Without a doubt the skill I am most proud of having gained some proficiency in has been drawing. A particularly dream crushing part of childhood came after finishing year 8. In Australia, this is the year where you get to experience a little of every subject before choosing the elective subjects you will do for the remainder of your time at school. Art was one of these subjects and after completing a term and receiving the only A+ (full marks) I was to ever achieve, I was swiftly steered away from choosing this subject by my parents.
As scarring as this was, I was fortunate enough to have a tutor in first year who gave me the inspiration I needed to put pen to paper for effectively the first time. I could not draw when I started my degree. Despite my exceptional performance in that one art subject, I was not one of those kids that drew whenever there was a chance. At age 20 I began. My tutor was very clear in our first class together that he also had not drawn previously to attending uni, but he had developed the skill of drawing since starting landscape architecture. This immediately altered my attitude towards drawing as something that was not innate “talent” but just required some doing. He encouraged us to do bad drawings – and that’s exactly what I did. One day, I ended up looking at one and thinking “that’s not actually that bad”. Drawing is a skill and the only way to get good (or at least better) at it is to do it.
But why draw?
- It’s cheap. Pen + paper.
- It’s convenient. With the exception of physically moving, you can draw at anytime with the correct tools.
- It’s accessible. You don’t need a computer or a program. If you’re able to write; you’re able to draw.
- It’s easy to get inspiration. If you can see, you simply need to try and draw what you can see be that real life, other art or existing drawings by other people.
- Learning to draw allows much more complete visual presentation styles (Adobe suite, video, animations) to be more easily executed. Programs are just tools. By the time I started using these programs I had already learnt the theory (drawing) and so I only needed to how to wield the tools. Trying to learn what visually looks good, whilst learning how to use Photoshop makes PS far more complex than it needs to be
- You can communicate better. Humans are visual creatures, and the better you can draw, the easier it is to articulate your ideas. Images are universal – you could learn to say car in nine verbal languages or you could just draw one.
Stop reading this and pick up a pen and paper 🙂
Reed 
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