How To Draw: Why Drawing Matters More Than Ever
- David Salariya
- 7 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Once upon a time, children held pencils and drew. Now they hold “devices,” those sleek slabs of anaesthesia designed to stop the brain from thinking inconveniently.
Drawing
Drawing, once the quiet gymnasium of the soul, has been relegated to the status of “enrichment,” a word that sounds suspiciously like the sort of gruel served to prisoners or Oliver Twist. We used to give a child a box of coloured pencils and call it imagination; now we give them a tablet and call it STEM.
How Picture Books and Pencils Build Brains, Hearts, and Imagination
The pencil, is democracy’s most elegant invention. Cheap, renewable, erasable. It forgives. The pen commits; but the pencil said: Try again, - there’s no shame in getting it wrong.
And yet, what have we done? We’ve replaced graphite with glass, the whisper of paper with the ping of notifications. We no longer draw lines - we tap icons. We’ve mistaken efficiency for education and screens for thought.
Why Reading and Drawing Matter More Than Ever...
...And Why Drawing Deserves the Same Respect as Writing
In France, handwriting is treated as a discipline of the mind - but drawing once held the same status. Here’s why reviving drawing as a daily practice could transform children’s learning, focus, and creativity.
The Lost Twin of Writing
In the French education system, children learn to write with artistry. From the moment they enter Cours Préparatoire (around age six), pupils are taught l’écriture cursive française - the flowing joined-up script that defines French handwriting.
This isn't about neatness. Hand writing is considered a form of formation: a way of disciplining the mind through the hand.
Teachers look at posture, pen grip, and rhythm with the
vigilance of a piano instructor. The idea is simple to write well is to think well.
But what of drawing? Shouldn’t the same precision and attention apply to how children learn to see, not only how letters are formed?
Drawing as Observation
In France, drawing is officially part of arts plastiques, alongside painting, collage, and photography. It’s encouraged in the early years of maternelle, where drawing helps children develop motor control and imagination.
By primary school, though, its purpose changes. Drawing becomes a tool of observation and representation. Pupils may sketch geometric forms, copy objects, or respond to the lines of Matisse or Picasso. The emphasis is on regard - on cultivating a trained way of seeing and looking.
Yet drawing isn’t given the same daily structure or seriousness as writing. There are no national standards for how a child should learn proportion, shadow, or perspective. It’s expressive, yes - but not treated as a form of thinking in its own right.
When Drawing Was a National Discipline
That wasn’t always the case. In the 19th century, the lois Ferry - which shaped modern French schooling - made drawing compulsory. It was seen as essential for artisans, architects, and engineers, who needed both an eye for beauty and a hand for geometry.
Children learned to draw from plaster casts, ornaments, and patterns with the same patience used for handwriting practice. Drawing wasn’t indulgence; it was mental training.
That tradition still echoes in French design and architecture schools, where dessin d’observation - observational drawing - is regarded as a foundation for all creative work.
Thinking with the Hand
Today, as schools everywhere grapple with screens and distraction, a quiet movement is emerging in France to bring drawing back into the classroom - not as a hobby, but as a way of slowing down the mind.
The phrase teachers use is poetic and practical:
Dessiner, c’est penser avec la main. To draw is to think with the hand.
This is a wonderful democratic idea. Children who struggle with words can still communicate through line and shape. Drawing trains patience, focus, and empathy - all vital qualities in an age of fractured attention.
If handwriting shapes the voice, drawing shapes the vision. Both are languages of the hand. And both deserve a place in the heart of education.
Seeing, Reading, Drawing
As the number of art teachers falls in the UK and children spend more time swiping than sketching, we risk losing one of the simplest, most powerful forms of learning: looking.
Reading and drawing both teach us how to see - one through words, the other through lines. They nurture curiosity, empathy, and imagination, and they shape the way children think about the world. In a society increasingly addicted to "I want it now", these slow, patient arts might just be the most revolutionary tools we have left.
The Magic of Picture Books
A good picture book teaches you to read with your eyes. It’s where words and images dance together - a fox can smile before a child knows what the word smile means.
Picture books build bridges between language and emotion. The words introduce rhythm and vocabulary; the illustrations bring warmth and meaning. Together, they engage both the verbal and visual parts of the brain - which is why children remember what they see and feel long before they can spell it
Picture books are also invitations to imagine. The spaces between text and image encourage children to fill in the blanks, to wonder what happens next, and to dream up their own endings. They’re training grounds for creative thinking, offering a sense of
possibility that no multiple-choice quiz can match.
Drawing: The Other Language of Learning
If reading helps children interpret the world through words, drawing helps them interpret it through sight. From the moment a child can hold a crayon, they are translating what they see and feel into marks.
Drawing is not about talent; it’s about looking. It’s the act of noticing - how a cat’s body stretches, how shadows curve, how shapes connect. Every line is a small question: what shape is that? where does the light fall?
Drawing is one of the most natural ways for children to express emotion. For many, a drawing comes before a sentence. Through sketching, children process the day, their feelings, their fears, this is thinking made visible.
When Words Fall Short
Not every child is confident with reading or writing. Some think in pictures. For them, drawing becomes a lifeline - a way to communicate what can’t yet be said.
Writers and illustrators have always known this. Many start their stories as drawings: a quick sketch of a character, a rough map of a world. The picture comes first; the words follow. Encouraging children to begin with drawing builds confidence and opens the door to literacy through a different route - by starting with observation and curiosity rather than correctness.
Drawing's Alarming Decline
Despite the clear benefits of drawing, many children stop drawing by the age of nine or ten, often because they feel there’s a 'right' or 'wrong' way to do it. This belief can be deeply damaging, stripping away an essential means of self-expression just as emotional development becomes more and more complex.
This is particularly concerning at a time when we’re increasingly aware of the importance of mental health. Drawing not only serves as a creative outlet, but it also plays a crucial role in the brain's emotional processing. Neuroscience shows that the right hemisphere of the brain - the part responsible for emotions, intuition, and non-verbal communication - is highly active when we draw. It’s the part that interprets the 'melody' of human interaction, picking up on the nuances of feelings and social dynamics.
Allowing drawing to disappear from the curriculum is not just a loss for creativity—it’s a loss for emotional well-being. Children need this form of expression to navigate their feelings, build resilience, and make sense of their world.
For Art and design, the Government met just 44% of its recruitment target, compared with 88% in 2022/23 and 134% in 2021/22. It recruited just 364 teachers, 111 fewer than in 2022/23, and 416 fewer than in 2021/22. The numbers for Music teacher recruitment are even worse. The Government recruited just 27% of its 2022/23 target, down from an already-low 62% in 2022/23 and 71% in 2021/22. In fact, the Government managed to recruit just 216 teachers of its 780 teacher target. For drama, the figures are slightly better, with the Government recruiting 79% of its target, or 280 teachers, although these figures are still significantly down on previous years.
How To Draw
More than twenty years ago, I created and designed a drawing series with a simple mission: to show that anyone can draw - yes, everyone.
This project began with an editor at Scholastic US, she asked for a series that combined “how to draw” lessons with a few facts about the subject being drawn, so librarians could see value in both art and information. Before the presentation was complete, that editor was sacked, and Scholastic decided they “had never done well with drawing books.”
So, I published the series under The Salariya Book Company’s Book House imprint. The first title, How to Draw Big Cats, grew into more than fifty books, from animals to mythical creatures.
Illustrated by the exceptionally talented David Antram, Mark Bergin, and Carolyn Scrace, the How to Draw… series became a bestseller. Its secret was simple: break the subject down into shapes, make it simple, make it fun - and teach children to look.
The Philosophy Behind the Pencil
Step-by-step drawing has sometimes been dismissed as simplistic - but it’s really about teaching the eye. The legendary Push Pin Studios in 1950s New York did the same thing with great humour in reverse, breaking finished illustrations back down into circles and rectangles. The point was never imitation; it was understanding form.
Drawing, at its heart, is observation - seeing how the world is built and training the hand to follow the eye. When a child learns to see a tiger as ovals, triangles, and arcs of muscle, they are learning geometry, anatomy, and empathy all at once.
As Paul Klee said: “
A line is a dot that went for a walk
Doodles, Scribbles, and Mistakes
In every How to Draw book, we tried to make space for mistakes. A smudged line, a crooked circle - that’s where creativity begins. Children (and adults) should never fear the blank sheet of paper. The act of drawing is itself a kind of thinking.
Scribbling and doodling are often dismissed as idle distractions, but they are cognitive gold. Neuroscience (the scientific study of the nervous system, with a primary focus on the brain, spinal cord, and their functions) shows that when we doodle, we retain more information and stay mentally engaged. For a child, doodling is a rehearsal for creative confidence.
Drawing for Everyone
The How to Draw… series was never just for children. It was for anyone who believed they wanted to draw. Adults picking up these books often rediscovered something they’d lost - the calm focus that comes with a pencil in hand.
Drawing can be mindfulness in motion: it slows you down, anchors you in the present, and reminds you that beauty starts with observation. Regular drawing sharpens the brain, strengthens memory, and builds creative flexibility - skills every bit as valuable as literacy or numeracy.
A Legacy of Creativity
What began as How to Draw Big Cats turned into a library of creativity that has inspired generations. The books are still used today in classrooms and libraries worldwide.
Looking back, I realise the series wasn’t just about drawing - it was about teaching a way of seeing. Every pencil line is an act of curiosity, a bridge between imagination and understanding.
In the end, drawing teaches the same lesson as reading: look closely, think deeply, and never stop noticing.
Bring Drawing Back
If we want children to grow up creative, resilient, and emotionally intelligent, we must give them permission to read stories and draw their own.
Because a pencil is more than a tool. It’s a key - to language, to empathy, to imagination.
After twenty years, I still believe the best drawing lesson begins with this: stop, look, and draw what’s really there.
Draw, You Fools!
So, sharpen your pencils. Rebel quietly. Doodle in the margins of your next Zoom agenda. Teach your children to draw a cat before you teach them to post a photo of one. Because when the power fails, it will be the scribblers, not the coders, who will remember how to see.
The Revenge of the Scribblers
If I ruled the Department for Education (now there's a thought), every child would begin and end the day with a pencil in hand. Not to produce masterpieces, but to reacquaint themselves with the miracle of line. To rediscover that learning is messy, that smudges are human, and that perfection is the enemy of imagination.
About the Author
David Salariya has spent most of his life doing three things: doodling in the margins, designing books, and thinking up new ways to make children say, “Wow, I can draw that!”
More than twenty years ago, David created the How to Draw… series with one simple mission: to prove that anyone can draw. Starting with How to Draw Big Cats, it expanded into more than 50 titles that taught readers how to sketch everything from elephants to aliens.
Working with illustrators David Antram, Mark Bergin, and Carolyn Scrace, David developed an approach that broke things down into simple shapes - and never punished imperfection. When he’s not writing or painting, he reminds grown-ups that doodling in the margins isn’t misbehaving - it’s brain training.
“A masterpiece always begins with a wonky circle. And who wants to draw a straight line anyway?”
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