In the Beginning

Students drawing a pre-instruction self-portrait
(click on photo for a better view)

We came into the world. We opened our eyes to look and see shapes and colors. Then our mother started talking to us. She pointed at her nose, this triangle, and told us this was called “nose”. Nose, you repeated after her. The sound by itself has no meaning, but when the sound is attached to that triangle on our face it gives the triangle a name, which is a verbal symbol. From there on we remember the name of things and forget the shapes of them.

The little that we know of language is controlled by the left side of our brain and visual perception is the activity of the right side of the brain. In life there are things that need the cooperation of both sides of the brain, such as playing a musical instrument. Reading, writing and mathematics, however, require only the left side of brain, and visual perception only the right side of the brain. From the first day we enter school, reading, writing and mathematics dominate the curriculum. The left side of the brain is constantly stimulated and developed. Not using much of it, the right side of the brain goes into deep slumber.  

Learning to draw is learning to see. We are endowed with this ability. All we need to do is to wake up the right side of the brain from its slumber. The first exercise I assign students is to copy a master’s work upside down. The left side of the brain is debilitated by this exercise when the association of names and shapes is broken, and then drawing is easy. The hand faithfully follows the eye to put down on paper what we see. 

At the first class students copied Picasso's line drawing of Stravinsky upside down 
(click on photo for a better view)