Milton Glaser says that kids who don’t draw fail to grow whole brains. Imagine life without drawing! I really can’t. We wouldnt have any of the objects in my view, much less the house, neighborhood, city. Yet many people rarely draw. Glaser talks about that as he lightly sketches William Shakespeare, his 60th drawing of the Bard this year. (Repetition creates habits that can become rituals that then shape your life. Each time is new and also familiar.)

I rarely drew beyond diagrams while I was completing my doctorate last year. This spring I took a sketching class just to remind myself and it was like going to a spa twice a week. We drew fast – 5-20 min drawings on large pads for 2 hours. I emerged refreshed, renewed. Our assignment was a sketch a day, 100 total. Like practicing piano scales.

Steven Holl, architect, starts every day with an hour of sketching or painting to make sure he remains creative. Sometimes he has a project in mind, and other times not. http://www.arcspace.com/studio/s_holl/. If it’s important enough for a world-renowned architect to do in what must be an impossible schedule, why not me/you?

It’s like breathing for your right brain. It’s not important to be beautiful or accurate, but to express with your hands and eyes. That’s all. Use those muscles, coordinate them, keep it simple.

Very soft pencils, charcoals, felt tips are best on a not too finished paper like newsprint or sketch pads but any tools will do. Just draw your hand, coffee mug, or William Shakespeare’s face. Primitive sketching is as good as Glaser’s – the point is to draw, use your hands and eyes to see whole things. You can almost feel the right hemisphere light up.

Drawing fires up the whole brain. Then you can go to work.