If you’ve never learned how to draw, now is the perfect time to sign up for a class, buy a sketchbook, and practice the many unique and diverse skills used in this art form. In this article, you’ll learn why drawing is such a great skill to master, as well as discover a few guides and support tools that you can use to master this artistic method more effectively.
What is Drawing?
Cave art is a unique and fascinating part of human history that showcases just how connected drawing is with our development. This ancient art is scattered across multiple continents and highlights the day-to-day lives of our ancestors. Amazingly, many of the artistic techniques utilized in this art are still commonly used today. In fact, when Pablo Picasso visited the Altamira Cave art in France, he allegedly said that “in 15,000 years, we have invented nothing!”
Furthermore, behavioral experts and psychologists now believe that drawing is not only at the root of our artistic creativity but a key way of exploring and understanding our environment. For example, imagine a child drawing a picture of their parents and their home and showing it to their teacher. Though the drawing might use crude techniques, it showcases what matters the most to a child and communicates their inner feelings in a simple and effective way.
Benefits of Learning Drawing?
Have you ever heard of art therapy? This powerful technique utilizes drawing, painting, sculpting, performing music, and other artistic methods to help people better manage mental health disorders. Even people who don’t receive guided art therapy may get similar emotional benefits when drawing. For example, you could draw at the end of a hard day and vent your emotions by creating an attractive and engaging picture.
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However, you can also use drawing more practically such as creating fun art pieces to hang in your home or give away as presents to friends and family members. Even better, you could draw and sell art online on multiple dealer platforms. Though you might not become a professional artist any time soon, the extra money you make drawing and selling pictures may help you pay off bills or save up a little “fun money” for a rainy day.
Start a New Career
Learning to draw could help you transition into a fun and exciting new career! However, many of these jobs do require a college degree. As a result, it’s important to read through the bullet points below carefully to see if any of these jobs are in your field. You may also commit to a Bachelor’s degree program if you want to learn drawing and use it in any of the following career:
- Art Directors: This career path often includes jobs at magazines, newspapers, television studios, movie shoots, and even marketing firms. You’ll direct the visual style for these companies and either work with them in a contract or full-time position. Expect to earn $48.51 per hour or a median of $100,890. Note: you could make more or less, depending on your job.
- Special Effects Artists and Animators: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, special effects artists and animators make a median of $37.88 per hour or $78,790 per year. In this position, you’ll work with television, movie, and even advertisement companies to produce special effects for films, shows, and ads. You’ll use drawing skills regularly in this position.
- Fashion Designers: The world of fashion design requires drawing skills to produce attractive, memorable, and fashionable clothing. As a designer, you’ll craft plans for clothing, footwear, hats, jewelry, and many other items by drawing them on paper or a computer. Expect to earn a median of $77,450 per year or $37.24 per hour, depending on your employer.
- Industrial Designers: As an industrial designer, you must create intricate and beautiful plans that engineers can use to produce manufactured products. Typically, this career field requires drawing and engineering skills, with training varying depending on the market. These designers earn a median of $77,030 or $37.03 per hour, depending on your field.
- Interior Designers: These professionals create designs that make indoor areas safe, beautiful and functional. You’ll use drawing skills every day for this job when crafting floor plans and other designs. A bachelor’s degree may be required, depending on the position. You may earn a median salary of $60,340 yearly or $29.01 per hour when pursuing this career field.
- Craft and Fine Artists: If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree in any field or want to work independently, this career path may work best for you. You’ll produce various artwork pieces to sell or exhibit to make a median of $49,960 yearly or $24.02 per hour. Please note that your earnings may vary heavily based on your skills, market, and geographical location.
- Floral Designers: Do you want to make a median of $29,880 per year or $14.36 per hour out of high school and with minimal training? Become a floral designer. These professionals create beautiful flower designs and either sell them independently or work with a flower business. Drawing skills can help in this field by making it easier to produce intricate floral designs.
Is it too late to start an art career if you’ve already worked for many years in an unrelated field? Not necessarily, especially if you already have some art experience. That said, if you want to become a professional artist, you’ll need to take in-depth drawing classes that can teach you the proper techniques and skills required for these jobs. Doing so can greatly improve your job, though you should still research what kind of college education each job requires.
Create Attractive Artwork
Have you ever gone to someone’s house, saw an attractive drawing or painting on the wall, and felt your mood lift? Well, studies find that hanging art in your home can stimulate your mind, relax anxiety, and improve your mood. Now, just imagine how potent these effects would be with self-made artwork! Furthermore, you can pair the emotional benefits of hanging artwork with the mood-lift you get creating it. Thankfully, learning to draw teaches you to create things like:
- Floral Designs: Did you know that simply viewing flowers can improve your mood, even without their attractive smell? Furthermore, scientists have found that working with flowers and creating floral arrangements are particularly beneficial for emotional health. Even better, you can produce beautiful flower drawings and paintings to hang on your wall or sell to others for profit!
- Caricatures of Friends: Have you ever been at a fair and seen someone drawing funny caricatures of people? Well, learning to draw could help you start this fun and engaging side hustle! You can find local fairs, circuses, or even set up in a park during the summer to draw caricatures of tourists. Just make sure that you get work permits before trying this out.
- Abstract Artwork: People who struggle with realistic drawings may find abstract artwork very rewarding. In fact, producing this artwork not only takes a different mindset but can also improve your cognitive skills by changing your state of mind and opening you up to new realities. Hanging it on your wall could help you experience this and many other benefits.
- Landscapes: Landscape art is not only very relaxing for the mind but diverse and popular. People love viewing beautiful countryside artwork or even intricate city-based drawings. That makes landscape art very easy to sell, particularly as it hangs well in most homes. For example, you could hang it above your couch or other furniture to give your room more depth.
- Wallpaper Designs: Here’s something many people may not realize: your home’s wallpaper may affect your mood in various ways. For example, lighter colors can relax your mind, while darker tones may improve your energy. Learning to draw can help you produce more interesting and beneficial wallpaper by working with a personalized wallpaper-printing firm.
- Animal-Based Art: Do you love animals and animal-based artwork? Well, why not learn how to make your own by taking drawing classes? Animal art is not only fun to make but can be profitable. You could create pet drawings for friends, family members, and others and give them away as presents or sell them. Even better, you could create and sell exotic animal art.
As you master more art techniques, you can select styles that interest you and integrate them into your home’s design. For example, you can start with simple pencil art and sketch out trees, animals, or even your friends. You can then integrate more complex concepts like shadowing, coloring, texturing, and more, to produce even better artwork. You don’t have to replace your older, cruder, drawings but use them as a contrast for your improving skills.
Teach Your Children New Skills
Do you have children and worry you won’t have time to learn to draw? Or maybe you want to prioritize your play time towards helping your kids live a better life: that’s a very noble and wonderful thing to do! However, learning to draw and then teaching your children this skill is a powerful way to support their emotional and intellectual development. In fact, it can provide a myriad of benefits that may surprise you and make learning to draw your next big project.
For example, an article entitled “How Drawing to Distract Improves Mood in Children” highlights how encouraging your children to draw when they’re upset can distract them from temper tantrums and bad moods and help them better express themselves. That’s a huge benefit if your child acts up regularly and you can’t find a way to redirect them. The article also highlights how drawing helps children learn about themselves and develop unique skills to use later in life.
Furthermore, publications like National Geographic state that drawing and making art isn’t just fun and exciting for your children but teaches them important problem-solving skills. Simply put, they’ll try to translate what they see with their eyes or mind onto the paper by manipulating their hand to draw lines and shapes that best mimic these concepts. Even better, teaching your children to draw after mastering it yourself can help you bond better through shared activities.
Join Art Communities
Have you ever heard of communes? If not, here’s what you need to know: they were a very popular social experiment in the 1960s and 70s that would bring together people from multiple communities and create a unique environment in which people supported each other. Often, communes would grow food, raise children together, and more. Many of these communes were art-based and, while most are long closed, art communities still exist around the nation.
Art communities are specialized groups that support artists and creative endeavors in a specific city or geographical region. For example, they may provide a centralized area where you can meet with fellow artists, learn more about drawing, and share art together. The goal of these groups is to foster communication and socialization. In this way, they hope to produce better and more attractive art while building a self-supporting team of friendly artists.
If these art communities sound fascinating to you, it’s important to find one near you that you can join. You can search this site to identify multiple options that may be close to your home. Note that some art communities have special requirements for joining such as living in a specific geographical location or pursuing a specialized art field. Read through each option carefully and narrow down your options to find a community that makes the most sense for you.
What if you can’t find an art community such as those listed on the list linked above? Well, many cities have looser and more generalized art communities that you can join. For example, you can visit one of the many art galleries throughout the nation, talk to the resident artists or managers, and see what you can do to join up. This unique experience can expand your social group and help you meet interesting people who might teach you many new things.
How to Start Learning Drawing
No matter what your age and experience, it’s never too late to start learning a new skill. Simply put, the human mind is very adaptable and can master new ideas more quickly than you might think. Yes, it would have been easier for you to become a master artist if you’d started practicing when you were a child. But the old adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is simply not true. It will just take more effort to perfect your art concepts, especially if you try to learn without help. As a result, it’s important to take the time to find great art lessons from professionals.
Thankfully, CourseHorse has many in-person drawing classes available throughout the nation. For example, there are many options available in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Nashville, Houston, and beyond. These classes include a live professor who guides the class, teaches you advanced techniques, and provides support throughout your learning experience. Just as importantly, many of these programs include your class materials for you, meaning that they’ll provide things like paper, pencils, and erasers while you practice.
Note that you can also learn to draw by finding free online sources, like YouTube or printable art lessons. However, these learning platforms are unfortunately limited in their scope. For example, you typically get minimal to no teacher interaction, which means you might struggle to overcome errors in your art techniques. As a result, it’s important to instead take online CourseHorse classes such as Online Drawing and Drawing for Beginners. These classes can not only be taken anywhere you want but are often less expensive than in-person learning.
Key Takeaways
- Drawing is an innate skill that humanity has practice for many years
- Learning to draw provides emotional and practical benefits
- Artists can make surprisingly good money if they get good at drawing
- Art community provides a fun place to experiment with your skills
- Self-directed learning is possible but often challenging for many people
- Mastering drawing will take years of experience to get right
- You can learn to draw in-person, online, or in private groups with CourseHorse