No matter, though; this is still a very good tutor for the beginning artist. The exercises work whether or not you think you're drawing on the right side of your brain. They're very well thought out, practical excercises that work.

What they *aren't* is original.

There's a very influential book that was first published in 1941 (and is still in print) entitled "The Natural Way to Draw", by Kimon Nicolaides. Nicolaides was a very influential artist who taught at New York's Aret Students League, and Edwards' book is essentially Nicolaides with a lot of nonsense about "R-mode" and "L-mode" that serves no practical didactic purpose.

Edwards' book is still a good tutor for the novice, but Nicolaides is just as good- and in some ways, better.


It took me from stick men to portraits in three days.   December 22, 1999
 115 out of 115 found this review helpful

I can't emphatize how good this book is. I used to consider myself absolutely useless at drawing. I barely managed to pass exams at art classes at school. Now I am drawing fairly decent portraits from almost everyone I know. The book focueses on seeing the things' real shapes and it is just this non rational, non mathematically based approach that makes it work. I used to have big problems with proportions and perspective, and Betty Edwards made me realise it's all a matter of looking at things with loving attention (and not attaching a name to the bit you are drawing). This book has made me realise I've lost many years of my life blocking myself as an artist. Drawing is a skill that everyone can learn. Do it with this book!


This is absolutely the best book on drawing in print   January 7, 2000
 72 out of 74 found this review helpful

I have a degree in commercial art and learned more about drawing from this book than I did in four years of undergraduate instruction. If you practice everyday what Ms. Edwards teaches you will be drawing as good as any professional artist in six months. This really is the best book on drawing ever published!


Did Edwards throw out her left side   March 2, 2003
 67 out of 102 found this review helpful

The essential question of any how-to book is: Does it work? For this book, the answer is probably yes. But in reviewing this book, I have to compare it to other how-to books on drawing. Such a comparison should convince anyone that Betty Edwards is merely repackaging familiar drawing exercises with a psychological theory she finds convenient. In fact, the focus on brain laterality is useless as far as drawing is concerned, and there are other books that are more worthwhile.

My main concern is with the book's pseudo-scientific tone, which borders on being anti-scientific. The actual science behind Edwards' theory is scant and superficial. You just can't come to the conclusions she comes to, and the way she applies her theory is redundant. You can replace her annoying terminology of "R-mode" and "L-mode" with "creative mode" and "analytic/logical" mode, and there is no difference in meaning. It would even be clearer and more accurate to tell the reader to "Draw what you see, not what you think you are seeing" instead of saying mystifying things like "Shut off the buzz of L-mode, so you can mentally shift to R-mode."

The towering giant of drawing books is, of course, Nicolaides' NATURAL WAY TO DRAW. Edwards attempts to make sense of what goes on in the brain to help us draw, but her bland writing style and her pseudo-psychological approach negates her credentials. If the book works, it is because the exercises are time-tested. The way to learn to draw is by spending time drawing, and studying the drawings of the masters. Classes help, and so do books, but if you get one book on drawing, the serious student would reach for Nicolaides. And if you're really into neuroscience, get a recent college textbook.


Great for absolute beginners, not for intermediate students   March 25, 2004
 65 out of 73 found this review helpful

I taught myself how to draw passably well when I was a kid and have been drawing sporadically ever since. Recently, however, I wanted to really learn to draw - to really understand form and how to represent it on paper. I practiced constantly, but I wasn't really improving on my own, so I started reading art instruction books to expose myself to new ideas that might help me improve my drawing. The first book I read was "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", which I chose because I had heard so much about how great it was. I was expecting it to be profound in some way. I read it very carefully to the end and completed all of the exercises, but about halfway through I realized it wasn't giving me any new ideas at all.

The book is written for ABSOLUTE beginners in drawing - if you have been drawing for any length of time there are other books that will be much more helpful to you. If you are just starting out in drawing, if you haven't drawn since you were a kid, this book should be extremely useful. It explains drawing on a much more basic level than any other book I have ever read, but that is exactly what absolute beginners need. It would be difficult to try to write a sentence before learning the alphabet, and this book teaches the "alphabet" of drawing. But if you can already write, even at a basic level, reviewing the alphabet would be a waste of time.

I really dislike the actual style the book is written in; Edwards is egotistical and she spends too much time on subjects that are not directly related to learning to draw, for example, several pages are spent defending the "right brain/left brain" theory and too much space is spent throughout the book giving examples of "evidence" for her theory. The book could be about half the length it is and still offer the same amount of useful information.

So far "The Natural Way to Draw" and "The Practice and Science of Drawing" have been much more useful to me. I would recommend them over Edward's book to intermediate students like myself who are trying to learn advanced concepts.