I truly believe that anyone who wants to learn to draw can do so in about an hour or so by following the simple guidelines that I will present in this article.

Now, I’m not talking about drawing a circle, a cone, and a bunch of upside down ‘U’s which can form the basis of a picture of a chicken. I’m talking about good quality portrait type drawing that you will so proud of and so amazed by that you will be compelled to draw every day for the rest of your life!

If you want to learn how to draw in just one hour I suggest that you start with the exercise that is presented in Chapter 4 of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, a book by Betty Edwards. It’s an exercise in drawing an upside down drawing of a Picasso drawing of a famous composer. Just the fact that you will be drawing a Picasso drawing that will look very much like a Picasso drawing should get your juices flowing.

Dr. Edward’s book should be available at your local library or you can purchase it from my affiliate store at Amazon.com.

I love to draw but I wanted to learn how to draw better. I’d heard great things about “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. I visited her website and was intrigued by the before and after results of her students. I checked it out from my local library and came away so impressed that I ordered it the next day on Amazon.   I was blown away by the results of my first assignment. Interestingly enough, Dr. Edwards predicted that I would be (I’ll quote her exact words in a moment).

My instructions were to turn the picture (a reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of Igor Stravinsky) upside down and then copy all the lines without trying to figure out what I was looking at. I was told to focus on the shapes and not on what those shapes represented. For example I was instructed to forget that I was drawings hands and eyes and just focus on the fact that I was copying lines and shapes.

“I can confidently predict that you will be pleased with your drawing, especially if you have thought in the past that you would never be able to draw.” – Dr. Betty Edwards.

P.S. – My actual result was B&W and much truer to the original but I was so pleased that I decided to add some color and bling it up a bit.

Here are just a few of the comments I’ve received from people who have seen my drawings:

I read this book many years ago and was also amazed that I could in fact “draw”. Prior to reading the book I had no chance of drawing a human face that actually resembled a *real* face – maybe It could’ve passed for some abstract representation of a face – but human? not possible. So I read the section on drawing a human face and was blown away with what I actually drew!!!    Jason 66

“I like your drawings/pictures, COOL. I especially like the ones of the girl on the weighing scales and the one above it. The angle of the girl on the scales is difficult because of the fore shortening involved in recreating this angle. It is no simple task capturing this angle, congratulations on your success. I love the bold use of marks, the mark making in the hair is very exciting and dynamic, the hair is a fine example of mark making used well, many people find this difficult because they often over do it. The right brain is a bit like your profile image your right side is empty but part of something whole, I would say that it is under-utilized space, brain space where new thinking can take place by trying to utilize it. Betty Evans produced a book that offers people the opportunity to make more use of the right hemisphere of the brain and enable new synaptic pathways/connections to be established this process also produces dopamine, which is also attributed to feelings of pleasure this in it’s self is encouraging.” G. Pritchard

“I love this book and have used it to teach 12 year-olds to draw… magic! Especially for kids who think they can’t draw. When I read this, I thought “This is what I have always thought, but couldn’t explain it to anyone.”  Rochelle Frank

“Interesting…I’ve never heard of this. I taught myself to draw very slowly…but looking at your first drawing and comparing it to subsequent ones, I’m pretty damned impressed. Well done. I might have to get this book and see what it does for me…”  Spryte

“My goodness, this is amazing stuff, in how the brain works.  I am not an artist, but would looove to learn how to draw; my sister is an artist, as is my mate, so will check the book out.  Loved your drawings!” Violet Sun

“Awesome art pieces. I really liked Betty Edwards’ book as well. I heard her talk in a conference some years ago, and ordered her book immediately after. Her art techniques are not only effective for learning how to draw, but I found them to be very useful in helping me be more creative. By following her simple steps, I was able to pop out of my usual train of thought, and start considering common topics from different perspectives. Very useful read.”  Shibashake

“I’m really impressed with your drawings and your glowing review of this book. Will definitely have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!” Sarah Guy

“The Betty Edwards book is on my holiday gift giving for both sis and my spouse; haven’t told them about his hub, hard to keep my mouth shut as I enjoy sharing, but have to, in order to surprise them with the gift. LOL!” Violet Sun

P.S. If you order through my Amazon.com affiliate site you will win a prize worth $50.