(Next page of Lesson Three)

The Supply Store

Lesson Three Introduction,
(continued)

As a warm up, take a glance at example 1. It may look familiar to you, you might even guess who it is. ( I'll tell you below who it is if you don't get it right away.) But notice when you first view the picture, it strikes you as different, interesting, maybe even odd. It's of somebody well-known. All those little areas of light and dark and gray just don't quite add up. You may even have feel a "I think I know who this is", but you just won't be able to name it. Go ahead and take a look at it. Example 1.

And that's an interesting point: had you tried to name the picture you may have felt certain amount of frustration. The verbal, dominant, L-mode gets a little temperamental when it can't do something it normally does "without thinking". Even if you know who it is, the upside down version still looks odd. It's hard to recognize. This throws you into a glitch: L-mode gives up, and R-mode slowly arrives - if it gets the chance. See the picture in it's normal orientation.

Flip Your Own Handwriting

Find an old letter, or write this sentence: "Reading my own writing upside-down is difficult to do. Signed, (then your signature)". Now turn it upside down. It's tough to read isn't it? Some signature forgers have discovered flipping a tough signature gives them better results - at least it buys them a little more time before they go to jail.

In the box, I've reproduced a copy of
the statement above, (yes, it's tough
for me to recognize too)

Ok. I think you're getting the idea. Time for you to get some actual hands on experience. So, set a timer for 30 or 40 minutes, (timers are great, they relieve you of the burden of keeping track of time; and time- keeping is another L-mode function.)

Time to do Your Upside-down Drawing

Making the Most of this Glitch in the Brain

In this lesson, we want to take advantage of this window, this "glitch" in the brain: where L-mode is stumped, and R-mode is awakened. This is another way to get the left brain to abandon the task and let the right side do what it does easily and pleasurably. (That's the point of the upside down drawing lesson - in fact, all these lessons: do what comes naturally and have fun doing it. You might find it more than just fun however.)

In the upside-down drawing, you'll see a drawn reproduction of an old west painting. It's upside down. It'll be the last and most involving upside-down drawing you'll be doing in this section. You'll be drawing it directly from your computer screen. That works for us because it's a lot tougher to flip your monitor over than it is to flip a book or paper right-side up. It'll be harder to "cheat". And "cheating" isn't really the right word. Flipping it right side up only throws you into known territory, and we need to get into the unknown, under-utilized sections of our brains. (I know how I wanted to see the the picture right side up when I first did this exercise.)

Go to the next page and read all the instructions before you start drawing. If you need to print any the pictures, try and resist the temptation to flip them right-side up. If the picture doesn't fit on your computer screen, all the better! Why? because, you'll be drawing it in segments and it'll be even less recognizable, thus allowing you to slip deeply in to R-mode. Let's get on with the drawing lesson.

(Lesson 3 continued)

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