Attended the Right-Brain Awareness Art Workshop organized by Mr JF Koh, a member of the Singapore Humanist Group today. The presenter started the workshop with an introduction to the difference in left and right brain usage of most people.
Left brain: linguistic, logical, analytical, intellectual, convergent, rational, linear, objective.
Right brain: visual, spatial, intuitive, relational, holistic, analogical, divergent, non-linear, subjective.
The objective of the workshop was to help participant make a shift from using their left brain, to the right brain. The workshop started out relatively simple, with a drawing of a face facing right, and a face facing left to form the picture as shown above, while all the time telling yourself consciously which part of the face you are currently drawing. It actually is harder then it sounds, cause when you're drawing it using your right brain (which has been neglected all these while), conflict tends to emerges, and you have to debate within yourself on how to navigate your thoughts, perspective, and motor skills.
Next we did some contour drawing of our hand (or any object), but drawing it by tracing it's contour, and by not looking at the paper you're drawing on. Frustration surfaces cause one loses their sense of relation, sense of direction, sense of sight of what you're doing. But what the presenter wanted us to focus on, was the contour, and the small detail of the object we were drawing, instead of the drawing itself.
Lastly, an upside down face of Einstein was show, and we were asked to draw it, but this time, we were allowed to look at the paper. Here's the result of our drawings at the end of the session :)
On the whole, it was an enjoyable workshop. I haven't drawn for ages, and I often wonder why adults draw less then kids do. Do we lose our ability to draw as we get older? Or is it because a drawing doesn't actually benefit us in any way?
Ref:
Singapore Humanism Meetup Group Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
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