Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a very well written book which highlights perceptual issues of representing space. It also does a great job of mixing in developemental psychology to help you understand how a human's representation of the world changes as they grow older.
One of the best examples from the book explains why hands in children's drawings of people are always so large. Essentially, as a child focuses more on complex details (each individual finger) they unconsciously enlarge the object in order to fit in all the detail. Its a good illustration of our perception of scale vs scale relative to other objects.
There are plenty of other great observations about the way humans think visually in the book as well.
+1. I think anyone could learn to draw from life by reading and do the exercises from this book. The trick is to stop trying to draw symbols ( left brain ) and draw what you actually see ( right brain )
It's for anyone who ever told themselves they can't draw
The book is a marvel. I read the first edition when I was in college and it taught me more than two semesters of basic drawing taught by an indifferent "modern" artist. In most books that try to teach drawing as a mechanical process, as opposed as a purely "creative" exercise, they seem to leave out a "magic" step that makes things possible. Turns out that it isn't magic, but it is fairly subtle. The books makes a process explicit that is too often left to subliminal happenstance.
Don't mistake, the process is still hard, and requires much effort, but it does remove a lot of the magic feather aspect.
Yeah, what you said. This book is great - I think I went through it about 3 times in High School. Was a gift from my mom. Was happy to see it included.
One of the best examples from the book explains why hands in children's drawings of people are always so large. Essentially, as a child focuses more on complex details (each individual finger) they unconsciously enlarge the object in order to fit in all the detail. Its a good illustration of our perception of scale vs scale relative to other objects.
There are plenty of other great observations about the way humans think visually in the book as well.