A Little Secret for When You Feel Like You "can't draw"

Every time I show my work, I meet so many people who tell me, “I wish I could do that, but I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” If you’ve ever felt that way, this book recommendation is specifically for you.

It’s called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. When it first came out in 1979, it leaned heavily into the idea that we are either "analytical" left-brained people or "creative" right-brained people. Now, modern science tells us that our brains don't actually work in those strict halves—it’s more of a figure of speech than a medical fact.

So why am I still recommending a book from the 70s?

Because it’s the exact book I used in college that completely transformed how I work. Regardless of the "left vs. right" debate, the core lesson is life-changing for an artist: You have to draw what you actually see, not what you think you know.

When you sit down to draw a car, your analytical brain tries to take over and say, "I know what a car looks like." But this book teaches you how to quiet that voice and instead observe the edges, the negative spaces, and how the light actually hits the surface. It’s about shifting your perspective—and once you see it, everything changes!