Seeing Differently: How Drawing Unlocks Perceptual and Right-Brain Development
The Art of Seeing
When you were a child you probably enjoyed drawing or coloring. We all did at some point. There’s something incredibly primal and satisfying about making marks on things, bringing into form that which was initially formless. It’s a kind of magick.
Now at some point in your childhood, maybe your drawings were compared to someone else’s or maybe you were scolded by a caregiver for “wasting time” or maybe, like me, you were told that it takes a lot of work to become good at drawing. Whatever your story, you walked away from it, this thing that brought you at least some degree of joy and satisfaction. Some of us are lucky enough to find our way back, but many of us come to believe, one way or another, that we’re not “artists” and we have “no talent” for drawing.
What if I told you drawing does more for the brain than you think? What if I told you drawing does for the right brain what math, science, and reading do for the left brain? Betty Edwards and her seminal work, Drawing of the Right Side of the Brain show us exactly this. Drawing aids in the development of perception, training the brain to see more deeply and accurately.
The Right Brain vs. Left Brain in Drawing
Basic neurology 101: different brain regions house different functions and abilities. Not-so-basic neurology: the brain is a holistic organ that draws conclusions about the world, ourselves, and others from complicated and inextricably connected integrative processes, not just from right and left.
But for our purposes, the left-brain concerns itself with logic, verbal reasoning, and analysis. This is the empire of Western thought. It’s demonstrated most notably in the prowess of technologies and AI. The right-brain, though, is our imaginal center. It concerns itself with the intuitive, the visual, and the spatial. The nonverbal catacombs of images, feelings, sensations, and instincts.
As a society, we are grossly left-brained. Entrenched in the realm of words and reason, dismissive of that which can’t be disassembled and understood “objectively”. The left-brain is the world of objects; the right-brain is the world of subjects. One side inhabits an inert scientific reality, and the other an enlivened and interconnected existence.
Here’s the thing: the left-brain can’t draw. It gets too caught up in what it believes to be true about things; what “should” be as opposed to what “is.” Edwards, in addition to being an artist, is a researcher of creativity and perception and has demonstrated through her art workshops that when you remove the left-brain’s influence from a student, their drawing significantly improves and they come away with a global skill (akin to reading, arithmetic, etc) known as perception, seeing and interacting with the world more accurately.
Example: beginners often struggle with drawing faces because they symbolize features rather than actually seeing them (e.g., drawing an eye as an almond shape instead of observing its real contours).
Drawing as a Tool for Perceptual Shifts
Drawing holds the ability to shift the brain into right-mode processing. Edwards notes in her book that it’s no coincidence that, as education budgets for the arts dwindle, our society roots more deeply into left-brain dominated values (simplification, empiricism, objectivity). The cost, of course, is right-brain dominated values (interrelationships, nuance, ecologies).
The five perceptual skills developed through practicing drawing include:
Edges (Seeing contours instead of symbolic outlines)
Spaces (Recognizing negative space)
Relationships (Understanding proportion and perspective)
Light and Shadow (Perceiving values and depth)
The Whole (Seeing how all elements interact together)
Example: When you learn to draw negative space (the empty areas around an object), you suddenly see forms more accurately—a shift in perception, not just skill.
The “Aha” Moment – How Drawing Alters the Way We See
Drawing doesn’t only affect your perception of the subject you’re rendering, but also changes your everyday perception as well. That is, how we view the world. People who practice drawing report noticing shadows, reflections, and spatial relationships in daily life that they never saw before. The world becomes ensouled with rich texture and unique nuance rather than abstractions and symbolic representations.
Research also shows us that practicing visual-perceptual tasks (like drawing) strengthen right-brain functions like intuition, spatial reasoning, and creativity. And because the brain is a holistic organ, learning to strengthen its different parts helps the whole work more effectively.
Overdevelopment of our left-brain has led us to feeling uninspired, rigid in our thinking, rife with stereotypes (overgeneralizing). By bringing our right-brain back online (through practices like drawing), we are bolstering our abilities to solve problems, resolve conflicts, and be flexible because we are perceiving (seeing) things more accurately.
Simple Exercises to Activate Right-Brain Perception
Edwards offers several easy exercises to help you shift into your right-brain through drawing:
Upside-Down Drawing: Draw an image turned upside down to override left-brain interference. The left-brain needs to make sense of things, but when it can’t it designates something as “nonsensical” it usually stops trying and fades out, allowing the right-brain to fill the space and take the lead.
Blind Contour Drawing: Draw an object without looking at the paper to develop true observation skills. By not looking at the paper, you’re preventing the left-brain from analyzing and informing your choices and instead move into a more intuitive, free-flowing rhythm.
Negative Space Drawing: Draw only the spaces around an object instead of the object itself. By focusing on negative spaces you are once again “tricking” the left-brain into going offline, because the left-brain can’t categorize or make sense of the nonsensical negative spaces, and so will ultimately fade away.
Drawing as a Way Forward
If you take away anything from this article, other than Betty Edwards being a genius (a right-brain genius), take this: drawing is not just about artistic skill, it’s about perception and learning to see the world, ourselves, and others more accurately.
So before you close this page and return to your life as usual, consider this: human beings across cultures have been drawing for tens of thousands of years. This leads anthropologists to believe that drawing and other creative expression are innate human drives irrespective of skill and this must be for a reason. There must be some meaning in why age after age drawing continues despite the arts being further and further marginalized within our culture.
I believe drawing helps our brains work more effectively. And perhaps it sounds lofty, but if we can start shifting our perceptions, what else in our world might shift?
For more information on Betty Edwards and her work visit www.drawright.com.
