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Product Description

Millions of people have learned to draw using the methods of Dr. Betty Edwards. Now, in an essential companion to her bestselling classic, Edwards offers readers the key to mastering this art form: guided practice in their newfound creative abilities.

Here are forty new exercises that cover each of the five basic skills of drawing. Each practice session includes a brief explanation and instructional drawings, suggestions for materials, sample drawings, and blank pages for the reader's own drawings. Also provided in this spiral-bound workbook is a pullout viewfinder, a crucial tool for effective practice. While The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain focused primarily on portrait drawing with pencil, this workbook gives readers experience in various subject matter-still life, landscape, imaginative drawing-using alternative mediums such as pen and ink, charcoal, and cont¨¦ crayon.

For all those who are taking a drawing class, who have already received instruction through a book or course, or who prefer to learn by doing, this volume of carefully structured "homework" offers the perfect opportunity to reinforce and improve their skills and expand their repertoire.

Customer Reviews:

• Just bought and using this book
  I bought this book because a few art ladies in my neighborhood meet once a week to work from this book and now I am meeting with them. I have never read any of Edwards other books and am not familiar with her theories. I just wanted to reactivate my art talent.
  
  I have done ten of the forty exercises so far. I have been impressed with how easy it was to just start drawing again. From some of the exercises I get the drift of where Edwards is coming from, but what is more important is the experience I am gaining.
  
  On exercise six are drawings upside down and you sketch them that way; then turn them upright when done and surprise you have an amazing sketch of the drawing you copied. The idea is that you trick your brain into switching to the right side and stop the left side from talking and cluttering up your mind with thoughts such as "I don't do upside down pictures".
  
  If you get the book do all the drawings in this exercise and you will find an interesting thing happens. The drawing you think is the simplest to do and get right is actually the hardest and the hardest is the easiest to do. You can come up with your own theory on that. I have my own. I learned a lot about myself from this exercise when I analyzed my pictures. One thing I found is that I draw things slightly larger than I see them. So go for it and see what happens for you.
  
  I mail ordered all the supplies listed in the book and found that I did not need all the things on the list and could have done without some things and saved myself some money. It is easy to adapt the lessons to your budget if you get creative. Do get the kneaded eraser, charcoal, and number four pencil. You can end up spending over twenty dollars for all the supplies recommended.
  
  I plan to update this review when I am done with the workbook. I give it four stars now because I have not finished the book and the issue with the supply list.
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• Skilled Drawing
  This is a very fine guide for learning to draw, understanding the principles of drawing, and practicing drawing in a practical way/...more info
• Brilliant
  Great book for those of us with a creative bent but not sure how to proceed. Recommended by Daniel Pink....more info
• I don't know much about art, but....
  This the worst sort of psycho-babble fused with art. There is only one decent book on learning to draw, "The Natural Way to Draw."...more info
• Very helpful
  While not absolutely necessary, this is an easy way to keep organized and on track if you're using the Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain text. You can find the essential materials and supplies you'll need in your own home, but this workbook gives you a place to keep your work in one place and in order. I suppose you could just use this workbook, but the text is where you'll learn the 'why' of what you're practicing, so I'd recommend that if you're only going to buy one, buy the text, not this workbook....more info
• So you think you can't draw?
  If you think you can't draw, just get this book and workbook and learn how. Betty Edwards presents an excellent process of learning to see - in order to draw. Get this combo and start drawing today....more info
• A Portable Classroom
  I started out as an insecure, fumble-fingered incompetent -- couldn't even doodle. With the techniques Edwards puts forth, I've been able to learn a tremendous amount about drawing, and about looking at the world (a side-effect not to be understimated). This workbook provides a classroom experience for those who can't find or afford a classroom. For those of us with some experience, it's a great refresher course. I recommend it very highly. In fact, I'm ordering my second copy, for an insecure, fumble-fingered friend....more info
• three stars
  The workbook is written in language which could be difficult for people who have no knowledge of drawing. Unfortunately, the "Glossary of Terms" compounded the problem rather than cleared up the difficulties....more info
• More pseudoscientific left/right brain drivel.
  The idea that creativity and artistic ability were located in the right hemisphere was an idea first proposed back in the 1960s. It was quickly dismissed because the data (from studies of normal and brain damaged individuals) showed it to be wrong. No competent neuroscientist has taken it seriously for decades. In sum, it is simply wrong to say that art or creativity is "in" the right hemisphere and that training the right hemisphere will improve artistic abilities. In fact, it is absurd for her to even claim that her training program improves right hemisphere function at all. Where is the evidence? Like studies showing that after following her training program people are really better artists and that their right hemispheres are more active, ideally by some fMRI criteria? Yet Edwards goes on and on making her claims and taking money from the gullible. ...more info
• The ANIMAL FARM ACADEMY of ART
  "DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN"?
  
  LEARN-TO-DRAW: UNTHINKING PERSONS APPLY HERE!
  
  Same author also wrote: "Drawing on the Artist Within".
  
  In one instance, it is drawing on the "brain", and in the other, it's drawing on the "artist within". Betty Edwards is an art fad theorist. Edwards cashes in on the simple fact that many people are unfamiliar with INVERSE/OBVERSE perception.
  
  What EDWARDS actually offers is a psychological crutch, for all the drawing instruction is founded upon a singular theory. That is not encouraging art in others. Rather, it's ART FASCISM. Art has never been founded upon a singular theory. Often as not, ART is the anti-thesis, the opposite, of all theorizing and intellectualizing. EDWARDS makes the practice of ART a theory-dependent activity, rather than a form of creativity that transcends idea-formation. It's a very undemocratic idea; but at the same time, credit Edwards with coy marketing, if not art theory fascism.
  
  What does one actually draw WITH? Is it one half of the human brain? ...OR... Is it the Heart? Because if it is the latter, EDWARDS' art theorizing collapses. Realistically, people who draw, no more analyze "HOW" they draw, any more than a bee analayzes "HOW" he flies; but false instruction is marketable when truth & fiction are cunningly mixed.
  
  Here, the subtle suggestion is the blatant falsehood that there exist people in the world that cannot draw. IT IS NOT TRUE! That is a false assumption, swallowed hook, line & sinker by a gullible public. To the point here, there are no SCIENTIFIC evidence or facts presented as evidence that there are people who-cannot-draw. In this manner, Edwards is able to shift between POPULAR MYTH and SCIENTIFIC FACT. RIGHT-BRAIN PERCEPTION is sold as the snake-oil miracle cure for the suffering masses who have been denied spiritual healing.
  
  Furthermore, even if EDWARDS were to carry her own logic forward to its rightful conclusion, and the reader applied the very same RIGHT-BRAIN/INVERSE/OBVERSE mode of visualization to the purpose of examining definition of terms, it would become obvious that Edwards turns all definition on it's head. One example of such table-turning involves the meaning of the term, "artist" sloppily inferred merely to be.. "those-who-can-draw". If Edwards can teach you how to draw, you are, ipso facto, an ARTIST. Don't we all wish!
  
  Allow me to provide another ready example. Lewis Carroll's story, "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" provides a rich assortment of visual images, and many of these amusing dramatic themes rely precisely upon INVERSE/OBVERSE PERCEPTION and RIGHT-BRAIN processing; but Edwards ignores this and suggests to the pop-culture crowd, and those not gifted with critical thinking skills, that some scientist has a NEW & IMPROVED invention whereby humans can now access their RIGHT-BRAIN and be magically transformed into a NEW & IMPROVED identity, that of an "ARTIST". How absolutely silly!
  
  This is the same as suggesting, that if I change my car's tire, by becoming conscious of the NEGATIVE SPACE surrounding the tire, I am an AUTO MECHANIC. This is what Edward's calls reaching a state of "altered consciousness".
  
  ART is the opposite of any such instruction that reduces itself to any kind of theoretical hand-holding. And for these reasons, EDWARDS books are a conflicting hodge-podge of New Age metaphysics, pseudo-scientific jargon, and sly half-truths, the nature of which, great ART has been combatting from time immemorial, for all such ideas place a crippling limitation upon free spirits. Art is about freedom, rather than binding or crippling attachment to intellectualizations, human fear, doubt, insecurity or angst. If you are not burdened with such negativisms, there is no reason to buy Edwards' theory; no need to draw-on-the-cash-in-your-wallet.
  
  What Edwards does, and does very well, is practice a kind of intellectual gangsterism. Logic and Reason and any questions are simply forced aside with pages of metaphysical and NEW AGE propaganda, while followers repeat claims in Orwellian fashion like the barnyard stock in "ANIMAL FARM"; "FOUR LEGS GOOD; TWO LEGS BETTER!" Such mantras, chanted by the naive, produce an equivalent:
  "RIGHT-BRAIN-DRAWING, MAKE-ME-AN-ARTIST!" "RIGHT-BRAIN-DRAWING, MAKE-ME-AN-ARTIST!". If only it were true....more info
• Brain Boot-camp
  This book is for the person who wants to walk through the processes of how the brain perceives. It has instruction and a place to draw.
  
  I use some of these methods in my art classes.
  
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• A fine workbook - worth the price!
  This isn't meant to replace Edwards' outstanding books, including the classic Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. But it is helpful with its exercises, drawing tool, and current research. Don't expect miracles, but do expect improvement in your drawing skills! ......more info
• Worth Every Penny
  This workbook comprehensively develops the skills that natural-artists take for granted. I am currently working my way through it for a college design class and I saw improvements in my drawing with the first 6 exercises (out of 40). The workbook hones skills that many artists have difficulty explaining to beginning artists. The accompaning text book is not necessary, but is an interesting read....more info
• Can't draw? This book will show you how.
  Terrence Hines has become stuck on the right vs. left brain issue and is ignoring the quality of the instruction in this book. Forget the whole left vs right brain right or wrong issue, and you still have a fantastic book that is in use by dozens of colleges across the country.
  
  Can you barely draw stick figures? This book will show you a different way to look at the world. Can you doodle or cartoon, but want to draw more realistic portraits? This is the book to pick up. Artists look at the world in a different paradigm than when tooling around picking up groceries, and this book will show you how to switch paradigms. From looking at the negative space that surrounds an object, to looking at only the shades of dark that define an object, you'll learn how to 'see' objects in a way that makes it MUCH easier to draw.
  
  I've doodled and cartooned for years, and was dissatisfied with the 'flat' appearance of my scribbles. "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" was recommended to me by a friend, and in a few short weeks I went from flat cartoons to drawing recognizeable portraits. One of my portraits has been published on the rear cover of "From Turban to Toering". To date this remains one of my favorite gifts to give to friends who want to draw and claim they can't. You *can*, and this book will help!...more info
• Best yet from Drawing on the Right Side of the BRain
  Wow! I have taught drawing on the right side of the brain for over 10 years and this workbook is the BEST! I wish all my students could afford one. I purchased a few of these, and have given them to students who are passionate about learning how to draw...these are junior high students too! I love the simplicity of the lessons, streamlined in such a succinct way...why didn't I think of this for Betty Edwards? If you teach this program or you want to learn to draw or improve your drawing skills, this book is so easy to use, it is so user friendly. I also purchased the DVD which goes beautifully...My students are so at ease with this system of organizing the drawing learning process. ...more info
• Excellent tool for artists and non-artists
  I have to disagree with the few negative reviews that have recently appeared for the Edwards workbook.

  This is a fine gift for anyone interested in learning to draw. While it doesn't go into depth as "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" does, it does provide enough information to get started - the methods and approach of Dr. Edwards are groundbreaking and absolutely essential information if you want to use your WHOLE brain. (And yes, Nicolaides' book is important, too, but Edwards work is very complementary to it, and carries his work many steps further...)...more info

• The science is not silly at all.
  I would recommend this book in a heartbeat to anyone. To those who cited Mrs. Edwards reference to scientists who are proponents of the paranormal sciences, I would quickly point out that the core of her thesus rests on the work of legitimate and completely accepted neuro-science (not paranormal science), specificaly the work of Roger W. Sperry and his students at the California Institute for Technology in the 50's and 60's, work which has been enhanced and greatly expanded since then by the science community. I don't know how much if any of Mrs. Edwards reliance on the opnion of paranormal scientists is in this book, but it clearly has nothing at all to do with the foundation of her thesus. The results are the proof....more info