A Lesson in Teaching Art Self-Confidence from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Beginning of article

This time it was my dental hygienist. When I asked casually what she had been doing since I saw her last, she said, "taking some courses." She went on to explain that she had completed a drawing course at a local art center using Betty Edwards' (1989) book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. "It [the book] is so wonderful," she said, "the way it makes you feel like you can draw. I'm taking a plain drawing class now. It is not as good." Her's was the most recent of dozens of similar testimonies I have heard since the publication of Edwards' (1979) first edition of the book.

Betty Edwards'(1979, 1989) popular book provides solid drawing exercises carefully sequenced, but they …