Can´t draw for toffee? - 14.09.2007

´Wish I could draw´, ´Can´t draw for toffee´, ´I´m too old to learn´, ´It´s a gift´. These are some of the responses from most people when asked to draw something.

Well, now there is an amazing new five day drawing course starting here in Tenerife, which states we all have the ability. It is not a gift. Everyone can do it, it´s just that you were never TAUGHT!

Did the following scenario happen to you? Your art teacher arranges some objects forming a group for a still life project, saying, ´Draw this´, and giving you very little instruction, if any.

It amounts to giving a child a saxophone and playing a recording of the saxophone break in Gerry Rafferty´s ´Baker Street´ and saying, ´Play that´. We can all imagine the result, and the child´s failure would be dismissed as not being ´gifted´ or as ´having no musical skills´. Was it the teacher  or the student at fault? We all know the answer.

Most people´s drawing skills tend to stop at around eight to twelve years old. Because they were never taught the skills to ´see´ as an artist sees.

So why is it that our drawing skills stop at childish drawings? It´s all in the mind. Many of us know the brain has two sides. The left side is the dominant side, the ´control room´ which is necessary for us to survive, and communicate. While the right side deals with more ephemeral skills like dreaming, imagination, and the ´minds eye´. So when drawing, the dominant left side of the brain has very little time for these ´unnecessary´ skills, and tends to take over. It ´suggests´ that as soon as your drawing vaguely resembles the subject, you can explain it better by using verbal skills, and probably your hands. The secret is to block out this dominant partner. Just as you do when daydreaming. Psychologists will tell you it is actually good for you to switch off the dominant side and relax it for a while.

However, this course is not a lecture on the psychology of drawing, far from it. It is a real ´hands on´ practical drawing class. Apart from explaining why you think you cannot draw, it also unlocks the ´secrets´ of realistic drawing. Secrets your art teacher knew, but never knew how to explain them to you. By actually drawing in this class you will learn how to master the five basic drawing skills required for realistic drawing. It surprises most people that there are only five.

The course will teach you how to acquire these skills, and with practice, these five component skills become integrated into one single skill enabling the student to draw whatever they see. It´s a bit like driving a car. At first you have to master so many things. Gears, brakes, clutch, etc, as well as actually driving. After a while you´re driving and no longer aware of all these separate skills. Learning to draw is much less difficult than learning to drive, and its more fun!

There are no tricks and gadgets, and there is no age limit; anyone from nine to ninty can produce remarkable results. Class sizes are limited to give everyone enough personal attention and the course organizer offers a money back guarantee! The advertisement on page 12 shows the level of improvement ´ordinary´ people have reached in only five days. You can become one of these ´talented´ students by booking a place on this easy, enjoyable, and immensely satisfying course. But hurry, the course in the South of Tenerife will only last for as long as there are people responding. So the best advice is to