The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Betty Edwards [125]
Grid. Evenly spaced lines, running horizontally and vertically at right angles, that divide a drawing or painting into small squares or rectangles. Often used to enlarge a drawing or to aid in seeing spatial relationships.
Hemispheric Lateralization. The differentiation of the two cerebral hemispheres with respect to function and mode of cognition.
Holistic. In terms of cognitive functions, the simultaneous processing of an array of information in a total configuration as opposed to sequential processing of its separate parts.
Image. Verb: to call up in the mind a mental copy of something not present to the senses; see in the “mind’s eye.” Noun: a retinal image; the optical image of external objects received by the visual system and interpreted by the brain.
Imagination. A recombination of mental images from past experiences into a new pattern.
Intuition. Direct and apparently unmediated knowledge; a judgment, meaning, or idea that occurs to a person without any known process of reflective thinking. The judgment is often reached as a result of minimal cues and seems to “come from nowhere.”
Key. In drawing, the lightness or darkness of an image. A high-key drawing is light or pale in value; a low-key drawing is dark or low in value.
Learning. Any relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience or practice.
Left Hemisphere. The left half (oriented according to your left) of the cerebrum. For most right-handed individuals and a large proportion of left-handed individuals, verbal functions are in the left hemisphere.
L-Mode. A state of information processing characterized as linear, verbal, analytic, and logical.
Negative Spaces. The areas around positive forms that share edges with the forms. Negative spaces are bounded by the outer edges by the format. “Interior” negative spaces can be part of positive forms: For example, the whites of the eyes can be regarded as interior negative spaces useful for drawing the irises.
Nonobjective Art. Art that makes no attempt to reproduce the appearance of real-life objects or experiences or to produce the illusion of reality. Also called “nonrepresentational art.”
Perception. The awareness, or the process of becoming aware, of objects, relations, or qualities—either internal or external to the individual—by means of the senses and under the influence of previous experiences.
Picture Plane. An imaginary construct of a transparent plane, like a framed window, that always remains parallel to the vertical plane of the artist’s face. The artist draws on paper what he or she sees beyond the plane as though the view were flattened on the plane. Inventors of photography used this concept to develop the first cameras.
Realistic Art. The objective depiction of objects, forms, and figures attentively perceived. Also called “naturalism.”
Right Hemisphere. The right half (oriented according to your right) of the cerebrum. For most right-handed individuals and a large proportion of left-handed individuals, spatial, relational functions are in the right hemisphere.
R-Mode. A state of information processing characterized as simultaneous, holistic, spatial, and relational.
Scanning. In drawing, checking points, distances, degrees of angles relative to vertical or horizontal, relative sizes, etc.
Sighting. In drawing, measuring relative sizes by means of a constant measure (the pencil held at arm’s length is the most usual measuring device); determining relative points in a drawing—the location of one part relative to some other part. Also, determining angles relative to the constant’s vertical and horizontal.
Split-Brain Patients. Individuals who had been suffering from intractable epileptic seizures and whose medical problems were relieved by a surgical operation. The procedure separates the two hemispheres by severing the corpus callosum. The procedure is rarely done and split-brain patients are few in number.
States of Consciousness. A largely unresolved concept, consciousness is