Miracles when the penny drops

Such a waste if everything I’ve learned is lost,” says Marianne Snoek. It’s all now in her book.
PHOTO STUDIO KASTERMANS/DANIELLE VAN COEVORDEN
The artist was one of those people who believed she couldn’t draw. “I grew up in a house where
there wasn’t a single colored pencil or piece of paper,” she laughs. Over twenty years ago, just before
she was about to start her training as a fashion designer, she borrowed a book from the library:
‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards. She had borrowed it to practice fashion
drawing. “A world opened up for me, drawing was such a discovery. I felt ‘this is where I belong’.”
Community Centers
The fashion training was canceled and she started teaching in community centers. Since then, she has
never been without work as a teacher and has developed herself as an artist. Successfully: in 2019,
she was one of the fifty nominees for the prestigious Dutch Portrait Prize. “I am still fascinated by
Betty and understand her ideas better and better.”
The vision is that everyone can learn to draw if you learn to see differently. “In daily life, we use our
rational left brain a lot. But the ability to perceive well and draw lies in our right brain.” With the
teaching method, you learn to switch from the left to the right side. In the book (as well as in physical
lessons), Snoek teaches her readers the necessary skills step-by-step with practical exercises. ‘And
then little miracles happen,’ according to students featured in the book. Otherwise, be convinced by
the photo showing two self-portraits made by a student before and after the course.
Negative Space
Edwards’ method is still the basis. “I stand on her shoulders and have refined the method with my
teaching experiences.” For example, Snoek added extra exercises to topics her students found
difficult. “Lesson two is about seeing negative space. When you see a chair, you don’t draw the legs
and seat, but the space between the legs and the seat. Your left brain thinks ‘that is air and you can’t
draw that.’ I devised a trick to outsmart the ‘left side’,” she explains. “But it really takes years before
you think of that.” It would be a shame if everything she has learned and discovered was lost. Hence,
a book.
Vogue
The script was already on the shelf. “Two versions, both reviewed by students,” she reveals. During
the corona time, she wrote the third version in three months. “We were already far along with the
design and illustrations when I saw the documentary ‘Franca: Chaos and Creation’ about Vogue and
knew ‘this is how I want it.’” It had to become a work of art in itself with an avant-garde style. And it
did; a beautiful look, read, and activity book with many QR codes and links to more explanations,
video instructions, a Facebook group, and even a ‘playlist’ with classical music for drawing. “But of
course, you can choose other music.” The private Facebook group is mainly intended to share
experiences and work with other students or to ask Snoek questions.
“I not only get people in class who think they can’t draw, sometimes they are artists who have a
painting block. In all those cases, the method works, it is almost therapy. The (re)discovery of their
artistry means a lot to people. It is nice to teach people to draw, but there is also a spiritual side to it.
When you work from your right brain, you are being creative, learning new things, and that makes
you happy as a person. Our left ‘rational’ side has made us rich, but the right side will make us happy.”
Hundred Days
Following that is the Master ‘Learn to Draw’ and the workbook of the same name (released early
May).
“After reading the book or taking a course, it is quite difficult to draw regularly. Now the theory says
that if you do something for a hundred days, it becomes a habit.” With exercises for those hundred
days and rewards (secret!) Snoek wants to help make drawing a habit.
BOOK Learning to draw with the Marianne Snoek method
Miracles when the penny drops
Drawing? You can either do it or you can’t. That’s what many people think. But that’s not true, knows
artist Marianne Snoek (1952). She has been teaching a method for twenty years that she believes can
teach anyone to draw well.

Self-portrait of a student, left before and right after the course.

The vase, drawing upside down, and more, all exercises from the method.