Want to instantly improve your drawing ability on all your cakes? Then read this!
There is an amazing book called, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.” Written in the 80’s, Betty Edwards renowned book is now in its fourth edition. What is so special about this lesson book about drawing, is that from front cover to last page, one will discover personal, innate drawing talent that is contained within anyone. That is accomplished by only changing how one perceives reality.
Let me try to explain her primary concept in the book. Metaphysics will come in handy in doing so.
The human brain is made up of two hemispheres or lobes. The left brain which analyses reality through black and white, logical thinking, uses words, numbers and sets concepts about the nature of reality. It is a colorless flat world of cool intellect that stems from the left brain. This is the ego domain as well, the Yang aspect, or male, thinking polarity of a human being.
In contrast, and separated only by a thin wall of tissue is man’s original brain more connected to the soul. Man’s brain was once whole without any broken splintered ego aspect. Doubt and fear caused the separation. It is now each human being’s task to shed fear in order to bring the two halves together without letting the left brain dominate as it has for eons.
The right brain, a greater part of man’s consciousness observes shape, color and expresses the feminine, feeling polarity of the Yin aspect. To have both parts, Yin and Yang, left and right brain functionally equally is the primary focus of Spirit for each incarnated man or woman. However, most human’s lead with their male ego half, their left brain maintaining an insistence of “prove it to me” in their daily life. Since other dimensional realities are not as yet provable with our present technology, that limited view of the nature of reality doesn’t take into account the source of Creation. It is of a higher plain existence.
Since many of our cultural forms were formed from ego’s viewpoint, it is not a surprise that many lessons taught in our schools have a linear, male approach to learning, keeping most students away from perceiving reality with their right mind. Learn facts and get high grades and then you will be successful is most school’s motto. However, not all humans function in such a cool mental world of left brain activity, which is why so many have trouble fitting into the public or even private school system. They “feel,” a right brain activity and see reality more deeply than just “think it.” So the left brain centered school set up is against some people’s personal tendency of observation.
The phrase, “He is not in his right Mind,” suggests to anyone that a person is so caught in the fear that he is not sane. When one is in their right mind, it truly means they are in touch with their soul and spirit and the truth about reality in all its colorful, multi-dimensional complexity. Even the biblical phrase, “Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father,” does not actually refer to physical approximation, but more the evolved human trait that many ascended masters have demonstrated to humanity. They have been way-showers, living and being with their right brain awareness of Spirit, teaching Man by example. By being more balanced that way, a soul is able to then act as a channeler of Spirit’s intention. Tapping into these higher frequencies of information, such gurus, behave more as an instrument of the right, or correct hand of the Divine.
Now with all that metaphysical set up, one can come to understand more that the technique in the book attempts to take awareness back to the right brain which is the source of genius and creativity, in other words, the advance accomplishments of the soul which has formed the individual human. For most souls have already explored in other lifetimes, art forms and have developed talents. Those talents are there for the asking, if we ask and then receive information from the right hemisphere of the brain.
It has been shown time and time again with child prodigies, that the soul which created them, already had gifts to bring down far beyond the norm of common human ability at their very young age.
Now that is all well and good, but you may ask, how can I draw better?
It is actually a simple shift of view. You see, the left brain has a prior concept of, for instance, what a person’s ear looks like. It stores past information like a computer and then draws on its version to draw the shape. However, if a person is standing at an odd angle to the sketch artist, the ear will change shape and no longer look like what the ego or left brain thinks of as an ear. That then creates a conflict in artistic rendering.
What one needs to do is to stop this left brain dilemma by looking at the space around all objects when one draws them. Those specific shapes will never repeat. Focusing on the shape that surrounds the object will disengage the left brain logic grip on the pen or paint brush in hand.
So if drawing a person’s ear, look more at the shape of the space as it travels around the ear. The left brain will not be able to draw on that unique shape from past experience, and will thusly allow the person to draw the exact angle and shape of the ear at any angle by automatic right brain analysis.
The same ear drawn at three different prospective angles shows how very different in shape each one is to the eye.
Try sketching the three differently angled ear shapes by drawing the outline of the space that touches the black lines. You will be surprised you do a better job of simulating each ear shape than if you tried to actually draw the lines instead of the space around them.
So to be succinct, when viewing anything you wish to draw, outline the shape thinking only of the space which holds the object instead of drawing the actual object. The result will surprise you.
Try an exercise…look at anything in the room and draw it, but only draw the lines which edge the space and touch the object. So if drawing a lamp, think of drawing the air which touches the lampshade, and you will surprise yourself how quickly your hand can do that accurately, much more easily that just thinking of drawing the actual lamp shape.
This is just one of the many lessons I share in my DVD#6 “Practical Tips Before Starting a …Cake Art Business.” I am sure some people think they don’t need the info that I share in that 3-4 hour lecture on DVD, but just this drawing lesson alone that I illustrate in more detail, can fundamentally change someone’s talent and make drawing all those cake images, so much easier and faster.
If you have been frustrated with your drawing in the past, get this book at least to learn more about altering one’s perception. When you go through Betty Edwards’ exercises, you will find you have great talent in drawing that will suddenly appear.