Teaching people to draw is teaching people to look

Artists have long observed that drawing facilitates a way of looking at the world more attentively. Psychological research has sought to evaluate this claim by investigating the association between drawing abilities and training, and performance on visuospatial tasks. This body of research literature has shown that some visuospatial abilities are enhanced in those that have better drawing abilities, specifically those that require integration of stored perceptual and cognitive schemas, and flexible visual attention. Longitudinal research has further shown that learning how to draw leads to changes in the way that visuospatial tasks are approached, suggesting that drawing involves strategies designed to circumvent the limits of perception. Such insights are valuable in the context of an environment that often precludes looking slowly and closely, and suggest that teaching drawing may be an effective way of teaching people how to look.