Rating: 
Summary: A must get
Review: In this book, Betty Edwards gives you a in depth study of the function of the brain and the relation between the brain and your artistic abilities. She goes to the extreme saying that all people can draw fairly good where many people who believe they can not draw at all, actualy can be excellent drawing artists. With a doctors degree she realy goes deep into the technical aspects to form a platform for her teaching. The book is full of illustrations done by her students. What I enjoyed most in this book is the concept of shifting your mind from a left-mode to a right-mode and the exercises she gives to make that possible. Her lecture on shapes and negative spaces also put you in a mind shift making it possible to view everything visible in life in a different way. This book is a stunning book in conjuction with Lee Hammonds book, 'How to draw lifelike portraits from photographs'. Edwards realy opens the strength of your artistic side where Lee Hammond teaches the core facts of HOW to achieve that lifelike likeness. Get both !!
Rating:
Summary: Practical, to the point, effective and interesting!!!
Review: This book is a must have, not only for people interested in learning how to draw but also for those interested in the psychology around the skill. The book explains really clearly how the drawing process works and develops, and how to achieve great results if you feel you don't have the natural skill. I have taken many drawing lessons and I already apply many of the principles in this book, however, I found it very refreshing and I enjoyed doing the exercises very much!!! I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Drawing Out Hidden Talent
Review: When my wife, an artist, received this book recently as a gift, we both had a good laugh over it, for Emma is self-taught and extremely talented in many areas of artistic expression. Good-natured and a voracious reader, she cracked open the book and was pleasantly surprised by what she learned about herself and the way humans visually perceive things. Drawing On The Right...can't turn no-talents into featured artists at big-city galleries, but it can open the doorway between the creative mind and worried hands and allow those who "can't draw a straight line" to find delight in doing simple portraits or design where there was little aptitude for these things before. Emma thoroughly enjoyed the simple exercises and her work underwent an immediate leap towards the refinement of her style. It also helped her experiment artistically with styles she'd never explored before. I relented and read it myself, amazed at my own progress with simple line drawings and determining the placement of shadow. She'll always remain the artist, but now I can better express my own ideas on paper with brushes or graphite, sketching for my own enjoyment or giving her outlines she can flesh out for me with colors and shadows. Not entirely an instructional guide, Drawing...reads nothing like a boring textbook and ventures into fascinating studies of people who've suffered brain injury and how this affects perception. A fantastic and highly recommended book for artists (even great ones), art therapists, art teachers, beginning artists, or anyone who ever thought they had no talent or couldn't accomplish anything. This book gives hope where there was none before, can boost self-esteem, and improves near-perfection in art.
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