The Shift In order to learn to draw, one first recognizes that there are two distinct ways of using the brain/eye system: one which dominates our daily lives and is closely linked to language and another one which functions independently of it and in fact would make daily life unmanageable. The latter can be hard to access, but when you're in it, drawing becomes rather natural and stress-free. These contrasting cognitive or perceptual modes are described in the book The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Dr. Betty Edwards. When that book was published in 1979, it was believed that the two cognitive modes corresponded to the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The author had in fact consulted the top expert in that field, Dr. Roger Sperry, who later received a Nobel Prize for his work on the functions of the brain hemispheres. Further research showed that the topography of the brain is less simple than was thought. In other words, cognitive modes do exist but they cannot be ascribed to simple locations in the brain. By that time, however, the book was already a worldwide publishing phenomenon and its inaccurate title had stuck in the collective mind. In classes, we no longer use the terms left and right brain. We speak instead of L-mode and R-mode and there is no question about the usefulness of that distinction. Our aim is for students to first explore R-mode and become familiar with it, and then learn to access it at will. To that end, we set up situations that trick the dominant L-mode into relinquishing control to the less accessible, artistic R-mode. Here is an example. Read the sentence in this triangle and write it on a piece of paper. If you wrote I love Paris in the springtime, you are wrong. What is written there is I love Paris in the the springtime. What happened? Your visual L-mode, seeing familiar symbols on the page, automatically activated its rich network of connections to language (also known as "reading"). In recognizing the pattern of letters and words, it called upon the template for correct English sentences, one of the strongest mental patterns for a native speaker. As a result, you "saw" what was already in your mind instead of what was actually written. If I had asked you to draw the triangle and what was in it instead, you would not have missed the word repetition since you would have had to draw the word the at the right end of the third line and then again at the left end of the fourth line. In R-mode, we notice more of what we see because we do  not name things.     In this other example, the shape at the center of the pattern can be interpreted in two different ways. If the context is horizontal, it's the letter B. If the context is vertical, it's the number 13. Practice seeing it in both ways and shifting back and forth. If you stare at the central shape for a while, you may reach a point where you no longer interpret it either way. It is not a B or a 13. It is just a shape with its straight lines, curves and spaces. At that moment, you are in R-mode.   A powerful way to bring about the experience of L-mode is the deceptively simple exercise calle pure or blind coutour drawing.  Rather than a true drawing, it is a warming-up or "brain-tuning" drill which gently allows you to start using your eyes in a new, more vivid way and notice more of what is in front of you.     You start by following with your eyes, very slowly, a complex contour like the edge of a dandelion leaf or a wrinkle on a crumpled sheet of paper.  At the same time, the tip of your pencil records every turn and variation of that contour, moment by moment, in "real time," but without looking at the marks on the paper.  All your attention remains on the object you are observing.   An immediate benefit of this exercise is that there is no "art project" and no "talent" involved.  Since you cannot see what is happening on the paper, you can relax, stay in the moment and allow yourself to become gradually more absorbed in your visual perceptions.  Beginners are freed from any anxiety or sense of helplessness about the result.  They often report a sense of wonder at the richness and complexity of what they see, as if they had never really looked at anything before.  Even the most experienced artists use this drill as a quick warm-up to tune their brain-eye system to the task of drawing.   For a more detailed description and instructions for this exercise, please see the book mentioned above.  For the mood and flavor of it, please watch the video.