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pinkpolka234 In reply to ??? [2010-09-26 14:56:57 +0000 UTC]

I didn't like it. Lots of words and meaningless exercises. Practicing is much better. Basically...if you can't draw worth a flip read it. However if you already know the basics of art you are better off practicing and reading technique books. That book is really more psychology than anything close to drawing skills.

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odd-socks In reply to pinkpolka234 [2016-04-05 10:28:46 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for saying that!! I've always had a love-hate relationship with that book, and it's great to read somebody who doesn't treat the book's combination of good exercises and ridiculous advice as gospel.

I think the perceptual exercises in themselves are excellent but Betty Edwards' ideas on what constitutes creativity in art and how artistic development works are actively damaging to young artists. Yes,  improving your perceptual skills is an essential skill for  illustrators, but so is construction, perspective, careful modelling of form, anatomy and all that other crap  .

She makes a point that "genius artist" types like Da Vinci were so good because drew exactly what they saw which is total crap:  almost every "genius" western artist working before the fin-de-siecle was a highly trained draftspeople relying on a combination of observation and traditional drawing techniques , and even then most of them got famous because they had something new to offer/  Anyhow, good artists should control and improve upon nature, even when they are creating representational art. One could argue that controlling the page is the thing which stops art being redundant in the first place. And then she makes this point that once you've masted the skills in the book (which, tbh, you aren't going to master by just doing the exercises over and over again, as painful experience taught me, since this book was my only guide during my mid-teens), you'll be to draw like a master, when all you'll be able to do is copy masterworks fairly accurately. She says that the only other thing to doo will be to learn to draw from memory and imagination, as if that isn't a skill that takes huge amounts of training and time to become good at.

To my mind, becoming good at anything is a matter of carefully laying down the appropriate neural pathways by carefully practising all the underlying skills, focusing on your weaknesses. Creativity is what other people perceive when you express yourself freely and are continuously productive, and also have achieved enough basic competence that lack of skill doesn't get in the way.

Or at least, I think that's how it works. I can handle a graphite pencil fairly skillfully, am good at old-timey draftmanship and can copy masterworks and "steal" other people's artstyles fairly successfully, but I can't paint for toffee and am still figuring out how to conceptualise original pieces and develop a style/product other people would actually want. I think  some of the keys are developing pieces step by step and being able to concentrate and stick with them for as long as it takes, which I absolutely would not have been  able to do at age 21, even if I knew  what to do and had developed the appropriate muscle memory.

I've always been jealous of "natural" talents like Aquasixio, who hit on something awesome early on, and continue to build technical skills while already creating awesome art. The oekaki boards tended to bring out a lot of these people, probably thanks to all the immediate feedback and technique swapping.   But, then again, slow progress is still progress, right? Not to downplay how amazing these tutorials are, but it's likely to take most people years and years to hit on something that works for them.

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AquaSixio In reply to ??? [2010-09-20 19:02:47 +0000 UTC]

No, I don't. What is the subject of this book ?

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snadwuch In reply to AquaSixio [2010-09-21 09:08:56 +0000 UTC]

It is written by a psychologist who teaches many people how to draw with the right side of the brain which in turn has you drawing left handed, while unlocking the ability in the brain. It is a good read. My first psychology year it was recommended to me for an assignment I was doing.

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AquaSixio In reply to snadwuch [2010-09-21 15:34:27 +0000 UTC]

Interesting ! Thank you for the reference

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