Drawing

When I was very young, I spent a lot of my time drawing with my dad. We drew together at least twice a week. We would spend hours together imagining different scenes, what was in them, what they were made of, and how we could make that look cooler. He taught me all about shading, perspective, shadowing, and just the general idea of how things look. He has more than made me into an artist, though the talent was already within me. I taught myself how to read and write when I was three years old, and before that I was attempting to draw somewhat competently. Dad just showed me how to use it effectively.

One day several years later, in fourth grade, I didn’t have much to do in school. Things were quiet. So I decided to draw a little in the front of my work journal. It started with just the basic form of a giant squid eating some divers, but then it evolved into an elaborate scene that filled the whole page. I ended up submitting it to the festival of the arts and got some generous compliments. I remember Dad saying to me after that, “I’m glad you’re so good at drawing. You have some very insightful ideas on how to make things look right. Drawing is a useful talent that will help you look at the world differently.”

And it has indeed helped me look at the world differently. I think in three-dimensional pictures now. I make it a point to attempt to draw something at least every two days. I see the shapes that things are made of, and points of light shadowing just the appropriate areas. I appreciate the length to which people must have gone in order to make some things look a certain way. And after all those years, I still draw with my dad sometimes. We just go to the mall and just start imagining things. He absolutely loves some of my landscapes and I adore the things he can do with texture.

And so I believe that people should invest some time in adapting their drawing skills. It can help you train your mind to see the world in a different light. Let it do for you what it did for me. I believe that, though it is not strictly necessary, drawing is a skill with notable benefits that could alter your very perception of reality.