“You never outgrow drawing,” notes painter Debra Groessner. “It’s so fundamental to everything.” Like so many artists before her, Groessner’s words emphasize the importance of drawing as a means of visual expression as well as a way to view the world.

“By drawing, man has extended his ability to see and comprehend what he sees,” wrote British painter Frederick Gore. His sentiments are echoed by artist Elsha Leventis who explains, “Drawing is the best way to meditate, while staying connected to the world around us.” Abstract painter Ben Nicholson obviously agreed when he said, “I’m just interested in meditating on certain ideas, and I like to draw: that’s my way of thinking.”

All of these artists made the connection between drawing and thinking. As artist Pudlo Pudlat put it, “If an artist draws a subject over and over again in different ways, then he will learn something.”

The teachings of art instructor Betty Edwards reflect this approach as she stated, “An individual’s ability to draw is… the ability to shift to a different-from-ordinary way of processing visual information–to shift from verbal, analytic processing to spatial, global processing.”

Perhaps that’s why sculptor Leonard Baskin prophesied, “A change is going on in the world. There’s far more interest in drawing now than there has been in a long, long time. Schools are beginning to teach drawing again in a serious and meaningful way.”

To keep drawing alive in both the school and home, cover a wall or two with dry erase paint from Whiteyboard and allow students to draw, erase, and draw again so they may increase their artistic skills as well as their brainpower.