Drawing Out Insight - " Drawing on the Artist Within" by Betty Edwards

A few years back I received the book by Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Artist Within." It sat on a shelf for a while, then I decided it was high time I pick it up and not only actually read it, but do it. So I did. One of the chapters, Chapter 7, "Drawing Out Insight" contained an exercise that I thought the results were pretty cool.

George Orwell suggested in his essay "New Words," that each of us has an outer life and a inner mental life. Our outer life expressed by the use of language and the mental expressed by another by the use of thought or better yet thought about feelings that rarely come to surface because ordinary words can't express its complexity. The purpose of this exercise is to get the inner life to surface by using visual language. Drawings in this case. ( ok I can hear you now..."I can't draw a straight line." Doesn't matter.)In other words, you are going to make your inner thought visible with lines.

So... ready?
Here's what you need:
8x10 sheet of paper
pencil
eraser
15-20 minutes

Step 1 - Read all
the way through first. Fold the paper in 8 sections

2. Number and label each section as shown. 1. Anger  2. Joy  3. Peacefulness  4. Depression  5. Human Energy  6. Femininity  7. 9. Illness  8. is your choice, jealousy, love,fear, anxiety, any human characteristic or emotional state. Don't worry, I can feel your anxiety now, there is no right or wrong, good or bad. It will be right because it will be right for you.

3. You are only allowed to use marks or lines for each characteristic.You may use the tip of your pencil, the side, broad strokes, skinny strokes, light dark, etc.
There is a catch. YOU CAN NOT DRAW ANY PICTURES! No raindrops, no flowers, no hearts,no symbols. Using lines only, straight, curvy, light dark, short, fast, broken...etc.

Edwards suggests reading the word for each section: Anger and think back to a time you were really angry. Take it out on the pencil and paper with LINES only. Imagine that emotion again, from deep down, traveling to your arm, down to your hand and onto the pencil - "marks that look like the felt emotion." Don't try to censor the marks, they are private, unless you wish to share them. She also suggests "Do not try to visualize beforehand what the completed drawing will be like." Remember there is no right or wrong and no one has to see them.

In my next posting I will show you my images and that of some others from the book. If you like and want to share here please do, I will be happy to post them. What I found fascinating was... well.. you'll just hafta wait until the next posting : )


Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Artist Within. 1st. New York: Simon & Schuster,Inc, 1987.