Vases and Faces

An exercise for the double brain.

1. Draw a profile of a persons head on the left side of the paper, facing toward the centre.

2. Next, draw horizontal lines at the top and bottom of your profile, forming top and bottom of the vase.

3. Now go back over your drawing of the first profile with your pencil. As the pencil moves over the features, name them to yourself: forehead, nose, upper lip, lower lip, chin, neck. Repeat this step at least one. This is an L-mode task: naming symbolic shapes.

4. Next, starting at the top, draw the profile in reverse. By doing this you will complete the vase. The second profile should be a reversal of the first in order for the vase to be symmetrical. Watch for the faint signals from your brain that you are shifting modes of information processing. You may experience a sense of mental conflict at some point in the drawing of the second profile. Observe this, and how you solve the problem. You will find that you are doing the second profile differently. This is right- hemisphere drawing.

Up to the Drawing page.