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Japan ASCD 2001 Spring Conference   Feedback
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Kristin Newton)

Participants wrote the following comments (verbatim):
Presentation
“I only regret we don’t have more time. This presentation could perhaps be
scheduled to have more optional basis ? no break out?”
“Very good ? the technique is a good way to help people who are not
confident w/ their drawing to feel confident about their drawing.
 “Very encouraging ? Great sense of humor.”
“Overheads and stories were great. Demonstrations were a little too long ?
but very valuable.”
“She is very excited about her subject.”
“Clear, easy to follow.”
“Drawing negative space was indeed a big discovery. The presentation was
excellent. It was done in a quiet, relaxing atmosphere.”

Materials
“Excellent.”
“Great hands-on.”
“Great overheads and art materials.”
“Great value.”
“The actual practice was done in an encouraging manner and the materials
chosen were very good.”
“Fully developed/adequate.”

Relevance of Content to your Teaching:
“Great for person learning about the mind and how to tone down left brain
influence.”
“Great ideas for helping children to be successful with their drawing.”
“New methods of teaching drawing ? thanks.”
“Feel it will make me think how differently the children learn more often.
Be more patient.”
“to be seen. Hopefully it will help me draw what I see so my on-board
diagrams, etc… look like reality.”
“I’m not an art teacher, but the idea is going to be very useful to share
with my students.”

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5日間ワークショップは就職活動にも効果あり！

就職活動の際に、5日間ワークショップに参加したことが大変役に立ちました。
履歴書の趣味・特技の欄に「観察力や創造力を養うスケッチが趣味。」、その他の資格の欄に「右脳で描け5日間コースを履修」と記入したら、それが珍しかったらしく、私が面接を受けた全ての人事担当者から「右脳で描けって何ですか？」と質問を されました。

ワークショップが単なる絵画教室ではなく、創造力・問題解決能力・発想力・観察力をつけるものであること、そして自分がワークショップで得た経験を説明したところ「自己啓発に熱心なんですね。」と人事担当の方に大変良い印象を与える事ができたようです。

結果、無事に第一志望の会社から内定を頂き就職活動にピリオドをうつ事ができました。

5日間ワークショップって就職活動にも役立つんですね。                                                                     MFさん

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Dear Kristin-san and Koga-san:

Thank you so much for teaching my sons at the workshop.
They have certainly enjoyed it, and I'm glad that they were able to attend all five days despite their health
conditions.

Yukihiro treasures the drawing of his own portrait, and he has placed it besides his bed and looking at it everyday.
He even wanted to bring his sketch book and the drawing kit  to school.  Instead of the sketch book he is drawing on his  note book during short breaks between classes.

I think that the workshop was a good opportunity for them to get acquainted with the profound and joyful world of the
arts.  If there are any other workshops that they might be  interested in--such as color workshop or the kintaroame (?)
workshop--, please let me know.

Thank you again.

Wishing you both a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year,
N S-D

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Thank you so much for what you taught my kids. They will benefit from this for the rest of their lives. I was especially pleased with Riki's progress. Riki is now interested in animation. I believe the drawing class was a big influence. Do you do a color class for kids? I would like to have them continue learning. They were pretty tired, but really enjoyed the class! I want my wife to take the class also.

Thanks,
David

Dear David,
I wish all kids could learn this when they are young.! We will be organizing more children's classes, including color for kids.

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Hi Kristin,
Had some interesting musical experiences with the right brain stuff. I told a musician friend all about the course and the blind contour drawing of your hand. He immediately tried it and said just by doing that exercise, he felt a shift into right brain and that he could suddenly concentrate on music better immediately after. I also have used right brain shift myself when playing music. Looking at the drum kit with all the complex negative spaces really helps me shift into right brain, and hear and feel fast, complex rhythms much easier. Also, being in right brain mode makes me much more sensitive to the sound of everything.
Since taking the class, sometimes there's moments where I hear everything simultaneously just walking in the city.

One strange experience. At night I was walking by a park. Suddenly a black cat ran by and it was completely black so I saw it as purely 2-dimensional! My brain was fooled. It didn't look like a cat, it looked like a black cardboard cutout moving across my path.

Then I wondered if maybe we humans have evolved to NOT see things like Betty Edwards taught us. For many creatures, their lives depend on instantly interpreting that a small movement is actually a snake or an owl or something. Only humans have the luxury of going backwards in evolution and enjoying just experiencing raw data from the eye without having to compare it to abstract symbolic patterns in memory and interpreting it as a predator or food or whatever. But if I rollerskate in the park at night, I have to forget such thinking and instantly judge what it is if I see a dark spot on the ground in front of me, e.g. a stick or just a shadow.

But the tricky thing about music is that sound is a moving target which is disappearing into the air each second. Chairs and buildings stand still so you can draw them. Drawing is 2-D, but music is in the 4th dimension -time.

Humans are limited in movement in time and can only experience more than 1point in time as a memory. I think it would be march harder if in the Drawing Workshop we had to draw a dancing model instead of an unmoving student!

Actually, I have nothing but guesses about the right brain and music! Well, I'm looking forward to the color workshop and seeing you and maybe some of our Drawing classmates again.

Sincerely,

Ted

Dear Ted,

It will be interesting to see how the color class affects your music and perceptions! I've heard that some people can see music as colors!

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Hi Kristin:
Thank you very much for the seminar.  I am so happy my boyfriend
thinks I'm silly. Before the seminar I had no idea how to handle
light and shadow, now I think they are so much fun.

See you later!

Jessica

Dear Jessica,

I hope your boyfriend can take a workshop, too. Then you can both enjoy
light and shadow, as well as drawing together.

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Dear Kristin,
Just got home after a quick dinner out. Thank you so much for a wonderful five days!   Please tell Yoshiko thanks for me, too.  It was a great learning experience and a super group of people. Tonight walking home on the sidewalk along a busy street, I noticed
all the shadows being cast by the street lights through the trees!  I was looking at all the night shades of gray suddenly appearing everywhere!  Even an air conditioning unit with its dark round wheel-like vents....what super nega space! The ticket machines at
Yoyogi station were suddenly set back into the wall in three dimensional diagonals!   Will I recover???  Will I be able to teach tomorrow or will I be focusing on all the desks lined up towards a vanishing point with their tempting negaspace underneath?

Have a good day off....and take care.
With best of best regards,
 Mary Ann

Dear Mary Ann,

Doesn't like become richer after a workshop. Everywhere you look is
interesting. Life will never be boring again!

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Helicopters on the Right Side of the Brain

During the drawing class I was impressed with the similarity of using the right brain for drawing and for flying a helicopter.

During the first approximately 7 to 8 hours of flight training there is an apparent battle between the left and the right side of the brain to determine which side will actually control the helicopter.  Of course, this fact did not become apparent until your explanation of this same battle with regards to drawing.  During the first 8 hours one struggles to muster up all their brain capacity to use logic to control the helicopter. Both feet and both hands are constantly moving and consciously controlling each appendage is a losing battle. One actually begins to believe that they will not be able to learn to control a helicopter.

After a one hour training session one is mentally and physically drained. When speaking with other pilots who have gone through this they all say the same thing.  After about 7 or 8 hours something clicks and one will suddenly be able to control the helicopter.  Of course, I thought that I would be the exception to this and would never be able learn to fly. By the way, I felt
the same way about learning Japanese. After about the first 4 to 6 months of struggling with the language here in Japan, I honestly thought that I would be the only Gaijin that would not be able to learn to speak Japanese.

Sure enough, after about 7 hours, from the next day of training I was able to hover without the mental anguish. Not perfectly, but it is clear that the right brain had suddenly taken over and I could control the helicopter without really thinking about which hand or foot to move. Finally the left brain quiets down and lets the right brain do what it does best. Just like drawing !

David

Dear David,

People often ask me how they can apply the drawing workshop to other things, so I usually mention sports or music, but I never imagined it would apply to flying helicopters! I wish there was a "Learn Japanese in 5-Days Workshop",don't you !

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