Besides having a finished work of art you can be proud of, have you wondered if there are other real benefits to learning to draw?

Journey of a Thousand Steps

A lot of people want to learn to draw so they can have a finished piece of artwork to share with others.

It’s a tangible piece of evidence saying “See, I really am an artist,” like having a certificate or diploma to hang on the wall.

But the real benefit of learning to draw isn’t to have a finished drawing. It’s learning to see as artists do.

It’s funny how much it feels like the saying “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

See With an Artist’s Eye

The usual way we look at the world is to identify things out there that can harm or help us.

This kept our ancestors alive by quickly identifying things that wanted to eat them.

But drawing accesses the spatial parts of our brain and we focus instead on shapes and angles of things and their relationships to other things.

We learn to see all the invisible spaces we’re usually unaware of.

Artists really do see things differently. Learning to draw teaches us to see the world in a new way.

When I was teaching one of my students to see negative shapes she told me how she was now seeing things differently. Suddenly the familiar things around her seemed new.

Some famous artists have expressed this same idea:

“Once one had been exposed to seeing a new world opened up.” —Frank DuMond

“I draw in order to better understand what I see.” —Allan T. Adams

Creative Problem Solving

The parts of our brains we use when drawing also help with the abstract process of solving problems. It makes us aware that there’s more than one way to see situations.

Things we thought we understood we can now look at from different perspectives.

Betty Edwards explores this idea of using drawing skills for creative problem solving in her book Drawing on the Artist Within.

A Record of How You See the World

For me the real benefit of drawing is it’s a snapshot of how we see the world. Over time we can see how our view and artistic ability changes and improves.

Finished drawings are a record of our interpretation of our world, at that particular stage of our lives.

I’ve kept written journals over the years and I also have quite a few sketchbooks. Sometimes I’ll read what I’ve written and thumb through my sketchbooks. It’s surprising how I’ll remember different things from my sketchbooks versus my journals.

Something about the slowing down of time and close observation while drawing imprints the experience in my memory.

Danny Gregory has kept many illustrated journals over the years. He writes in his book An Illustrated Life,

“I love to look back through these books I have filled, for they are little time machines. A glance at a page can send me back a decade, and I am fully returned to a moment long gone, re-feeling and seeing and smelling and hearing the experience I had when I was so intently concentrating on my drawing.” – Danny Gregory

If you haven’t done so yet, promise yourself this week that you’ll start to draw and sketch in a sketchbook. Don’t be concerned with your drawing ability. Just dive in. It’ll be a joy to record your life in images from your own eyes and hands.

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