Marta Hayek
“Not for fame, not for money, but for yourself.”
Benefits of drawing: Why should I start making art?
1 – Improves Your Concentration
– Have you ever watched a child drawing? Looking at him from a distance you will see that he is totally absorbed by that activity as if nothing else in the world existed at that moment. A drawing to be colored, a set of markers – or colored pencils – can even distract children from tv shows and cartoons, and that’s no small thing! The way children concentrate on a creative activity can also be replicated in adults: just give them pencils, markers, or brushes in their hands. Recent studies have shown that the activity of coloring and therefore painting, forces us to think. Focusing on a single activity, eliminating distractions and ramblings, helps us to regain concentration. In this digital era in which we all try to be multitasking, trying to work, read the news, send emails, or writing messages on WhatsApp, being able to find concentration is not so obvious!2 – Stimulates Both Hemispheres Of The Brain
You probably already know that our brain has two distinct hemispheres, the right one and the left one. We don’t want to teach you human anatomy or neurology, we just want to remind you that the left hemisphere is the one dedicated to logic and rationality, while the right one, on the contrary, is occupied by processes that have to deal with emotions and creativity. Painting – and art in general – has the great benefit of connecting these two hemispheres, usually distinct and employed with different activities. The act of painting becomes an opportunity to deeply train your brain. This is another reason why you should pick up your materials and get back to painting!
Benefits of drawing: Connecting the two emispheres
3 – Helps Self-Esteem
Some people have too much self-esteem (which then it’s called ego), and some instead don’t seem to have it at all. Let’s talk about self-esteem, which is very often its beated down by the work and school environment – and generally not only there. Painting, in this sense, can be seen as a recharging activity, because your progress and improvements will help you to believe more in yourself. Just Picture your satisfaction and pleasure after being able to finish a drawing that took days and days of work!4 – Helps You Discover Yourself
When we paint a still life, a landscape, the face of a passerby, brushstroke after brushstroke, we will understand something more about our subject, but we will discover something new about ourselves, by the choices we made and the strokes we see on the canvas. In fact, painting helps us to stop, to detach ourselves from the outside world, to free our mind and dedicate ourselves to us and our personal vision of the world around us.
Benefits of drawing: discover something new about ourselves.
5 – Chases Away The Anxiety
So many things worry us daily. Work, university, family, and many other elements of our lives trigger automatic mechanisms that lead us to stress and anxiety. To drive away from these unpleasant sensations you can try meditation or – and we prefer this one – drawing and painting. The act of painting is very similar to the meditating one: you focus completely on a single gesture, limiting your attention to the canvas, with your hands that move freely between the palette and the painting.6 – Improves Motor Skills
Making art improves hand movements and self –coordination. The coordination skills of regular painters are much more developed than those who never draw or paint!
