Drawing My Wings

So, lately I have had a hard time with my short stories. I just cannot get them to flow correctly. I am going to be taking a break from the usual plan. The hope is that I will be able to kickstart my creative side by drawing. Let me explain.

I've been reading a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," by Betty Edwards. The basic premise is that drawing, among many other creative activities, is a process best suited to the right brain. I am speaking of the metaphorical right brain, since the process may originate from any part of the brain. The point is that the more analytical side used for language and figures (the left brain) tends to be very bossy and does not like to relinquish control of tasks.

This is exactly what I feel is happening as I write. I am being way too analytical and technical. My writing ends up being "stiff" and lifeless as a result. I typically go back and fix it afterwards, but the original idea is lost in translation. The trick, as illustrated in the book I am reading, is to make sure the left brain does not want to get involved in the task. I'll explain the exercise that Betty had her readers perform in a moment. First, some self-deprecating drawings. Keep in mind that I have not really drawn anything with any effort since elementary school.

First, she had us take a pre-exam. The tasks were to draw a person from memory, a self-portrait, and a portrait of your hand. Here are my scary results:

Attempt at my daughter from memory. I don't think she'll ever forgive me.

Attempt at self-portrait. I promise I wasn't stoned, nor am I a convicted criminal.

I just don't even know where to begin. I really need to learn some perspective.

So that was my pre-test. I noticed a couple of things. I am still drawing in "symbols (ovals for eyes, etc.)" As the author points out, this is a hard habit to break because your left brain immediately thinks eye is an oval or football from childhood, when it was ingrained. Now, the next exercise really surprised me.

In order to trick your left brain into sitting out, Betty Edwards asked her readers to try and copy a drawing of Igor Stravinsky by, none other than, Pablo Picasso. Sure, lady.

Here is the original drawing.

Yeah, I'll get right on that. But, she told us to copy it upside down. To do this she instructed us to only focus on the connecting lines until the picture was completely drawn. This way, our left brain would not but in as it recognized body parts, etc. This is because it didn't recognize much because the picture was upside down. This allowed the right brain to take over. This is the upside down version of the same picture.

Upside Down Stravinsky

Here is the result of my drawing after copying the original upside down.

I really surprised myself here. Yes, the proportions are off and I'm definitely no Picasso, but just look at my pre-test drawings compared to this thing. Amazing. She was right, no pun intended. When my right brain took over, I got into a "zone" and my thoughts completely shut down, other than the task at hand. I did not say to myself things like, "Okay, here's the hand. Here's the head." I said, "This curve connects over here to that diagonal." I really enjoyed this exercise. 

I copied another drawing of a knight, upside down. Here is the partial result.

I have never drawn anything remotely close to the level displayed here. Next time I go to write, I think I will try some upside down drawing first to make that cognitive shift. In the meantime, I'll still be working through Betty's book and I'll post my progress. It can't get any worse from here on out.