This is a pretty strong opinion, and not necessarily correct. >"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook" [1]. This is a completely wrong way to learn h

This is a pretty strong opinion, and not necessarily correct. >"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook" [1]. This is a completely wrong way to learn how to draw Do you have a source for this? This book has been recommended by a good majority of the drawing/painting professors I had (at a fine arts school). The entire basis of the book is "learn to draw by learning to see". >Do this everyday for 6 months and you will pickup how to think in "3D" so to speak. This isn't bad advice, but not doesn't correlate directly with learning to draw/paint from observation. This is a helpful exercise if you are looking to go more of an illustrative/modeling route. If OP is looking to draw from imagination completely, this would be helpful - but I would still argue that practicing from observation would build a better visual vocabulary than practicing basic shapes only. >But fundamental drawing skills are __critical__ in order to paint well. true >All bets are off if you're trying to do abstract art or non-representational art. Demonstrably false. Every single one of the abstract/non-representational masters have an extremely good grasp of "traditional" (i.e. observational) skills. Even Pollock knew how to draw from life. To OP - I would recommend starting by drawing AND painting from life at the same time. There's no real reason to master drawing before attempting to paint, as painting is essentially drawing with color. That being said, drawing is a great way to force you do as much as you can with a very limited tool box (line, shape, texture, value, space (composition)). Also - don't take anyone's advice as an absolute. There are thousands and thousands of ways to progress as an artist and not a single one of them is "correct". The only constant is to be persistent and self-critical.