker, fine point permanent black Graphite stick: #4 General’s is a good brand, or other brand Pencil sharpener: A small handheld sharpener is fine Erasers: A Pink Pearl eraser A Staedtler Mars white plastic eraser A kneaded eraser—Lyra, Design, or other brand Masking tape: 3M Scotch Low Tack Artist Tape Clips: Two 1-inch-wide black clips Drawing board: A firm surface large enough to hold your 11" × 14" drawing paper—about 15" × 18" is a good size. This can be improvised from a kitchen cutting board, a piece of foam board, a piece of Masonite, or thick cardboard. Picture plane: This too can be improvised using an 8" × 10" piece of glass (you will need to tape the edges), or an 8" × 10" piece of clear plastic, about 1⁄16" thick. Viewfinders: You will make these from black paper—“construction” paper is a good thickness, or you could use thin black cardboard. You will find instructions for making the viewfinders here A small mirror: About 5" × 7" that can be taped to a wall, or any available wall mirror.

As a number of scientists have noted, research on the human brain is complicated by the fact that the brain is struggling to understand itself. This three-pound organ is perhaps the only bit of matter in the universe—at least as far as we know—that is observing itself, wondering about itself, trying to analyze itself, and attempting to gain better control of its own capabilities.

The greatest satisfaction comes from mastering something that is truly difficult.

I will even go out on a limb and say that we mistakenly may have been putting all our educational eggs into one basket only, while shortchanging other truly valuable capabilities of the human brain, namely perception, intuition, imagination, and creativity. Perhaps Albert Einstein put it best: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Albert Einstein put it best: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

The perception of edges (seeing where one thing ends and another starts) The perception of spaces (seeing what lies beside and beyond) The perception of relationships (seeing in perspective and in proportion) The perception of lights and shadows (seeing things in degrees of values) The perception of the gestalt (seeing the whole and its parts)

Today we are not only testing and grading our children into the ground, but we are not teaching them how to see and understand the deep meaning of what they learn, or to perceive the connectedness of information about the world. It is indeed time to try something different.

That is like deciding that you shouldn’t take a Spanish class because you don’t already speak the language.

Did you know?

The original edition became a New York Times bestseller within two weeks of its 1979 publication.
Its core premise is that drawing is a learnable skill rather than an innate talent.
The book is built around five basic perceptual skills: edges, negative spaces, relationships, lights and shadows, and the whole (gestalt).
A signature exercise asks students to copy an image upside down to bypass the brain's tendency toward symbolic labeling.
The book has been translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Chinese, and Japanese.
Betty Edwards earned her doctorate in art, education, and the psychology of perception from UCLA in 1976.

About Betty Edwards

Betty Edwards (born 1926) is an American art teacher and author, professor emeritus of art at California State University, Long Beach. She holds a doctorate in art, education, and the psychology of perception from UCLA and is best known for her 1979 book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

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About the book

"The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is Betty Edwards' revised edition of her landmark drawing-instruction guide, first published in 1979 and refined through decades of teaching. Its central argument is that drawing is not an inborn gift reserved for the talented few but a learnable skill available to anyone who can learn to see. Edwards frames drawing as a matter of perception rather than manual dexterity, contending that most people draw poorly because they render symbols stored in memory rather than what is actually in front of them.

Drawing on her background in art education and the psychology of perception, Edwards organizes instruction around five basic perceptual skills: the perception of edges, of negative spaces, of relationships and proportion, of lights and shadows, and of the whole or gestalt. The book is best known for exercises designed to quiet the brain's habit of symbolic labeling, such as copying an image upside down so the mind cannot easily name what it sees and must instead attend to the lines and shapes themselves. The revised edition incorporates developments in brain research and extends the material toward color, self-expression, and the use of drawing skills in education, business, and problem-solving.

The book became one of the most widely used drawing texts in the world, adopted as a standard in art schools and translated into many languages including French, Spanish, German, Chinese, and Japanese, with millions of copies sold. Its lasting influence lies in reframing artistic ability as a trainable mode of attention, an idea that reshaped how drawing is taught and popularized the notion that ordinary people can learn to draw what they truly see.