Five Reasons To Start Drawing Today
One: Drawing helps you think.
In his excellent book, “Blah Blah Blah,” Dan Roam describes two ways of seeing the world: the “piece-by-piece” way and the “all-at-once” way.
The first way understands the world as a collection of parts, and is useful because it allows us to focus on the particulars, block out distraction and succeed in activities like hunting rabbits, for instance.
The second way looks at the world holistically. This is useful because it gives perspective, enables us to understand larger patterns and succeed by not getting eaten by a lion while we’re focused on catching those rabbits.
The first way is really good at assigning abstract constructs to the things we see. Abstract concepts meaning, “words.”
Dan claims (and I agree) that, over time, this words-centric view of the world has become dominant. Possibly because abstraction gives us the ability to “see” the world without actually looking at it, which saves a lot of time and energy.
But abstraction isn’t reality. It’s a model. What’s more, abstraction tends to be linear—with a beginning, middle and end—and the world doesn’t always work that way. In other words, it’s not all about “words.” Pictures help us see the forest and the trees. Words and pictures are complimentary and powerful thinking models.
Two: Drawing helps you communicate.
When was the last time you suffered through a horrible PowerPoint presentation? Aside from the subject matter, what made it so awful?
- The speaker’s inability to be clear and concise?
- The 100 slides of bulleted text?
- The stock photos that had little to do with the content?
I’ve counseled clients for years on the benefit of using hand-drawn, even crude, images to communicate ideas.
Dave Gray, author of the seminal work “Gamestorming,” reminds us that people are easily overwhelmed by the amount of information at our fingertips. We tend to shut down about it. Drawing pulls people back into discussion. Visual thinking is “a great way to convey complex or potentially confusing information.”
I’m also a fan of ditching the presentation screen entirely and creating my visuals live on a flip chart. That way, people relate to the “humanity” of the exercise and align more quickly with what I have to say.
This is especially useful in business pitches. If someone has a different view of a point I’m making, I hand them the marker and ask for clarification, transforming the meeting into a working session (a more effective way to close the deal).
Three: Drawing will make you rich and famous.
Turning lines and shapes into interesting art is a skill you rarely see in public. So much so, that everyone stops to look whenever they encounter it. Think about the last time you ran across a caricature artist. You may not have forked over the cash for your own portrait, but I bet you paused a bit to watch her draw the guy sitting in the chair.
I often sketch on my iPad during business presentations (especially during the boring PowerPoints). A few years ago I was at a conference and a woman sat next to me, dazzled (well, curious) about the way I captured the event in images. We struck up a conversation and exchanged contact info. To my complete surprise, a few weeks later I received an email asking if I might draw some illustrations for her CEO’s big sales and marketing presentation.
While I’m not claiming you’ll get hired to create the next Sistine Chapel, I can unequivocally say that drawing will get you noticed, and getting noticed is a good thing.
Like Seth Godin says: “Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring…A purple cow though. Now that would be interesting!”
Four: Drawing is fun.
Little kids know this instinctively. Got a bunch of kids and don’t know what to do with them? Hand out the crayons and paper and let ’em loose. Instant fun! And the more time you give them, the more fun—and creative—it gets.
This is a good point to make when people pressure you for deliverables. Better yet, direct them to this video:
I’ll bet there’s a little kid inside you just itching to grab a pencil or Sharpie and throw down a few doodles! Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, you don’t do that anymore, and haven’t since you actually were a little kid.
What happened?
Here’s what happened: Society happened. Parents happened. Teachers happened. Well-minded humans happened. The adults in your world were trying to help you become a grownup, but inadvertently pushed you away from the light of creativity and into the dark box of conformity.
Sadly, now you may be one of the majority of adults who says, “Oh no, not me. I can’t draw.”
Which brings me to Reason #5…
Five: Drawing is definitely something you CAN DO.
At its core, drawing is nothing more than seeing basic shapes in the world around you, then recreating those shapes on paper. Throw out the notion that you have to be the next Picasso, and that’s all there is to it.
“Oh sure,” you’re saying, “easier said than done!”
Except you have it backwards: It’s easier done than said.
Just stop talking about the “fact” that you can’t draw and start doing it.
I’m living proof. Like most people, I stopped drawing in, oh, I don’t know, fourth grade? I rediscovered it at age 50.
I started again with simple stick figures, and I really haven’t progressed much further than that. I’m not striving to be Leonardo da Vinci, or Vincent van Gough or Andy Warhol.
I’m just striving to be the next me.
It’s just so easy to get started. There are at least a gazillion How-Tos on the web. One of my favorites Chris Glynn’s Squiggle Birds (via Dave Gray)…
Another fav is “How to Draw Nothing,” by Betsy Streeter.
Dave Gray’s “Gamestorming,” has a whole section on Visual Language. I recommend digesting it, along with Dan Roam’s The Back of The Napkin and Mike Rhode’s The Sketchnote Handbook, to jump start your journey.
So get out there and start drawing!
It’s good for your brain, your relationships, your pocketbook and your inner child. Don’t let years of abstract thinking get in the way of experiencing life at its fullest.
