The Importance Of Mastering Drawing
Drawing is the act of putting your tool to your ground and creating another dimension through your eye-to-hand coordination. It’s a medium that expresses appreciation for and awareness of our senses, reality, and imagination. Like with any other skill, talent, hobby, or career, it’s innate for many artists like yourself to strive and dedicate time to improve and master drawing and it is important to note that mastery does not equate to perfection. Rather, this action and desire only reflect our drive to achieve a sense of perfection. I believe that true mastery is the discipline to put in the time, effort, and energy into your work even when you are not motivated to and the acknowledgment of the room for constant improvement. With that being said, let’s discuss the importance of this dedication to your work.
“Last Defiance” //2B Pencil on 300 series Bristol// by 2nd Edition Finalist, Kevin Nichols
DRAWING CAN MAKE YOU SMARTER… WELL KINDA
What we mean by this is that when you work towards mastering drawing, you are actually also simultaneously ameliorating your cognitive skills. This is because you use both the right hemisphere of your brain which is associated with creativity, as well as the left side which is known for logical processing, focus, and strategic thinking. Furthermore, drawing engages the essential aspects of cognitive processing such as thinking, learning, understanding, visual perception, spatial awareness, questioning, and being attentive because your brain has to interpret the stimuli and information about the idea or object that you wish to draw, so that the eyes can comprehend and the hands can execute. This means that the more you practice and dedicate time to mastering the craft, is the more your brain performs these cognitive abilities and gains acute agility while doing them.
“Abyss” //Coloured Pencil on Bristol Board// by 1st Place Winner in 2nd Edition, Jesse Lane
DRAWING CAN INCREASE YOUR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Do you ever find that the more you practice drawing is the more you can comprehend the emotive quality of life? If you answered yes, then this can be attributed to the ability to be self-aware and empathetic when drawing. In the same way that it can be difficult to describe things that our mind has no prior knowledge of, it can be just as challenging to represent and draw emotions that you have no connection to or understanding of. This stems from the idea that it can be a task for the mind to represent and communicate what it does not understand or know. Therefore, it can be argued that we need to have some degree of understanding of emotions to be able to communicate them through art because as we know, art is about communication and often, there is a message in each piece that you as an artist want to convey. Without emotional intelligence, you cannot truly do this because, by definition, emotional intelligence is the competence to efficiently and effectively communicate and empathize with emotions. So that, the ability to draw and master drawing can suggest that you have an understanding of emotion from our perspective and that of others.
If you find it difficult to convey emotion in your artwork, you can incorporate colour theory, focal points, narrative, and symbolism. Briefly, colour theory deals theory examines the interaction of science and art with regard to the use of colour in terms of their categorization into primary, secondary, and tertiary colours, their temperatures, and their symbolism. Colour temperature and symbolism can be manipulated to your benefit in order to capture and represent emotions. For example, if you want to allude to sadness, you can use hues of cooler colours such as blue; whereas, if you want to illustrate passion or anger, opt for warmer colours such as hues of red especially, vibrant and exuberant ones.
Continually, integrating focal points can help to portray emotion in your piece. Focal points are the points where the viewer’s eyes are drawn to in the artwork such as lines, shapes, and colours. For example, with regards to human figures, it’s no joke when you hear people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. They really are because they convey emotion oh so well. So why not make them the focal point of your piece by implementing contrast and other techniques to attract the viewer’s eyes to the subject’s eyes!
Narrative is another way to heighten the emotive quality of a piece. This style simply refers to telling a story, in this case through your drawings. No better time to draw reference to an emotive story than now because narrative art will give you a platform to relay a story of your choice that touches and captivates and even inspires the viewer.
Finally, incorporating symbolism into your work is another good and creative way to reflect emotions. You can use traditional symbols such as doves, still-water and many others to represent inner peace. Meanwhile, you can use turbulent waters, war scenes, and storms to portray chaos, destruction, and fear. Or, if you are feeling adventurous and particularly in touch with your creative side, you can create your own symbols to represent whatever you wish! The key is just to have fun with it and make it easily transmissible to your audience.
You can learn more about these terms and many others in our latest guide entitled “20 Art Terms You Need To Know”.
“Imagine” //Coloured Pencil on Sanded Pastel Paper// by 3rd Edition Finalist, Megan Seiter
IN TURN, YOU DISCOVER YOURSELF
Drawing is your skill, your talent, and your passion. It’s a part of your artistic identity. When you dedicate your energy and time to mastering drawing, you may not even realize that you’re dedicating energy and time to discovering yourself as it relates to your thought process, feelings, capabilities, weaknesses and so much more. Each artwork you produce has your individual imprint, perspective, style, brushwork, trials, errors, triumphs, technique, and inspirations embodied in it which solidifies that it forms a part of you. As we know, in the pursuit to master or perfect a skill, we allot endless time, effort, and practice into the process and it truly is a journey - your journey. Discovering yourself through your art can be one of the most fulfilling rewards an artist can achieve and to do this all you have to do is practice. 3rd Edition Finalist, Barbara Hack explains “while practicing my craft as a full time artist, I have learned that no one can teach you discipline or how to remain disciplined in your work. Despite that fact, you can learn it. Every day, you have to wake up, approach your art, and practice. Painting and drawing anything, not necessarily always for a finish piece, have to function as a piece of your daily routine. Progress only amounts from practice.”
“Facing Fears” //Graphite, Charcoal and Pastel on Paper// by 4th Edition Finalist, Taiwo Isimi
LASTLY…
On your journey to mastering drawing, remember to enjoy the entirety of the process and avoid consuming yourself with societal ideals of perfection because that’s exactly what they are… ideals. Try to focus on establishing your own sense of perfection and mastery like 1st Place Winner of the 3rd Edition, Cameron Richards has and which he describes in his interview with Founder of Boynes Emerging Artist, Chantal Boynes, “I definitely used to be a perfectionist in the sense of deliberately holding dissatisfaction in my work until I reached what I considered to be my "original idea". I thought by doing this I would be more disciplined and create better work. In reality, all this meant is most of the time I was fairly frustrated and self-deprecating in my work. What I realized is I actually achieved my best work by taking my time with my work, working on different pieces at one time, and exposing myself to artists I found inspiring. It had nothing to do with getting down on myself, which was very freeing and far more enjoyable.”
So remember that mastering drawing can improve your cognitive skills, increase your emotional intelligence as well as help you to find a deeper meaning of self. Enjoy creating the best work that you can at that point in time and practice, practice, practice!