Why learn to draw?

Drawing helps you explain concepts, illustrate new ideas, create new designs, and communicate thoughts in ways words can't. And schools can easily integrate drawing with the rest of what students learn.

Hold your keyboards. I realize this isn’t particularly original. Tons of artists have done it, and that’s what inspired me. So much that back in 2011 I took a similar challenge for over a year on tumblr, and that helped me a lot in developing my drawing skills.

One last thing before getting started, I should warn you that I’m not a professional illustrator, I’m a just a designer who loves drawing. That’s exactly why I wanted to write about this, specially because I think you (yes, YOU reading this!) should also start drawing today. In this article (and these videos) I’ll tell you not just why, but also how you can get started finding ideas, energy and time.

Many believe drawing is a talent, meaning it’s an ability you’re born with, even though that sounds kind of cool and exclusive — like a superpower — I don’t think it’s true. Personally, I believe drawing is a skill, which means that it’s something obtainable. Anyone can pick it up, learn, improve and eventually become great at it. No matter your background, all it takes is time and practise. Lots of time, and lots of practise.

Think about the most talented artist you know, how do you think they became that good? Did they came out of the womb with a little pencil on their ear, and sketchbook with a beautiful portrait of the doctor delivering them? Were they painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel when they were toddlers?Of course not, they couldn’t even climb stairs. They became good with time and practise.

The one thing I believe makes the biggest difference is passion, once you fall in love with drawing (or anything else for that matter), you don’t care how much time you spend doing it, and the more you do it the better you become.

Have you ever had a drawing class? Other than teaching you about theory, technique and materials, they’re all about repetition. You have to draw the same things over and over. Why is that? Because that’s how you become better.

👏Rep👏e👏ti👏tion.

All that to say, forget about your preconceptions about whether or not you think you have the talent, if you want to draw, all you have to do is get started.

Don’t expect to be amazing when you’re just starting, and don’t compare yourself with other people. Look at the drawing you did yesterday and just try to be better than that.

Probably the first question in your mind. What’s the point? Aren’t all artist struggling and starving anyway? Why should you even bother learning a skill that can’t do much for you? What can drawing really do for you?

Drawing is relaxing, it helps taking your mind off things. When you’re drawing you’ll notice that time flies, your mind starts to drift and you’re focused on drawing rather than thinking about all those things that just bring you down. This can be specially helpful if you deal with anxiety, depression or stress. After a good drawing session your mind is a lot more clear than when you started.

Sometimes it’s difficult to put our emotions or feeling in words, or we just don’t want to do that. Drawing gives you a mean to self-reflect and externalize your emotions that is completely personal and doesn’t require you to be able to translate emotions into words. As you’re releasing your emotions you might also discover a few things about yourself. Drawing can be an exercise of self-discovery.

There’s a big miss-conception that drawing is reserved for professionals that are in a “creative” field. Whatever that means, I think it’s wrong.If your job includes things like presenting, pitching an idea, or even giving a report, I think drawing can help you

All these things can be conveyed by storytelling, which in my opinion is the most efficient way to get your point across. Simply because people will remember stories better than a random assortment of information.

With that said, do you know what helps you tell a story? A picture.Do you know what helps making pictures? Drawing!

Sure, you can dive on the internet and find an assortment of stock images, pixelated drawings and memes that kind of match your story but that’s what everyone else does. If you want to be memorable, you can just draw it. Trust me, people will remember it, specially if your point is something super specific.

Here’s an example I drew a while back for work, to illustrate the idea of our user needs outgrowing a tool they’re using.

Personally I think a crappy drawing that illustrates exactly what you mean is a thousand times better than a beautiful stock photo that kind of matches it.

Last but not least, learning how to draw will open your eyes to a new world.You’ll look at artists, illustrators and designers and not just appreciate more what they do, you’ll be better at telling apart the good from the bad ones.

A drawing that takes a couple hours to make doesn’t cost just that, it costs artists years of practise, experimentation, research. Not to talk about paying for supplies and even art school. As you learn how to draw, not only you’ll be able to better understand the value of that work but you’ll be able to start doing it for yourself.

The only downside you’ll find, sooner or later, will be your “good friends” might start asking you to make stuff for free, so as you learn how to draw, it’s also good to practise how to say “no”.

I hope you’re onboard, now before we grab our supplies we just need to find some time and energy.

You’re a busy person, the day doesn’t have enough hours for you to start learning how to draw. Should you just give up? Hell no!

You can start trying to find empty/mindless pockets of your day when you are somewhat idle, some of my personal favourites are:

While I have my breakfast I don’t really need my two hands, so I’ll often reach to my iPad and start doodling around. It’s a good way to clear your mind to start the day. Same deal goes for my espresso breaks after lunch and dinner.

Another good moment is during meetings. When I’m not presenting, drawing helps me clear my mind and focus on what is being said. For some reason this also helps me remember it better afterwards, even if what I’m drawing is totally random and not related with what is being discussed.As a bonus, doing this has been helpful whenever I want to take notes, since the pencil and paper are already ready to go, they will just have a bunch of drawing around it.

As a father of a very active 2-year-old girl, I understand that a day can fly by without many moments to actually stop and draw, specially in our current reality of self-isolation. If you can’t relate, good, more time for you to draw.

If you’re like me, after the little one goes to sleep, you’re tired and you just want to watch some Netflix, or some Youtube videos and chill. Do you know what you can do while you watch a movie? You can draw!

Impossible, you say? How many times did you check your phone while you were watching that movie? How much time did you spend looking at your phone vs the actual movie? See where I’m going?

No shame though, we all do it. Every once in a while I just replace my phone with my iPad, and instead of browsing Instagram I just draw something. You can even draw inspiration from the thing you’re watching.

Are you too tired? No energy left? I’ve got a secret for you, drawing is more mental than physical, and as I mentioned before, it can help you clear your mind from all the things that will stop you from falling asleep, like scrolling the news…

Give it a go, try to get some drawing done before you go to bed, and see how much faster you fall asleep after you clear up your mind.

Alright, still with me? Time, check! Energy, also check, now what?

I know, an empty page is one of the scariest things you can show to an artist (or artist wannabe like me) because the possibilities are endless, and you don’t want to mess it up. You want to make it count.

My daily drawing saga secret is simple, I go to this website, I generate a random word and then I draw it, or at least I try. One thing that helps me unblocking is having a prompt, after that is up to you to interpret it in the way you want.

Since I’m doing this for fun and without any kind of expectations, I like to vary my approach both in drawing style, but also in the way I interpret the prompt. Here are some ideas on ways that you vary and enrich your approach to a drawing:

You can be literal and draw exactly what the prompt describes, which kind of means that you’re a bit dependent on the prompt in order to make something interesting. On the other hand, you can go for a visual metaphor, something that might be less obvious but more interesting, because you’re giving it an actual interpretation and giving your viewer a challenge to unlock when they’re looking at your drawing.

Usually when my prompt is a boring object, I like to imagine it as a person. It’s an easy way to turn something that can be banal into something a bit more interesting, sometimes funny and cute, other times just disturbing.

Not literal eggs, but things that have some hidden meaning, and can be snuck into your drawing without most people realizing they’re there. This can add a lot of richness to your piece, as it adds another level for your viewer to unlock.

Either a drawing is part of a pattern or there’s a pattern within the drawing. Both are interesting, the first because you have to think how to make something that is repeatable, the second because it usually brings another dimension and texture to your piece.

Key to consider, specially if you’re drawing a character. It’s so much more interesting and lifelike if they’re actually doing something, rather than just “being there”. If you do it right, this can add a lot character and personality to your piece, as well as reinforcing the point you’re trying to make.

This relates a bit to the previous point. It’s very important, specially if you’re posting online. Think about where it’s going to live, what’s the format and how you can create a balanced composition.

If you ever read any of my other articles you know this is one of my favourites. It’s also a never ending process of self discovery.Draw yourself, doesn’t need to be accurate, doesn’t need to look like you, just needs to represent the real you.

I already hinted towards this when I talked about drawing whilst watching something. You can take your favourite character, personality or anything else that you love and make your interpretation on it. This is basically the drawing version of a song cover, and as with the song, the most important thing is that you make it your own, don’t just rip off other people’s work.

There are tons of other ways to introduce variety and significance to your drawings, but I hope these can already help you get started.

Now, you know what to draw. There’s only one thing left to figure out. How? How the heck to you get started?

Disclaimer! I’m not an authority on this, different people will have a different approaches, but I’m going to share a simplified version of the way I draw, which I believe makes drawing more accessible to anyone.

It all starts with very basic shapes. No matter what you’re trying to draw, you can always narrow it down to a few simple shapes. Let’s start with a person, because I think that’s the thing I draw the most, and probably one of the most drawn things in the world. Humans are the centre of the universe after all, am I right?

If you can, grab something you can draw with, a piece of paper, a pencil, a pen, an iPad… anything that can help you follow along.

Draw a stickman, I’m 100% sure you can draw one just like this one.But try to keep it light, so you can build on top of it.

Super easy. Barely an inconvenience. Right? I knew you could draw!

Next let’s try to add a bit more body to this figure. Nobody is that skinny. You can do that by replacing the stick body for a rectangle. Keep it light though, we’ll build on top of this.

Ok, I’m sure you’re killing it. Now let’s try to go around this guy and give him some meat on his legs and harms. You can also give him some clothes, shoes, a neck, a nose and some hair, if you like. Just draw a few simples lines this these:

See? Not rocket science. Now we can use this as a template and make anyone we want, let’s make me.We can also make me less flat by adding a bit of volume. Let’s imagine the light comes from the top right, and paint the shadow in the opposite side.

That gives him a whole new dimension. Also, it’s not far from what I draw on the daily basis, so you’re already on my level. Congrats!

Let’s look at the same process for something that is a bit more weird looking, like a hand.

1 Stick-hand, 2 Give it some meat, 3 Give it some volume and 4 You’re done.

One last exercise. Let’s imagine you got the most boring prompt possible, like the word banana. Can you draw a banana?

It’s pretty easy, just a few curved lines that meet each other and you’re done. Now… how can we make this interesting?

How about turning this banana into a banana-man? We’ve been through this, just draw a stickman over the banana in a way that it could be someone wearing a costume. Don’t forget to consider a meaningful pose before you draw your stickman.

Ok… that kind of looks like me… I guess I can’t help it.Now let’s give it some colour and volume, making the shadow parts darker, and adding a bit of highlight in the brightest spots.

No matter what age you are, or what level your artistic skills are at, drawing can help improve so many aspects of your life! What are the amazing positive effects gained through tapping into your creativity? Here are our TOP 11 reasons to start drawing today!

Yes, this is a real thing that drawing can do for you! Though there are many different ways to stimulate your brain, drawing is a very effective method for activating multiple parts of your brain at once.

Studies have shown an overall increase in gray matter in the brains of people who regularly engage in artistic hobbies or careers. (Gray matter—named for its pinkish-gray color—is home to neuronal cell bodies, axon terminals, and dendrites, as well as all nerve synapses.)

This means that drawing regularly will help you keep your brain healthy and growing gray matter!

Creating art requires you to use your imagination efficiently. By using your imagination to come up with ideas, you improve your ability to visualize and process your own inner thoughts.

Drawing enables you to express these inner concepts visually and continue developing your creativity.

Engaging in drawing or other artistic activities can help to improve your recollection skills. Research suggests drawing has even been found to be helpful for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

This is because drawing forces us to utilize our ‘mental storage’ skills to recall a range of techniques and artistic knowledge. Subconsciously, this process of revisiting our visual library and artistic imagination helps our brain strengthen its ability to remember things.

Art is a great tool for people to explore and express their emotions. Drawing can help you communicate your inner thoughts to others, not just visually, but also by giving you time to better process them.

This introspection can be very healthy for growing your emotional intelligence overall. The use of visual language for communication is also a powerful way to communicate without cultural and verbal boundaries.

Drawing can provide you with the escapism needed to mentally remove yourself from the stress of everyday life. Releasing your daily stress through creativity is a great way to boost your mental health, as well as to help manage mental illnesses.

Creativity is very effective for this purpose as it requires you to focus fully on your project, rather than letting your brain run wild with anxious thoughts.

A great way to keep yourself motivated and calm when practicing drawing each day is to follow along with guided video lessons.

The creative process often requires a lot of trial and error to achieve the desired visual results, especially as there is often more than one solution to every problem.

This motivation to achieve a certain aesthetic drives us to think outside the box and solve a range of different technical problems.

Because of this, growing your critical thinking skills through art is an effective way to widen your perspectives and improve your adaptability overall in life.

There is a common misconception that it is only children who need to work on their fine motor skills. However, this is not actually the case. Adults also can work to improve these skills!

Drawing and painting require you to develop more efficient, precise hand movements. This actually improves your brain’s ability to send information regarding specific movements you want to make with your body.

Drawing has been known to increase your positive emotions and decrease your negative emotions by creating a feeling of accomplishment.

Each time you create something new or progress in your drawing skills, your brain produces feel-good hormones. Because of this, individuals who draw regularly are more likely to be relaxed and optimistic.

Artists in general are known for being quite observant of their surroundings. This is because individuals who study artistic techniques are more likely to have an understanding and interest in lighting, shading, color, and many other aspects foundational to drawing.

These factors train your brain to focus on the intricacies of ordinary things you see throughout the day. By being more observant, you also improve your ability to focus!

Achieving your drawing goals and creating gorgeous artwork can create a sense of pride,  triggering your brain to release dopamine. Practicing art can be a huge self-esteem booster as it provides you with a recurring sense of achievement.

• Increase Your Brain's Activity.
• Improve Your Creativity.
• Improve Your Memory.
• Improve Your Communication Skills.
• Stress Relief.
• Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills.
• Improve Your Fine Motor Skills.
• Increase Your Positive Emotions.