Exercise the Brain

Can You Draw What You See and Not What You Imagine?

Observation and realistic drawing can be a tricky skill, because it relies mostly on the drawer's ability to slow down and actually SEE the object through careful looking, rather than the actual physical motions of drawing an imaginary version of the object.

Here's a fun website for exercising your "Seeing" skills when drawing,http://emptyeasel.com/2008/07/01/learning-to-draw-the-one-drawing-skill-every-beginning-artist-needs/

TAKE THE ONE-POINT PERSPECTIVE CHALLENGE!
Use your observation skills to pinpoint misaligned lines in your perspective drawing. Can you set a drink on your coffee table or put a book on your bookshelf without it sliding off onto the floor? Or does your door and window look all askew like you're in alice and wonderland? Check your parallel lines! When combined with the vanishing points diagonal lines the correct placement of these straight parallel lines are crucial in providing the illusion of distance and mass in your drawing.

One Point Perspective Basics using a computer.

One Point Perspective Video using pencil, paper, and ruler.

Fun drawing exercise that will challenge your brain and increase your drawing skills!

Right Brain Drawing Exercises

By Michael Dance, eHow Contributor

Your brain is divided into two sections: the left hemisphere, which handles such things as logic and speech, and the right hemisphere, which by contrast is visual and creative. Right brain drawing, a term popularized by the book "Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain" by Betty Edwards, refers to the way that drawing can help you flex the sometimes-ignored right hemisphere. You can achieve this through the use of a handful of simple exercises.

Vases/Faces

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  Print out the accompanying picture. It's one half of the classic optical illusion in which the image either represents a vase or two faces. Trace a pencil over it which announcing out loud what part of the face you're tracing over: "the forehead ... the eye ... the nose ..." and so on. When you're finished, immediately start filling in the blank side of the picture, a mirror of the first.

  Are you done yet? How did you feel when you tried to draw the second half of the picture? Most people experience confusion or a temporary brain freeze when they start. This is because during the first half of the exercise, when you trace the half of the picture that's already there, you're exercising the left hemisphere of your brain: recognizing a pattern and identifying each part verbally. When you start to draw the second half of the picture, your brain is forced to switch to the right hemisphere, causing a temporary adjustment period.

Upside-Down Drawing

• Find any drawn portrait of anyone, print it out and turn it upside down. On a blank sheet of paper, draw your own version of the same portrait, also upside down. Don't take too long; give yourself 15 minutes or less.

  When you're done, turn the original portrait right-side up. Get another sheet of paper and try to draw it again, this time, like the portrait, right-side up. Spend exactly as much time as you did before.

  When you're done, compare the two drawings. Chances are, the first drawing turned out noticeably better. But why? Because when the portrait was upside down, and you were drawing upside down right along with it, it was harder for you to identify and categorize each part of the portrait, and thus your right hemisphere had an easier time taking over. When you drew the picture right-side up, your brain kept categorizing everything you were seeing. Suddenly, for example, you weren't drawing a series of simply curves--you were drawing a nose, and drawing a nose is hard. By avoiding your left brain's assumptions about how things should look, you were able to draw better.

  Speed Sketching

  • This final exercise isn't a "trick;" the idea is simply to help you keep the right hemisphere of your brain active and improve your drawing. Grab a handful of large pieces of paper, preferably bigger than the typical 8.5 by 11-inch sheets. Focus on something--a person, a landscape, it doesn't matter--and sketch it using the entire sheet of paper. Set a timer beforehand for 20 to 30 minutes and don't check the time when you're sketching. The goal is to sketch as fast as you can, as fast as your eyes can see. Sketch the broad angles at first and slowly get more detailed as you go. Do not start over before your time is up.

    When the time limit is up, put aside your piece and start an entirely new sketch, taking the same amount of time. Draw three or four sketches in this manner in a row and then compare them afterwards: go over whether you got better as you went along (unless you get tired easily, your first will often be your worst) and what you can improve next time.

    
    

    
    

    Drawing Games

    
    
    

    By Joan Mansson, eHow Contributor
    
    Doodling is a common passtime.

    
    

    Drawing games can be used to pass the time, create designs, work on spelling or exercise the brain. Pencil and paper is all that is necessary to start.

    
    
    

    1. Exquisite Corpse

       Fold over

       • This takes at least two participants and can work with a larger group. To begin, each child gets a piece of paper and draws the head of an animal, monster or person on the top of the paper. That section is folded back so no one can see it and is passed to the next person. Now everyone draws the chest, torso or the top half of the body and the arms, and this part is folded back so no one can see it and passed onto the next person. This time everyone draws the bottom half of the body, the stomach and hips, and next, everyone draws the legs and feet. When the papers are unfolded, there will be a great collection of odd creatures that can be used to decorate the classroom.
         
         Pencil Drawing Exercises

         
         
         

         
         
         
         

         By Catherine Fiorentino, eHow Contributor

         
         

         
         
         
         
         
         
         

         
         

         Pencil drawing is beneficial for improving all of your artistic skills.

         Learning to draw can be a tricky process if you don't know the basics of pencil drawing and what can be done with it. Although pencils seem like a simple enough tool for art, there is much more to drawing than putting the pencil to the paper and drawing whatever comes to mind. Learning tips will help you develop proper form and technique in pencil drawing, while contributing to your overall artistic abilities.

         
         

         Simple Objects

         • The first step of nurturing your drawing skills is to sketch simple objects with definite lines. Subjects such as flowers, dinnerware and furniture are all viable options and will help you get an idea of what areas need more practice. The key to drawing basic shapes and objects is repetition. Try choosing one object such as a lamp or a household appliance and drawing it once a day for a week.

         Line Drawing

         • Line drawing is essentially the basis of most pencil drawings. Lines are any strokes made with your pencil onto paper that aren't filled-in objects (known as "planes") or circular (known as "dots"). To practice your line-drawing skills, find a picture of a subject with many different shapes. Trace the basic shapes of the picture using tracing paper and a No. 2 pencil. This will isolate the lines from the background of the photo, helping you concentrate on the finer points and not the colors. Use pieces of paper to cover parts of the photo and sketch it piece by piece. This will keep you from being overwhelmed and help you concentrate solely on the lines in that certain area of the subject. Another tip is to draw a shape such as a circle or oval around the whole subject picture to get an idea of its dimensions and perspective so you can scale your own composition accordingly.

         Shading

         • Shading is the aspect of pencil drawing that gives your drawings dimension and brings them to life. One simple exercise is to draw shapes such as squares and circles, then shade them in. You can do this by varying the weight of the pencil on the shape while dotting or making tiny "x" marks in the blank areas. Practice shading at different angles and from different directions.

           Set a ball on a table so both the ball and its shadow are clearly visible. Sit in front of this composition and draw the basic ball shape. Add the shadow in to use your shading skills. Use the side of the pencil for shading. This will give you more control of the pencil as well as the lightness or darkness of your shading.

           
           

           KEEP GOING & KEEP LEARNING

           We all have an inner critic that sits on our shoulder harping on about how rubbish we are, how we are wasting our time and why don't we just give up.
           However, it is possible to shut this guy up! Try some of the following tips to take back control of your drawing. Don't let "the lodger" spoil your fun. If you don't feed that negative voice, it will just fizzle away...
           
           
           

           • Sign, date and keep your work as a record of your progress. Seeing how you are improving will spur you on.

           • Every few months, take out all your drawings, lay them out in sequence (or better yet, pin them up on a wall) and then look at them with open,friendly, non-judging eyes. Look at them as you would look at a piece of work by a stranger. Notice where you've improved. See if you can identify areas you'd like to work on or themes you'd like to explore. Remember - most important of all - be kind to yourself!

           • Don’t give up halfway through a drawing – push through the self-judgment barrier of ‘this drawing is rubbish’. Just keep going regardless and see what happens. It’s a drawing not a work of art…

           • Stand back from your drawing as often as you can, walk away and come back and see it with fresh eyes. When you think you’ve ‘finished’, leave it propped up, go away and keep coming back to it, you’ll soon notice anything that looks ‘off’.

           • Turn a drawing upside down – areas that aren’t quite working will jump out at you.

           • For every critical comment you make on your finished drawing, match it with one positive thing you are pleased with. It could just be the fact that you didn’t give up or the way you’ve caught the light in one spot. Look at your own work as you would look at someone else’s and be as kind to yourself as you would be to them.

           
           

           
           

           Drawing With Two Hands
           © 2000 Nita Leland

           You'll be amazed at what you can do with your non-dominant hand when you put it to work. Pick up a different-colored marker in each hand and draw something--a flower, a face, a teapot. Move both hands at the same time. There are several ways to do this: Move the markers alongside each other, going the same direction around the form. Move one marker along one side of the form and the other along the other side. Move each marker in a completely different direction simultaneously. It's surprising how easily your non-dominant hand takes to the task when you give it a chance. This little exercise is a great way to warm up in your studio before starting to paint or draw.