Once upon a time, there was a Japanese salaryman who truly believed he was 100 percent uncreative. Then he took an intensive workshop in Tokyo called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" with an American teacher named Kristin Newton. Every evening he returned home, moved beyond words to discover he could produce the most beautiful work. His English skills improved; friends noticed a new confidence. Last year he followed up with a color course, now seeing the world in a very different way.

"It's a common story," confirmed Newton last Monday, preparing for her next major five-day seminar over Golden Week. "You'd be amazed at the number of people who believe they can't draw. Usually it's because someone criticized them as a child, saying, 'That doesn't look like a tree/house/me,' so stopping them in their tracks."

The workshops are based on the premise that the left brain, which handles logic and reason, always kicks in, reinforcing an individual's belief that they cannot draw. Newton says her methods, evolved by Dr. Betty Edwards in California over the last 20 years, trick the left lobe into shutting up, allowing full rein to the right brain, which is concerned with creativity.