Do you have a documented case for the claim that the right/left brain ideas are myth?

I ask as someone in neither camp, who found Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain to be a great introductory text on drawing.

"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards

This book could/will change the way we see things. Not only for drawing or art, principles from the book can be applied to any creative profession.

An interesting and tangentially-related concept is learning how to access "Right Brain Mode" for creative work, popularized in the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".

https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/d...

two possible solutions (either / or):

1. https://drawabox.com/

2. book: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

For drawing, I've been reading "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. There's a lot of text but the ideas and exercises do seem to work. I haven't gone through the whole book but so far it's OK.

I went to lessons in the spirit of this book (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain), but I didn’t have the patience. What kind of artist are you if I may ask? Do you think it is of substantial value for an aspiring UI designer starting literally from scratch to focus on learning to draw well?

Thinking with a Pencil, by Henning Nelms, would be a better choice for practical drawing and design, rather than Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Pencil-Henning-Nelms/dp/08981...

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain takes a lot of its guidance from a book called The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaïdes. The latter is more of a textbook with practice schedules and the like, but is a very good guide to go from nothing to decent in 6 months.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards. Learning to draw is actually mostly about learning to see; not seeing the objects as we usually do, but seeing the light and shadow that form them.

If you want to learn to draw and don't know where to start, get a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. You will be stunned at how quickly you can improve.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/087477...

You can get a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and learn to draw. Proceed then to design the logo you have in mind.

There is some interesting reading about relations between drawing, perception and various modes of brain operation in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards (excerpt here: http://drawright.com/drsbread.htm )

If you want to start painting (or at least the subset of the painting skills required to draw stuff), I suggest "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. It has some simple drills and presents just enough of the underlying theory to make you understand what the drills are for.

I can recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" as an excellent guide to overcoming the initial hurdles to becoming a painter. "The Artist's Way" is another inspirational guide.

The best advice I was given: Start right now! and don't give up! You will keep improving and don't be afraid to cultivate your own style. Even "mistakes" can provide great learnings.

I've been coding for over 20 years now and I absolutely suck at drawing. The only kind of drawings I've ever done are circuit diagrams, but I don't think they count.
I bought a copy of Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the right side of the brain" over a year ago but never got around reading. Maybe I should dust it off and start with it.

Does anybody have any recommendations for coders learning to draw?

Read: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Artists spend their whole lives on the awareness of seeing. When you fall for someone you truly see them, much like an artist does. There is more beauty in that than a roomful of 10's at a wet T-shirt contest.

Did you read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain? I am (slowly) working my way through it.

Have a look at this before/after (a 5-day workshop) gallery:
http://drawright.com/gallery.htm

Side note: if you really want to draw that fucking owl I recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. It's a book about drawing (no surprise) that goes deeper than just the mechanics of drawing, so it's also fun to read.

The recommendation to get a camera is a very good one. A camera used for an extended period of time is a very good teacher, and not only of seeing.

To go even further, learn to draw. Use your hands and other senses instead of only thinking. Read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards and The Hand by Frank R. Wilson.

I'm curious what your favorite games are, visually, @sillysaurus3?

A couple of mine are Far Cry 2 and [Elite: Dangerous][1] Horizons. I also love the sound in both of these which is to me a seemingly inseparable element to great screen work.

[1]: http://simongriffee.com/notebook/elite-dangerous-education/

I haven't read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, but someone has uploaded a two hour long instructional video with Betty Edwards with the same title on YouTube, which might be of some interest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctkRwRDdajo

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain https://www.drawright.com/ by Betty Edwards and Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson might be in that line. (I don't have lots of experience with them myself.) Alan Kay is a big fan of Betty Edwards (and of Timothy Gallway's Inner Game of Tennis).

Re: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: You're projecting. The whole book is about following a system that teaches you to draw.

>Or Paul Valery: "Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees." Practically a cliche.

A great book that puts this to practice is "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Some of the first exercises are to free hand copy a line drawing, while the picture you are copying is upside-down. The theory being that the symbol-interpreting portion of the brain then doesn't exert much influence on the drawing. It was pretty amazing to see the difference this makes. Anyone who is interested in learning how to draw, but doesn't think they have the talent should check out this book.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=drawing+on+the+right+side+of+th...

I recommend the book: "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".

To be proficient at programming we tend to be left brain oriented, so the shift in how we approach the process of "seeing with the right side of the brain" is a critical first step towards increased artistic ability. Doing the exercises in the book are fun and you should make some impressive progress.

I really liked the book: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

It tell you how to suspend your judgement and get into a state of flow while drawing. The same can techniques can be applied to painting. Also spend some on quality material, you don't need to have a lot, but make it quality materials that inspire you.

This is the thought behind Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain[0], which I've always meant to get more in to after purchasing the book in college. One simpler way of saying what you said is that when asked to draw a person, many draw a stick figure, and yet, that is not what people /look/ like, or rather, are /seen like/. The five components listed on [0] reinforce what you've suggested ("imagery data") are required for true sight-to-paper 'drawing.'

0: https://www.drawright.com/theory

OK, in order to get some satisfaction out of it, and to continue for an extended period of time, possibly a lifetime, you'll need to invest in some education:

1. [Optional] take an Art appreciation class. The problem here is that they are all crap. Best to visit the closest Enciclopedic museum near you, and take as many of the free tours. Sure you'll have your preferences (you mentioned impressionists) but it's good to have a well rounded worldview

2. Buy the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and do the self-paced course. Yes you need drawing skills in order to paint, not so much that painting is filling the drawings with color, but painting is drawing with paint. Also the book will teach you about negative space, proportion and more.

3. [Optional] after #2 above, take this free course https://drawabox.com/

4. Take a color theory class, preferably offline, or online, or read a couple of books. You'll be painting as well, which is good

5. Take a composition class, you can take it before or after #4 above. Preferably offline, or online, or read a couple of books. You'll be painting as well, which is good

6. Take a painting class, FINALLY! I know. Preferably offline, or online. Start with acrylic, then - if you want - go to oils. Of if you're into watercolors do watercolors. Best if you explore all three mediums. Blick Art is your friend for supplies.

One of my favorite little hobbies is to draw portraits without looking down at the paper. Sometimes I do it with care, really making an effort to make my hand trace the shapes I see... but often I do it about as quickly as I can, which induces a different kind of enjoyable flow.

It's a well-known kind of drawing exercise, probably popularized by the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and the idea is to cut off the rationally interpreting part of the mind and encourage you to see directly and just kind of directly connect your hand to your visual perception.

Yeah, it does feel like a way to let go. It's very fun, and often turns out weirdly brilliant absurd portraits. Try it at parties! I've found that kids find it very fun too.

I think drawing and painting is a wonderful investment to make in yourself. Others here may disagree, but I highly recommend the classic, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.”

I’d suggest getting some big paper, some fairly wide felt brushes, and India ink. This will force you to loosen-up and get your body into it. A common mistake is gripping a brush or whatever like it’s a #2 pencil and you’re about to do homework. The aim is to be free, loose, smooth.

Experiment with charcoal. Use materials you don’t feel bad about “wasting”. It takes practice.

Drawing from life is invaluable, so if you can find time to go outside and simply draw what you see, you’ll get steady progress. Try to measure with your hands / brush, to see how accurately you’re depicting the scene in front of you.

It’s a rewarding challenge. Also, remember to breath :)

Good luck!

I would advise you to be as experimental as possible, and see what works for you. Each person learns things in their own way. Just picking a particular path (such as using Duolingo, as others have suggested) may work. It may not. I have found that this rings especially true in technical subjects.

My personal suggestions are Duolingo, and "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. I went from stick men to badly-proportioned but otherwise lifelike still-lifes in a few hours with this book. I have a very strong audio memory so Duolingo works well for me. The most important aspect to getting not-terrible at anything is deliberate practice [1]. Drills, and boring exercises work very well for me.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practice_(learning_method)

>In drawing it’s most evident, some people can draw and others can’t, no amount of practice will help me.

That isn't remotely true, we just don't teach children to draw. Most teachers believe that it's an innate ability and have no idea how to teach it even if they wanted to. Drawing is a straightforward skill that can be quickly learned, but it's highly counter-intuitive to most people. If you think you can't draw, pick up a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards or Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson.

Most relevant here on HN I think would be the ability to communicate and articulate ideas very quickly and efficiently. I say dividends because while you can get rusty, the skill never really goes away; I constantly feel grateful for all the time I’ve put into improving my drawing skills over the years.

“Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” is the book I typically recommend for anyone at any skill level.

This entire post sounds like a "hot take". There is indeed a ton of misinformation around and there is no reason to believe your post isn't exactly that, especially when you make undefended claims like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a completely wrong way to learn".

I'm also puzzled that you explicitly put down dotrsotb but then go on to recommend Sycra, who recommends that book frequently...

I own this book, it is not the right book for learning how to illustrate.

Don't get me wrong, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a decent book. If you follow it, in a few short drawing sessions it will lift you from a person who can't draw at all to a person who is a novice at life drawing with some impressive looking portraiture. You will be amazed at your own progress at life drawing. You however will not progress much further than a novice.

For drawing game assets and other types of illustrations, you need to learn to draw from your imagination. This is a very different skill from drawing from life and a skill that "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" will not teach you. I can't make recommendations of books myself, but I can suggest looking at this [1] thread over at cgsociety.

[1] http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=844409

Wow, two recommendations for Starting Strength on HN in one week. I have already taken started incorporating the advice at the gym and it seems barbells might be my friend after all.

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking worked for me 7 years ago and I can't recommend it enough. I'll never forget scanning the table of contents and flipping to chapter 21, it sold me on the book.

I've started Drawing on the right Side of the Brain, which is basically self paced training. Really insightful so far.

Looks like a promising book list.

My training was more in the “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” school. My dad, who was trained at the School of Visual Arts in NY, gave me the book as a kid. My drawing teacher in college also focused on representational drawing.

Personally, I still recommend “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, because I think it addresses the biggest hurdle: drawing what you actually see, instead of what you “think” you see.

Understanding underlying geometry and primitives is a neat trick, and one that can help with figure drawing. But, it can also make the work feel mechanical and lifeless.

I think there’s a balance somewhere in the middle.

As far as abstract work, I think a solid representational foundation is still important. Picasso, by the age of 13, could paint with incredible realism.

If anyone’s interested, here’s some of my “traditional” work:

http://gregorywieber.com/art/traditional.html

(Contains some artistic nudity)

For drawing, I strongly recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. And you DO have all the skills you need to get started as long as you have remotely decent eye-sight and the ability to wield a pencil. The important thing is to force yourself to let go of iconic representations and look at the lines that are actually there. It will be uncomfortable, but once you do that, your progress will really begin.

There is a very interesting learn-to-draw book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", which takes a similar tack. Its premise is the reason people find drawing realistic scenes hard is because your mind is busy categorizing what it sees in to nice big-picture abstractions like "house" or "eye". You need to re-focus you mind to be able to see what is in front of you (how the lines converge, how shading affects shape, etc.), and once you do that, it becomes easy to draw in a realistic style, and not have your drawings come out like they did when you were 8 years old. Some of the exercises in the book are to copy line drawings that are turned upside down. This is so that it is easier for your mind to ignore the high level concepts, and just be able to copy down the lines as they are. I was certainly impressed and I wouldn't have guessed that by reading just one book and working the exercises I could have learned to draw so well. Highly recommended.

https://www.google.com/search?q=drawing+on+the+right+side+of...

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:news.ycombinator.c...

Eckhart Tolle was a quite divisive author for me. On the other hand he had very usefull visualizations on the nature of pain that were really valuable to me in difficult times.

The painbody visualization was especially therapeutic to me and helped me to cope in better ways than I would have otherwise.

But on the other hand I find most of his philosophy just bonkers.

The book is bit like "drawing on the right side of the brain" - great exercises wrapped in non value adding chaff.

I don't know about you, but I hate this cerebral type drawing, where you take a subject, analyse, restructure and reduce it into some components, etc. It's no fun and uses faculties that I want to rest when drawing. If I draw like this, what happens in my head is pretty much the same as when I work. I'd definitely not teach kids to draw this way. If anyone is interested in alternatives, check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards [0][1]. First edition came out quite a long time ago, and it has some popular neuroscience sprinkled in there from that time, but if you get through that, the actual learning material is very good. You'll be surprised how effective it is.

[0] https://www.drawright.com/
[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585429201

Very interesting! This reminds me of the central thesis of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards, which is that in order to truly learn how to draw, you need to render what you see, not what you know. Everyone can do it, but it’s hard for some people to see something as a collection of lines and shapes instead of a face or a building. Sometimes this involves tricking your brain, e.g. drawing from an upside-down picture.

Your hand-brain connection will need some debugging, but just like with engineering, exposure and practice makes you better:

  1. draw, the more the better. 
  2. practice fundamentals. 
  3. have fun.

Some resources worth checking out:

  - Lessons on drawabox.com for basics
  - Digital painting lessons on ctrlpaint.com
  - How to draw by S. Robertson and T. Bertling
  - Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
  - Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
  - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
  - Picture this by Molly Bang

Consider joining Crimson daggers forum (http://crimsondaggers.com/). Good luck!

The first time I learned a new language I didn't use these tools and I failed miserably. Looking back, I'm thinking "Why did I use 300 hours and spend $X of cash?" without taking the time to learn about learning.

This is especially true with languages, unless you can be fully immersed, but I still recommend it. Look into metacognition and spaced repetition. You'll need a system that works for you but look for techniques backed by research.

Specifically, Fluent Forever is a fantastic book on learning how to learn languages and Scott Young's blog mentioned is great.
I second the art recommendation "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Good luck!

+1 for Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It's superb.

I'd add A Pattern Language to the list. It's actually been very appropriately valued by the programming community, but massively undervalued by its intended audience of architects and urban planners. Should've been the architecture and planning book of the 20th century; instead most design professionals have never heard of it. Their loss!

Hey there, I struggled with the exact same thing as you when it comes to art. I started teaching myself to draw around a year ago. I made my way through the well known books, 'Drawing on the right side of the brain' and the Andrew Loomis books on faces and figures.

The main thing that pushed me through, and still motivates me, is that now I know the language and the reasons for the 'wrong' parts in my drawing. Now when I draw a figure I catch myself thinking 'These legs look weird because I didn't pay attention to the calf muscles and now my figure looks completely out of proportion' or 'My initial gesture drawing was rigid and as a result my figure looks static, with none of the weight being balanced'. For me I can see myself get better, but a lot of the 'Ah-ha!' moments actually come from realising where I've gone wrong and what I need to look at next to make sure I can do better next time.

As an aside, a huge bonus with this sort of thinking is an renewed interest and appreciation for artists you like, I catch myself looking at the work of guys like Charles Dana Gibson and marvelling at their control over light and shadow, or the expressions they're able to conjure with a few lines. It's an intensely rewarding experience. I'd really recommend grabbing a pencil and just going for it.

I'm thankful to Betty Edward for "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". This is the best book i've ever read on arts/drawing subject. First, it teaches you to see things as they are, without reasoning (mute your left brain). Hold on it (see details with your right brain). And then, it teaches you to copy what you just saw, again without reasoning. One could understand the true meaning of "Good artist copy, great artists steal" by reading this book.

Brain training games use too much of the left, 'linear', analytical side of the brain. Meditation brings the right, 'rich', creative side to bear on a problem.

I recommend drawing as a meditative activity. The following books have been helpful:

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan

A related book, and the basis for much of whats in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is The Natural Way to Draw, by Kimon Nicolaïdes. It is a text book and has structured lessons in it, so if you need formal structure its helpful. Following the lessons is not required to gain a lot from this book.

I would say that Bob Ross being the running ironic joke of the painting world says a lot more about the painting world than it does about Bob Ross. Every episode I watched contained a man with the calm manner of Mr. Rogers guiding his watchers through the process of creating something, providing them constant reassurance that they possessed the ability to create art and that they weren't making mistakes but merely going through the process of creation.

A quick trip over to reddit will reveal dozens, perhaps hundreds, of posts from people who have followed Bob Ross' methods and create a piece of art that brings them joy and satisfaction despite possibly a lifetime of doubting that they had the ability. In that sense I rank him up there amongst other great teachers who have been able to find methods that allow people to get past the initial stages of self-doubt and embarassment and begin participating in a fulfilling activity. Think "The Inner Game of Tennis" or "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Anyone who can let the everyman participate in the satisfaction that comes with creating something is pretty darned ok in my books.

I am not sure if Notch quite lives up to that legacy, but it is a comparison that I think anyone should be flattered to receive.

Perhaps off-topic, but you might want to check out the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."

One of the things it teaches, if you're interested, is how to draw without looking at the page. It's incredibly useful if you're ever drawing from life, and will probably lessen the weirdness of using a tablet.

If I could learn to draw (as an adult, earlier this year), you most certainly can. Check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

What surprised me is how technical and detail-oriented drawing is - at least how I was taught. Didn't feel at all "artsy."

I'm looking across the room at a self portrait that's very nearly recognizable(!). If you are willing to put in some hard effort, drawing is totally doable, even for the completely "untalented."

I have been learning to draw for the past 2 months or so. I want to get into digital painting but I am still learning the fundamentals with a pencil + paper.

A few things that have helped me so far:

- Setting aside at least 1 hour a day to draw. This one is the most important.

- Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

- Fun with a pencil by Andrew Loomis

- Ctrl+Paint: http://www.ctrlpaint.com/ especially the Traditional Drawing, Composition, Perspective and Anatomy sections.

- Sycra's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0373FA2B3CD4C899

First of all, don't get locked into Photoshop tutorial mode.
Tutorials can be helpful, but unless you understand the reasoning behind what you're trying to achieve, you're only going to be learning how to do that one thing.

For a broader perspective that will serve you well, I recommmend:

1. Take an art history course - Or watch a video survey of the subject

2. Learn to draw - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a good introduction

3. Learn the basics of typography - Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style is a classic

4. Visit museums of art and design

Since you're talking about web design in particular, I'd recommend reading Jakob Nielsen, as well as Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think to make sure your design ideas don't clash with usability.

I was trained (and worked, for a short time) in tailoring/fashion, and was also trained and worked (for a longer time) as a designer and illustrator. I was just taught to do this as a matter of course (by tutors and by technicians). It's just finding ways to trick your brain into actually thinking about things instead of relying on (habitually ingrained) automatic movements which tend to cause you to miss obvious errors.

Re illustration, this is quite common when explaining how to draw from a reference picture. Not at any detailed length as far as I can ever remember, literally just "turn the photograph upside down when you're drawing from it" (doesn't really need much explanation, that just how it works). As far as introductory books go I can remember "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" goes through this.

Re tailoring, the issue is that you tend to fuck up the balance of things in 3D when you're sitting staring at specific bits of it, even when you step back you only tend to see what you want if you've been at it for a while. You need to be able to see it from a. different angles at the same time, and b. not just directly through your eyes

The non-dominant hand will work for what you're doing, it's a good thing to do I think (in a way I wish I'd been taught to practise using my right more when I was a child). The reference image technique is specifically to increase accuracy though, so slightly different aim

There's an entire book about this, well-known to many artists, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". [1]

One of the exercises is to draw a tree. Then to go outside and look at a real tree, and draw what you see.

The two could not be more different.

Many artists will talk about when they "learned to see". Which means: understanding that reality isn't the simplicity of what our brain constructs, but rather the seemingly infinite detail of what is actually out there.

It changes the entire way you look at the world.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/d...

No problem.

The group is "Acrylic Painting for Everyone" - no worries, we cover more than just the painting, but the group is large enough that we can't change the name. "The Art Studio" and "Accidental Watercolorist" are good as well, though the second is narrowly focused on watercolors. You might also check out www.wetcanvas.com - this is a really, really good forum with loads of information. A lot of other groups seem to be hit and miss, like everything else.

You might also be interested in a book called "Drawing on the right side of the brain" - I've never read it, but it comes highly recommended from adult learners.

Unfortunately, art tends to specialize more and such people really depend on what you get into. People learn from old works, usually from the Renaissance painters to Picasso, Dali, and Van Gogh. Then you have folks like Giger (alien movie art) and Escher (with lots of perspective and math). Oh, and Bob Ross - people seem to love or hate him, but he inspired many to start making art. Some of this, I think, is because there are so many different mediums and styles of art that people tend to split a bit more. Or simply because art has been around for a very long time compared to programming.

I went from not being able to draw a smiley face to drawing myself in a way that resembled a human and was even recognizable with that book.

A good book to read after you are done with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is Nicolaides The Natural Way to Draw. It's a lot of hard work, but it's worth it in the end.

May I suggest that you learn to draw. The old pencil and paper way. Technology marches on, but core skills will hold up well. You'd really communicate more effectively with visually oriented people if you can sketch on paper or a whiteboard to illustrate what you are trying to convey. You can always scan your work or use a tablet to create directly on the computer.

Take a look at Betty Edward's book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It's probably the best intro around.

As a "Biz Guy" your enduring quality and contribution is to hold the vision and communicate it effectively to the specialists, be they PhotoShop or CAD skilled.

I had to think deeply about this and particularly about a book changing the way I think about things and how often I think back to things in the book. For me it has to be Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain. It made me realize that I am more creatively skilled than I thought I was — a realization which has enhanced my life greatly. To some lesser degree The Artist's Way has influenced me as well.

Perhaps the most nuts-and-bolts useful of books for me has been John Saxon's Algebra 1 and Algebra 1 1/2 textbooks. After coasting through high-school algebra without gaining any real mastery, in my early 20s I sat down with these two masterworks of clarity and re-taught myself algebra in the space of a couple full weekends. I use this (re-)learning every day of my life.

For skill building:

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

The Little Schemer by Friedman and Felleisen

Literature, for starters:

Heinlein's earlier works

Anything by Asimov

1984 and The Animal Farm by Orwell

Detective novels by Doyle or Christie

Hackers by Steven Levy

I think we're hitting into a possible issue with these book recommendations.

Recommendations on learning/understanding something logically, and recommending a book based on how to learn how to do something can be very different.

I've read all of these art books (except Vilppu's), and I DON'T think the best text on how to learn how to draw is a copy of Preston Blair's books.

For me personally, I got the most advancement through Loomis' Figure Drawing For What It's Worth. I spent a lot time going over diagrams in the book. It transformed the way I approached drawing Other people, (especially people who get into art with no prior experience) swear by Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

In this case, a lot of what you think the best text would be depends on which way you prefer to draw. I like figure drawing mostly, so I learn towards Loomis and Hogarth. Someone who likes general life/possibly painting would prefer Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Someone who prefers animation, would definitely love Preston Blair's books (and possibly Fun with a Pencil).

I think not only a good book recommendation is useful, but a good useful explanation needs to go hand in hand with it.

If it weren't for Hacker News, I would not have heard of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which I'm currently reading. I had also never heard of The Inner Game of Tennis despite playing tennis for four years in high school.

To your point, some of the books were hugely successful when released, but don't receive much attention today due to the newer books in the spotlight. We all live in different worlds so some books will be wildly popular to some groups and foreign to others.

Its such such an odd conclusion you've come to, some art tutorials are technical, therefore everyone doesn't have a mind's eye.

Anyway, the reason why people have to have drawing explained to them is because you have to translate 3d into 2d. Perspective is hard. And different parts of the brain can, essentially, fight about it. I suggest "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" for more info.

Learning to draw has been on my todo list for quite some time. I've started reading "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and I bought a Wacom tablet. I can just never seem to find the time.

I think I need to find a class (Manhattan anyone?) so I can dedicate the time. It's easy enough to Google any computer language or system and learn at least the basics in a few weeks. Unfortunately, learning to draw seems like a very slow process.

It doesn't matter that the right brain/left brain thing is a complete myth. This book really works! Don't focus on the book's title so much, it's really all about looking at the world in a different way, and the "right brain" part is just the catch to make you pick the book up.
I realize how wishy-washy this sounds, but artists really do look at things very differently than scribblers do when they're drawing, and it makes ALL the difference.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain teaches the fundamental concepts of drawing that applies to anything you'll ever draw, and it really just can't be ignored if you want to be able to draw anything without taking classes.

Basically, there's a reason this book keeps coming up in discussions about learning to draw, and it doesn't have anything to do with neural theories.

To add a little perspective as to how this whole 'left-right brain' myth has been perpetuated - a lot of it has come to popular consciousness (and particularly that of artists) through the (learn to draw) book "drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards (1979).

Its actually a fantastic book for its purpose. It remains today a classic book still widely used - better than even most more recent books on the same topic. Whilst its use of the 'left-right' thing is obviously fundamentally flawed scientifically, in the book it is more or less a model presented to the reader in describing how to 'think' to aid in drawing - which mental processes to turn on/off, focus on or ignore. This more practical side of the book has proved very helpful and effective to its readers and is the real achievement which has led to the book's enduring success. The success of this has however led to the propagation of the 'left-right' thing which the book does basically claim is a scientific basis for everything described.

My only point in saying this is that there's complexity to stories like this - ideas can be helpful even if the scientific base they pretend to be based on is incorrect.

This remind me of a drawing book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It teaches people how to draw realistically using techniques like contour drawing among other stuff.

However, middle school art teachers seem stuck in their little art project. I am not sure about high school, but it doesn't look like they teach the skills.

A lot of great books, but it's unclear to me that most of these are actually "undervalued." Check out the blurb on the back cover of Philosophical Investigations, for example:

Immediately upon its posthumous publication in 1953, Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations was hailed as a masterpiece, and the ensuing years have confirmed this initial assessment. Today it is widely acknowledged to be the single most important philosophical work of the twentieth century.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has had a huge impact. From Amazon: "Translated into more than seventeen languages, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is the world's most widely used drawing instruction book."

Same with The Inner Game of Tennis -- it was groundbreaking when it came out in 1972 and had a huge impact not just on tennis, or even sports generally, but on musicians, artists, performers, or anything with a critical mental game. Back when I was working on my music degree it was required reading.

Is it possible that the author thinks these books are undervalued simply because many of them were released a while ago (when he was young or not yet born) and thus they aren't currently being hyped and/or in the limelight? That, or perhaps they're simply not that popular within the author's social circle?

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a very well written book which highlights perceptual issues of representing space. It also does a great job of mixing in developemental psychology to help you understand how a human's representation of the world changes as they grow older.

One of the best examples from the book explains why hands in children's drawings of people are always so large. Essentially, as a child focuses more on complex details (each individual finger) they unconsciously enlarge the object in order to fit in all the detail. Its a good illustration of our perception of scale vs scale relative to other objects.

There are plenty of other great observations about the way humans think visually in the book as well.

Programming and Graphic Design are opposites. Logic, reason and lots of self-discipline makes for good programmers. Art on the other hand is grounded in emotion and perception. It's more about escaping discipline, while allowing yourself to get in touch with some inner irrational being (so that you don't mess up the design with logic and symbols). Art touches you, while programmers build things. Graphic Design in some sense, is just the industrialization of Art for specific purposes (although often less emotional).

It's best to realize that a good Graphic Designer can outrun a programmer in the same way that a good programmer can outrun someone that can't think logically, although some programmers seem oblivious to this. If you need good Graphic Design, it is best to hire a professional that is well suited to the task.

If you really want to try to bridge the two worlds, then a degree in Graphic Design is a good idea. Drawing, painting and photography are also good hobbies that can help you develop an aesthetic. A good reference to start with (and explain why logic and rules fail) is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It's an old classic, but helps in understanding how our brains interfere with our perceptions.

I'm too sleepy to figure out how to comment tere. So you guys get this.

The best text on learning how to draw is a copy of Preston Blair's book(s) on drawing for animation. However that's only half the equation, because it lacks exercises. So you need to go to http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2009/12/preston-blair-le... and do what he tells you to. They will seem stupid at first. But trust John; a significant percentage of the talent in the Hollywood tv animation scene learnt their craft under his harsh tutelage.

Other textbooks on drawing I've read: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, The Vilppu Drawing Manual, The Animator's Workbook.

The combination of Preston Blair (long considered THE classic text on drawing for animation) and John K's exercises will VERY RAPIDLY teach you how to look at things,mbreak them down into simple shapes, and draw them convincingly. Other texts teach this but few start with the super-solid, super-simple cartoon art found in 1940s cartoons; you're immediately thrown into trying to break down a human body, or a car, or whatever, into shapes you don't understand yet. The simple characters wear their construction on their sleeves, so it's easy for you to understand it and learn.

I think before I could keep a handwritten journal again, I'd have to learn either shorthand or drawing. Besides resisting the temptation to self-pity, of course.

Might actually a good idea for some neat new skills this years. Sadly last time I looked there were too many shorthand systems (and the default German one looked rather complicated), and I've yet to find a drawing book that makes me seem less clumsy ("Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" was recommended here before, but didn't do anything for me).

An experience I had as a teenager really drove this lesson home for me, and is partly responsible for successes I’ve had since.

My Dad had copy of ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards lying around. I’d always been really bad at drawing - never progressed beyond the kids-drawing phase, got bad feedback on drawing at school, so stopped.

Anyway, Edwards’s theory is that ‘bad’ drawers don’t look at the thing itself and draw its shape, they translate reality into abstract concepts first and then draw what that concept visually looks like. So I’ll look at a face, then decide I’ll draw the ‘eye’ first, query my mind to see what an ‘eye’ looks like, then draw the generic 'eye' shape that everyone draws.

Whereas a skilled artist looks at the eye in front of them - which looks nothing like the standard symbol for ‘eye’ - and draws THAT.

Edwards has a bunch of exercises to prove this, and one of them triggered a massive epiphany for me.

She had a Picasso sketch in the book which was printed upside down on the page. Her instructions were to copy the drawing, keeping it upside down, and never naming the limb/whatever you’re drawing, and never turning your drawing right-side-up until it’s complete.

I was sceptical, but decided to test her theory. So I started copying this upside-down drawing, fully expecting it to turn out even worse than usual.

When I finished, I couldn't believe it. The drawing was AMAZING. It looked like someone else had done it. The figure I’d drawn looked alive.

I went on to learn to draw pretty well. So after that, my mind always looked back and thought - well, if I can learn to DRAW, and I was so BAD at drawing initially, I can pretty much learn to do anything.

If you want to learn to draw from life, the biggest hurdle is learning to interpret visual signals directly -- what artists refer to as "learning to see". Your brain naturally wants to turn visual input (edge, color, pattern) into higher-level concepts ("house", "nose", "cat", etc.), which is wonderful for general survival but unhelpful when this interpretive step inserts itself in the path from your eyes to your pencil.

However, there are a variety of exercises you can do to learn to see low-level visual input over higher-level interpretations, like copying images upside-down, following a visual edge with both eye and pencil, using a viewfinder or grid to narrow attention, measuring angles/distances between landmarks, moving attention to "negative space", etc.

You can find these kinds of exercises in most life drawing books. I particularly like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", as it's structured for independent study, it has a focus on quickly producing results for absolute novices, and it has a scientific bent -- although anything it says about physical neurological structure should be taken with a grain of salt.

I recently picked up Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book. Supposedly, it's been updated recently, to contain her most recent knowledge on mark-making and 'seeing' the drawing in life.

I used to be quite a decent pencilist, but after 18 years of not having drawn a lick, and perhaps relating to the drugs that were consumed during my teenage years, I've simply forgotten how to do anything, how to even see the marks that need making, to complete even rudimentary drawings.

I'm only a few pages in, but at least on the premise, the referenced book in this works on similar principles.

I have two suggestions that are somewhat contrary to your question.

First, learn to draw. I recommend a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. That and lots of practice.

Second, learn to produce and animate pixel art. You'll be surprised by the results you can get with the retro/nostalgia look. Google will find you plenty of tutorials.

While not 3d modeling, these approaches have low barriers to entry, and what you learn will help your future efforts artistically.

The whole thing is a rather long winded way of saying that people working on complicated technical or craft problems need hours of uninterrupted time alone. This somewhat obvious point doesn't require pages of text.

"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" made the research backed argument 30 years ago that to progress in drawing one needs large chunks of uninterrupted time when the linguistic centers of the brain remain unstimulated.