Motor Control & Proprioception

To draw, your brain and your hand have to be best friends and talk to each other perfectly. Your brain knows where your hand is even if you close your eyes, which is called proprioception. When you put what is in your head onto paper, you are training your muscles to follow your thoughts like a dancer follows music. It takes a lot of practice to make the hand do exactly what the mind sees. Once they learn to work together, the pen feels like it is a part of your own body.

Once they learn to work together, the pen feels like part of your own body. The hand does not draw. The mind draws. The hand is just the courier. Practice is not repetition. Practice is the hand learning to trust the mind.

Fine motor control in drawing is a complex feedback loop involving the cerebellum and primary motor cortex. Proprioceptive feedback regulates haptic pressure, determining line weight and quality — a critical component in fidelity of transfer from mental image to physical surface. The artist's hand is a calibrated instrument. Calibration takes ten thousand hours.

SOUND: The thump of a charcoal stick breaking under too much pressure: learning the limits.

SMELL: The sharp, clean scent of a gum eraser: starting over smells fresh.

TASTE: The saltiness of sweat on your lip as you concentrate hard.

TOUCH: The cool smoothness of a wooden paintbrush handle: your tool becoming your finger.

SIGHT: The tip of the pen meeting its own shadow on the page.

BODY: Your wrist pivoting to create a perfect circle: the body solving geometry in real time.

Music: Cowboy Take Me Away by The Chicks

Music: Colour me In by Damien Rice

Music: Reflection by Lea Salonga (Mulan)

Part of Painting & Drawing — ART — Education Revelation