Are you looking for a new hobby? Do you want to learn new skills? Do you want to improve your memory? Or are you just looking for some fun? Let me tell you why all that and more is within your reach by just drawing!

5 Surprising benefits of drawing

Drawing as an adult

As an infant you probably loved to draw, to just make random circles on a piece of paper with any crayon that was within your reach may have been one of your first hobbies. Then you grew, you started drawing everything that came to mind, everything you dreamed about. It was both a way to enjoy your own imagination and to communicate to others all those things that you could only see in your mind. Then you grew some more, and someone must have mentioned that, maybe, you were not as good as someone, or they told you that drawing was a waste of time, that you should invest your time on useful things, learn skills that would help you later in life, and you probably threw that piece of paper into the trash and put your colored pencils away. Today I am going to show you why you should retake the pencil and paper, bring back all those colors into your life and how it will help you be happier, healthier and, believe it or not, more productive!

benefits of drawing

1. Your brain will thank you

There are plenty of studies that show that you can treat cognitive problems with arts and crafts, but did you know you can prevent those problems by just drawing or painting? Yes, you can!
The brain needs as much exercise as your muscles and drawing a little every day is as great training as you can get. From giving your mind a few minutes to focus on what you are drawing, thus relaxing it from strenuous thoughts, to the hand-eye coordination required for doodling even the simplest lines you will be engaging both sides of your brain on healthy and fun exercise routine that will help it keep active and flexible as you grow older. The earlier you start drawing, the lesser the chances of neural deterioration caused by time.
But no matter what age you are, drawing will help you revert any damage to your attention, memory, and coordination caused by time!

2. More procrastination = more productivity

It sounds counter-intuitive, and we have been thought that any second spent on anything that’s not a chore or a way to make money is a second wasted. Yet more and more health professionals discover the advantages of relaxing activities and giving ourselves some time off. To achieve your desired results while drawing, you will have to focus on the “now”, letting go of anxieties and stressful thoughts, allowing you to relax while the sense of achievement that you get for creating something will boost your confidence, allowing you to face all activities with a clearer head and relaxed spirit.
Give your brain some air, oxygenate your emotions, relax your focus on all those stressful events going on in your life, allow yourself a little time to disconnect from all that chaos and you will see the difference when you return to your chores and “productive” activities.

3. Know yourself, express yourself, love yourself

Art may very well be the only way for you to express your feelings without talking about them. Drawing will help you visualize your inner thoughts, fears, and emotions, helping you to recognize them, analyze them and then express them better. It will help your ability to communicate your emotions and your needs because you will be able to recognize them more easily. Those same repressed emotions can be very damaging to your self-esteem, putting them out in the open on a piece of paper will relax you and free you from inner pressures, making yourself more at ease with your own emotions, boosting your self-esteem. Not to mention the fact that creating something out of thin air is a great feeling of achievement, after all without you that piece of art in front of you would just be a blank piece of paper, imagine that, you just brought something to the world that only you could, and that piece of art carries with it what you feel, think and who you really are!

4. Think details, think bigger

While you are drawing you will have to pay attention to the small details that make your model unique, a way to translate whatever it is you are drawing to the canvas without it losing its shape, it’s personality and it’s emotions. You will have to look beyond what you already know of any given subject, you may be drawing your pet, your house or a loved one that you know better than the palm of your hand, but even those very familiar subjects will have details that you had never seen before if you didn’t start drawing them. From those fine lines of expression on your SO, to that small speck of dirt on the side of your house, all those little, dismissive details become the personality and history of your model, allowing you to see far more than you would normally have, improving your perception of the world, allowing you to see things in a different light, reminding you that you can never look hard enough, that everything, every person, every memory, every problem, has a lot of unique details and layers that make them different from everything else, and by being able to see them, you will be able to understand them better and appreciate them much more.

5. It’s fun!

This may be the most important point of all. Making art is creative, productive, relaxing and improves your self-awareness, but most of all, it’s fun!
That’s right, you deserve to have some fun, just enjoy your time with yourself, or share your hobbies and skills with others; invite your friends over for a fun afternoon of painting and tea, or relax even more with a cup of wine, and let your creativity roam free!

I hope this article has picked your interest in the ever-expanding world of drawing. If you don’t know where to start, don’t worry, soon I’ll be posting a few guides to help you get going!
See you soon!


5 Surprising benefits of drawing was written by Paula Saraiva

If you wish to support my work and help me keep the free content coming, considering leaving a tip on Ko-Fi : http://ko-fi.com/mary_craftytuts/commissions

If you wish to support my work and help me keep free content coming, considering leaving a tip on Ko-Fi