02.20.2022 - Reading Notes/Rediscovering the Benefits of Drawing

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Posted On 02.20.2022

Article: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/rediscovering-the-forgotten-benefits-of-drawing/

In the old times, scientist are required to have drawing skill, because they have to recreate everything they observed in their research, drawing is the only way to do that. With the advance of technologies (like camera, photographing, printing,…), people throw away their drawing skills.

In the 1920s and 1930s, drawing skill was eliminated from public schools.

It’s a big mistake, because drawing skill also help them improve their observation, pay more attention on small details, patterns,… this seems to be an essential skill for technical worker like us as well.


The article also mentioned something interesting, it’s the focus on product vs process.

The act of taking the end result of drawing - a drawing, into your research report, is obviously a product, you can obtain the product via alternatives methods, by using technology, capture it from elsewhere, print it out, paste it.

But the act of making the drawing - the drawing process, is far more important, as it’s help you improve a lot of things, like observation skill. It’s far more valuable than just taking the product out and use it.