Our Old Frenemy: The Human Brain

Our brains get in our ways sometimes when we draw. You'll get a spark of inspiration and suddenly it's gone. You might be so focused on one area that you completely overlook an obvious mistake. Or worst of all: you have a metric ton of ideas of stuff to draw at three o' clock in the morning (srsly, I hate that). Today I'll explain the scientific reasons your brain can sometimes work against you while you're trying to art and some exercises to beat that know it all brat into submission! 

Your Brain Is a Colossal Douchebag

It is. The brain is an amazing organ, but it can be your absolute worst enemy when it comes to drawing, and not for the reasons you think. Here's one thing about drawing: everyone can do it. It's one of those skills that can absolutely be learned by everyone. The top reason people have convinced themselves that they "can't" do it is because they have become frustrated in not drawing what they want realistically. This is called crisis (no I did not make this up lol) and it occurs around the age of 11 or 12, around the age where you gain the magical ability to think abstractly! The brain is split into two hemispheres: the logical as a Vulcan left hemisphere, and the creative Dirty Hippy right hemisphere. The left hemisphere tends to be focused on details, the right hemisphere tends to see things as a whole. And until you are able to recognize a whole thing is made up of the sum of its parts (that is, the theory of gestalt) you will have trouble drawing realistically, especially objects you can see and name. 

Since our brains are experts at interpreting complex things simply to us, we develop a system of symbols that represent objects and ideas. Look at any child's drawing and you'll see universal motifs for the sun, people, trees, clouds, and so on. This is why many adult's drawings look like children did them, they never broke out of the symbol system. This system of symbols isn't necessarily wrong, it's just over simplified. Quick sidebar: children before the age of 11 should not be forced to try to draw things realistically. The way that small children draw is not wrong, do not try to 'correct' them. Young children are not developmentally ready to think abstractly and thus such direction is highly confusing to them. This is the number two reason many people learn to hate drawing. As a child someone (usually an adult being a jerk) stole their thunder.

The Hemispheres

Thanks to the trends in education (American education, that is) more focus has been put into exercising your logical left hemisphere, rather than your whole brain. Now, that's not to say that you can't favor one side of your brain over the other. And there's actually a fun little test you can take to find out which hemisphere you favor more here: www.rit.edu/imagine/brain.php  

Drawing taps into the creative right side of the brain, but you may find that your logical left hemisphere is always bein' Kanye. 

And your right hemisphere is Bill Hader. 

This happens often when we try to draw the human head and face. Yeezy, your left hemisphere, starts telling you that it already knows what an eye looks like and where it goes. It tries to label and organize when it shouldn't, just like Yeezy. When in truth it has absolutely no bearings on where that thing should be placed because it's not a solitary object. That's how we end up with this lil conundrum:  

A Common Mistake

One common mistake that occurs when people are learning to draw the head is chopping off the top of the skull. That is, thinking that the skull stops at the hairline. You've probably seen drawings where the head is flattened toward the top and the face takes up most of the head. That's your left hemisphere saying that the details of the face are super important and therefore the only thing it is paying attention to. 

The top of the model's head has been "chopped off" to demonstrate this error.  Image courtesy of faestock 

When we see images with this mistake we immediately know that there are some issues within the artists's observation of the subject. One way for you to practice breaking out of this error is the following exercise:

• sit in front of a mirror looking straight on
  
• place a hand at your hairline
  
• move your hand up to the crown of your head
  
• your head is suddenly a lot larger than you originally thought huh?
  

I Draw Anime/Style X, Why Should I know How To Do This?

Excellent question my young padawan. Because teaching your brain how to work cohesively is important. Most of the things that I draw as an artist are not from observation, however I've learned to overcome the symbol system that we all have from learning how to draw things the way they look in reality. That does not mean you must translate that into all of your work, it simply means that your brain is getting the kick in the pants it deserves. Case in point, check out this self portrait. 

Three Things To Do To Kick Your Habits

One of the biggest ways to break away from drawing symbols instead of what you see (you should be drawing from observation when you're learning how to draw), is to talk to yourself. All artists are muttering crazy people, didn't you notice?