Neuroplasticity in Artists

Every time you draw or paint, your brain actually grows and changes to get better at it! It is like a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it. Your art muscle helps you notice tiny details, like how many colors are really in a green leaf — it is actually yellow, blue, and brown too! As you keep putting your ideas onto paper, your brain builds new highways for your thoughts to travel on. This makes it easier and easier to show people the amazing things you are thinking.

Your brain builds new highways for your thoughts. You are not just making art. Art is making you. Every stroke rewires the brain that made the stroke. The artist is not using the brush. The brush is sculpting the artist.

Neuroplasticity: the brain reorganizes by forming new neural connections. In artists, increased gray matter density appears in areas for visual imagery and fine motor coordination, allowing more seamless transduction of mental concepts into physical gestures. The callus on your drawing finger is proof that the brain changed its hardware to match the software you were running.

SOUND: The silence of deep flow when you forget time exists: the brain rebuilding.

SMELL: The comforting, old-paper smell of a well-used sketchbook.

TASTE: The refreshing taste of water after hours of focusing: emergence.

TOUCH: The callus on your finger where the pencil always rests: your body recording your practice.

SIGHT: Suddenly seeing shapes in the shadows of a room: your brain upgrading in real time.

BODY: Muscle memory drawing a perfect curve without thinking: your hand knows things your mind forgot.

Music: All Your Favorite Bands by Dawes

Music: Healing by Marvin Gaye

Part of Painting & Drawing — ART — Education Revelation