Betty Edwards

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Betty Edwards (born in 1926 in San Francisco, California) is an American art teacher and author, best known for her 1979 book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She taught and did research at the California State University, Long Beach^[1] until she retired in the late '90s. While there, she founded the Center for the Educational Applications of Brain Hemisphere Research.

She received a Bachelor’s in Art from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, 1947), a Master's of Art from California State University, Northridge, and a Doctorate in Art, Education, and Psychology from UCLA (1978).

Betty Edwards' major publications include: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 1979 (revised and reprinted in 1989 and 1999), Penguin Putnam; Drawing on the Artist Within, 1986, Simon & Schuster; Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook, 1998, Penguin Putnam; and Color: Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors, 2004, Penguin Putnam. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has remained the dominant book on its subject, used as a standard text in many art schools, and has been translated and published in many foreign languages, including French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. Her company, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, develops special drawing tools, materials, and videos to help individuals learn to draw.

An artist and painter, she taught at high school level in the Los Angeles public school district (Venice High School), then at community college, and from 1978 until her retirement in 1991, in the Art Department at California State University, Long Beach. All of her teaching experience has been in art: drawing, painting, art history, art-teacher training, and color theory. In addition to teaching drawing workshops around the world, she has also done business consulting with major national and international corporations to enhance creative problem solving.

Betty Edwards has a son and a daughter, and two granddaughters. Her interests other than drawing and art in general include gardening, cooking, and reading. She lives near San Diego, California.

[edit] Theories on drawing and brain function

Edwards uses the findings of modern brain research as an organizing principle for her system, and is especially guided by Cerebral hemisphere and split-brain research which suggests that the two hemispheres of the brain have different functions (see Lateralization of brain function). She proposes exercises to bring out the creative abilities of the right side of the brain, as opposed to the analytic and logical abilities of the left brain.

Although some skeptics consider her underlying theory to have elements of pseudoscience, she has sold millions of copies of her books and countless readers have found the exercises and learning techniques of her system are effective in teaching the basic principles of drawing, even to people who have previously exhibited no drawing ability.^{[citation needed]} A practical advantage of her teaching method is that while the exercises themselves are based on classic systems of drawing instruction, she presents them in a simple and logical manner that makes them easier to learn.

Her work has been cited in scholarly journals.^{[citation needed]}