Drawing is not just a foundational art skill I encourage all artists to develop, it has countless other benefits.
Hi, my name is Carrie and here on Artist Strong I help artists build their skill and develop their unique voice. Today we are talking about the 5 Reasons You Should Start Drawing Today
Drawing Helps You Learn
There is something about drawing that helps us learn more effectively. Because you not only integrate the new concepts with verbal or written language, you also incorporate it into your visual mapping, information is retained more easily. In one study, students could remember more and better explain information they’d been taught while doodling (and this was no matter their skill level!).
They’ve also found this to be true in the case of adults attending meetings. Drawing while attending a meeting can actually help attendees retain more information and maintain greater focus than those who do not doodle or draw.
Drawing Helps You Brainstorm
If you haven’t heard of mindmapping, it’s a kind of doodle map mixed with visuals and text that can be an amazing tool to help you plan out a project, or develop a new art idea.
Drawing Improves Observational Skills
If you spend time drawing the world around you, it’s much easier to note little details you might otherwise skip. Our brain is a filter of endless stimuli and has to decide what is important for us to notice, and what isn’t. When we start practicing observational drawing skills, we are training our brain to note details, colors, textures we’d otherwise ignore. This practice is literally rewiring our brain to be more observant in our day-to-day lives, not to mention improving our ability to draw realistically!
Historically, naturalists used observational drawing to document the world they observed around them: insects, botanicals, and other animals they wished to learn more about. There is a great free class you can take here if you are completely new or want to get started again.
Drawing Is Fun
What better reason to spend time drawing than because you enjoy it. There are countless approaches to drawing. You can:
- Participate in a local urban sketchers group
- Doodle
- Draw from your day-to-day life
- Keep a sketchbook
And the topics and themes of things you can draw are as endless as your imagination.
Drawing Saves Lives
Making art and drawing isn’t just fun, it literally can change lives. More and more research is showing the benefits of arts programs in schools, and that instead of investing in metal detectors, schools should be investing in arts’ teachers. Bottom line: it helps student behavior without punitive and scary measures like metal detectors.
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Now, I’d love to know: what holds you back from picking up that pencil or pen? Or, how has drawing helped you? Tell me more in the comments below and I’ll see you next time on Artist Strong.
These are all good reasons to start drawing. For me, I’ve pretty much always drawn. Ever since I was a little kid. It’s been frustrating at times (I almost gave up once!), but it’s something I’ve definitely fallen in love with, and I think it’s kind of essential to who I am.
One reason I always keep drawing is I feel like it isn’t really fair to the ideas in my head to let them just sit there and rot. I have a fairly visual imagination, so there’s always something or other dancing around in there, waiting to be made real.
And who else could make it real but me? Even if I try to communicate my exact idea to someone else, they can never make what’s in my head. They could never quite make it just right.
So I draw. I draw even when it’s frustrating. Because if I don’t draw these things in my head, then who will?
And one thing I love about drawing, is you can see your skill improving. And you can look at your work and say “Hey. I did that. I made that.” It’s so incredibly satisfying, and it just makes me feel so very happy. And it’s great, looking at my art and being proud of how far I’ve come, how much better I’ve gotten.
And what makes that even better? When I share it with people, and it makes them happy, too. It makes me really happy when I can make someone smile with my artwork. To know I’m doing something that makes other people happy, too.
In the end, I draw for myself, really. I always tell myself “It doesn’t matter if other people like it, because I like it. And that’s good enough for me.” Self-fulfillment is a great reason to make art, and the one that will keep you going strong. The one that will continue to push you to improve. Not because you want to impress people, but because you have a burning desire to just make art and get better.
And it certainly helps fight Impostor Syndrome, the worry that everyone will hate your art, and that perpetual feel of sharing it as a result. But that positive feedback is still always a nice thing to have. It just shouldn’t be the only reason you make art.
self-fulfillment is a WONDERFUL reason to draw! Thanks so much for sharing Lapis, love all the wisdom you share here.
Hi Carrie, I really enjoyed this post. Very inspiring.
Thank you Dave! I appreciate it.