Drawing

A drawing can take a variety of forms. It can be a sketch on paper, canvas, napkin, or in the digital canvas of a computer screen. A drawing can be realistic, abstract, cartoonish, or geometric.

It’s different from writing in that it illustrates our ideas rather than symbolize them with words. A single word has the power to evoke a number of images in our mind, whereas a drawing concretizes thoughts into images. It gives our ideas a particular shape, form, and texture.

Like writing, drawing is a craft that requires hours and hours of practice. The more we practice, the easier it is to illustrate what we want, and to give it the right size, shape, and texture. Likewise, our muscle memory and motor skills become adept to creating an accurate representation of the object we’re drawing. Like anything someone is an expert in, it becomes more polished with time.

But even if we’re not professional illustrators, drawing gives us the ability to put our imagination down onto paper. And whether it’s there in the form of ink, graphite or pixels, we can see, to varying degrees, what the mind sees.