Drawing for the Sake of It

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17286_10150553904574956_2974407941693687897_nDrawing is a great visual-spatial exercise that allows the artist to save an idea on a surface on which it can develop to become a piece of art. Some people consider that first draft or what we call gesture drawing as an acceptable technique to be in itself a work of art. Either way, the process of drawing is helping the development of visual coordination, space management, composition, proportions, angles, volume, shapes, light, and shadows, and other elements. The outline separates the main figure from the background and from other objects to understand the position of each in relationship with the others.  These skills can be transferred to other domains as interior design, architecture, fashion, web design, and graphic design.

19112_10150554329469956_7007279029949506622_nDrawing also provides relaxation, and meditation benefits. It is a good exercise to just draw for a few minutes as part of a daily discipline. In those moments those drawings might not seem or considered a finished product, but the fact that one is getting involved in the creating process, one is building bridges neurologically and cognitively that could lead to complete works of art in the future. The original idea might change, evolve, develop, or remain the same. It could be just a foundation, or a detail element. One might not use that idea for a long time if you use it at all. The most important aspect is that moment. Is about drawing for the sake of it.

Can’t draw? I think that is a lame excuse. Can’t draw what? Can’t draw how? Would you tell a 2-year-old kid that he or she lacks drawing skills? We are not 2-year-old but if they do it with freedom and not interested in the opinion of others, why not us? Why can’t we just take a pencil and scratch a paper? We create our own judgements and we allow other people to pass judgement feeding their ego and selfishness. Draw because it is fun, peaceful, entertaining, and relaxing. Draw because you enjoy it and not because others need to like it. They don’t have to.

Brain Function of Artists

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How do I make sense of the things I see? How can I bring an invisible idea into something visible? What about those who turn sounds in their heads into music? How can someone come up with poetry, lyrics for a song, a story, or a dialogue? How can my fingers understand how to shape the clay in a visually logical way according to the design in my brain? How do I make philosophical sense of what I am looking at and articulate the silent language my art is communicating? How can people turn math into art and art into math?

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I’ve been reading here and there about the right-brain/left-brain functions. Some say it is a myth. Some say it is not. I was discussing it with my personal physician as well (my wife), who found several articles for me to read. I have no intention to write a research article with fancy references and style (as somebody said I don’t know how to interpret the literature or cite it although I wrote a dissertation) because this blog is not for that. When someone pays me to develop another research study then you would see the whole dissertation format in action. For now I am just expressing my thoughts on these subjects. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see what studies say about the brain function of artists. I don’t argue with these studies unless I make my own study or if they make artists look bad.

According to some the artist’s brain is different in structure and naturally wired to display higher fine motor skills and visual imagery but training and an encouraging environment play an important role as I wrote in The Discipline in The Discipline. It is necessary to cultivate a talent through practice and discipline. This is the combination of nature and nurture. However, while certain areas of the brain are more dominant both sides of the brain are used simultaneously. This is not exclusively for artists since it is said that engaging in creative activities helps improve brain function in multiple areas which I stretch with passion when it comes to cognitive psychology because not only the physical brain changes, the nonphysical brain changes too. To define ‘nonphysical brain’ that is what I call the non-measurable cognitive functions like perception, affect, beliefs, and intuition. Not to mention how engaging in creative activities help relief stress and to connect back to ourselves and it can change lives. it is no secret that art in its many forms also help develop well-rounded individuals.

Visual Intelligence

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There are three classes of people:
those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Howard Gardner proposed in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences that intelligence as ‘one thing’ is too limiting to account to the broader range of human abilities and capabilities. He separates intelligence in nine modalities (I’m sure that the list will continue growing):

  • Linguistic intelligence
  • Logical-mathematical intelligence
  • Spatial (Visual) intelligence
  • Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence
  • Musical intelligence
  • Interpersonal intelligence
  • Intrapersonal intelligence
  • Naturalist intelligence
  • Existential or spiritual intelligence
Look Up

Look Up by Iván Tirado

It is possible that the first group of people coming to mind when one hears ‘visual intelligence’ is artists. Not only people who can draw, paint, sculpt, or design have visual intelligence. Visual intelligence is extended to sports. Court vision in basketball is important to shoot and pass the ball. The same applies in football, baseball, and boxing. Dancers too require that sense of space when they perform. Even today’s video games require visual intelligence with those virtual words that make me dizzy about five minutes into the game.

I do believe that artists have visual intelligence indeed. I also believe that artists share bodily-knestetic intelligence too in order to transfer their vision into a tangible creation. Bodily-knestetic intelligence is not only for sports and dance. I believe we can call it ‘technique’.  Artists also share logical-mathematical intelligence. Moreover, artists are also existential or spiritual intelligent. Why it seems like I’m focusing in artists and visual intelligence? Well, I am an artist. I also stink at music and most sports. The fact is that my favorite aspect of visual intelligence because it is not about what we see with the eyes.

Blind people develop visual intelligence to make sense of their environment. Is that perception of space that goes beyond the world we see. Visual intelligence can inform the other intelligences allowing us to become aware of a different kind of world. We can close our eyes and see it. Our senses become consumed with it. This intelligence allows the development of problem-solving skills, capturing and interpreting information, and perceived the world we see with the naked eye and the world not seen. Leonardo Da Vinci called it ‘the reflective eye’. Leonardo believed that ‘the artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of‘.