To observe things correctly you have to block the part of your brain that interprets what it sees. From infancy, the left part of the brain starts to symbolize what it sees and ignores the right half which sees things as they are. A face instead of being a complex skull shape with eye, nose and muzzle forms superimposed on it becomes symbolized as a circle with two smaller circles for eyes, a triangle for a nose and a curved line for the mouth. You no longer actually see what is really there.

The secret to drawing is to learn to switch off this left part of your brain so that you just see everything as shapes, not objects. Here are some techniques for doing that: avoid staring, negative shapes, mirror images, meditation.

In this course unit

This unit shows you how to refine your drawing by capturing the character of the curves in your subject. You will learn:

• how to practice drawing curves using the contour drawing technique
• how to simplify the drawing of curves using the straight-line approximation technique
• six techniques to swich you into right-brain mode and help you overcome some of the problems that prevent most people being able to draw accurately
• how to make a black mirror to help you check your drawing accuracy and see values better
• how to use cross-contours to give your drawing a sense of volume

Total number of assignments: 6

Total number of pages: 15