From the course: 21-Day Drawing Challenge

The science of drawing

From the course: 21-Day Drawing Challenge

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The science of drawing

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I want to share an analogy with you about drawing, because I think it explains the important correlation between drawing and the formation of creative ideas. When you use a taxi, you do so because you need to move from point A to point B. It's a vehicle that'll carry you to the correct destination. And drawing is like a taxi for your ideas. When you draw out ideas, the drawings act like a visual vehicle, a taxi, that takes your thinking for a ride, and delivers it to the next logical, or illogical stage of thinking. Drawing, in combination with free thinking, is how you discover clever ideas. And there is a scientific reason for this. 75% of your brain's sensory processing is dedicated to visual information. The majority of your brain's processing capacity is visually oriented. The rest of your senses, smell, touch, hearing, and taste combined, make up a mere 25%. So we're prewired to think visually. A study published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology found that doodling improves cognition skills, your thinking, and memory recall by at least 30%. Drawing keeps the brain processing without affecting performance on the main task at hand. Drawing is a preemptive measure to stop you from losing focus. This is good news for anyone who doodles during phone calls, meetings, or even in my case, church services. Drawing also enhances learning. There are four ways a person can intake information in order to make decisions. They are, visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic, or learning by doing. In order for your brain to start learning, at least two of these modalities have to be engaged. Maybe you like listening to classical music when you write, or at least one modality engaged associated with an emotional response. Maybe you read a great book and it makes you smile. Here's the beautiful truth though. When you draw, you engage all four modalities at the same time, and the more you draw, the more you'll enjoy it and you'll have the emotional response as well. Drawing is a super charger for problem solving, whether it's a graphic or a new marketing plan.

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