Right Brain Summer Drawing Club, Picture Share #1

Look, I made a logo for the Right Brain Summer Drawing Club!

And yes, I made it using neither my right brain nor my left brain, but my butt brain. But it’s cute, isn’t it? Lookit that little guy! He has a belly button!

Quick summary of what’s going on here: we’re working our way through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, an instructional book that says that almost anyone can learn to draw well; it’s just a matter of training ourselves to let our right brain take control, and shut up the analytical, computational, practical left brain while we’re looking at things. Once a week, I’ll post a link-up, so anyone who’s participating can post their results.

I got my husband and four of my kids to join in, and it was great — just the kind of pleasant, creative family experience I’m always yearning after. You could tell when the “right brain” experience took hold of the group, because first there was a lot of goofing around, laughing, and groaning — “When is that Obamacare gonna kick in? There’s something horribly wrong with my knuckles!” and so on — but then everyone got really quiet and there was just the sound of pencils and breathing.

We skimmed a lot, and skipped things that we didn’t understand (like the autograph exercise).  My main goal is to have a good time together, so if anything starts becoming discouraging or threatening to that, out it goes.

I’m having a heck of a time getting images to upload, so except for the self-portraits, I’ll only post the ones I did. Sorry they are so faint! I took the photos late at night and didn’t realize what a poor job I was doing. Better light and focus next week.

First the portrait from memory. I did my six-year-old daughter, whom I apparently remember as a greeter at Walmart:

Then the hand. I was happier with this one — it seemed handlike, at least — although if my fingers were really those widths, I’d be looking to change my medication (and I’m not even on medication). After the memory exercise, it was a huge relief to have something to refer to.

Then the self portraits. What a jolly, terrifying family we are!

Leprosyyyyyy! I’m not half the man I used to beeeee! Pretty much ready for a drink after finishing that one up. I totally see what the author means about the tyranny of picture symbols. Very hard to get away from, even if you know you’re seeing something different! Boy, drawing is hard work!

How did it go at your house? Did you have fun? What do you think of the book so far? Were you horrified at what you came up with?  I kept telling my kids, the worse these pre-instruction drawings turn out, the more amazed we’ll be when we finish the course, so crap it up!

Share a link to your pictures using the InLinkz form below. Don’t forget to link back to my blog, please, when you post your pictures on your site — and feel free to use my magnificent logo in your post.

Since we are moving quite slowly, there is still time to find a book and get caught up before drawing share #2.

Next, we’ll read through chapter three and do the exercises in chapter four, and post our results on Monday, June 30. Note, Monday, rather than Tuesday, just for this week. We are leaving to go camping for a week on Tuesday. Yes, we are. Shut up, it’s going to be great.