Drawing Thought: How Drawing Helps Us Observe, Discover, and Invent

by Andrea Kantrowitz

Drawing as a tool of an investigation of drawing, cognition, and creativity that integrates text and hand-drawn images.

Drawing is a way of constructing ideas and observations as much as it is a means of expressing them. When we are not ready or able to put our thoughts into words, we can sometimes put them down in arrangements of lines and marks. Artists, designers, architects, and others draw to generate, explore, and test perceptions and mental models. In Drawing Thought, artist-educator Andrea Kantrowitz invites readers to use drawing to extend and reflect on their own thought processes. She interweaves illuminating hand-drawn images with text, integrating recent findings in cognitive psychology and neuroscience with accounts of her own artistic and teaching practices.

The practice of drawing seems to be found across almost all known human cultures, with its past stretching back into the caves of prehistory. It takes advantage of the ways in which human cognition is embodied and situated in relationship to the environments in which we find ourselves. We become more aware of the interplay between our external surroundings and the inner workings of our minds as we draw. We can trace moments of perception and understanding in a sketchbook that might otherwise be lost, and go back to reexamine and revise those traces later. Kantrowitz encourages readers to draw out their own ideas and observations through a series of guided exercises and experiments, with her lively drawings and engaging text pointing the way. Drawing is a tool for thought in anyone’s hands; it is creativity in action.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2022

About the author

Andrea Kantrowitz, an artist and educator, has lectured and led workshops on art and cognition internationally. She was a teaching artist in New York City public schools for many years, involved in multiple local and national research projects that demonstrated the positive academic impact of an integrated art curriculum for students growing up in poverty. She holds a doctorate in Art Education and Cognitive Studies from Columbia University Teachers College, an MFA in Painting from Yale, a BA in Art and Cognition from Harvard and is an Associate Professor and Director of the Art Education Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and are in many private collections.

Reviews

[TheNomad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book I've read this year. There's still a few more reviews for me to write. But this one was almost life-changing and I say that hesitantly because I don't say stuff like that often.

The book gives the benefits of drawing and creativity, of practicing your creativity and putting your thoughts to paper, of formulating how they are and look. I find that endlessly fascinating. And I find the book to be stunningly beautiful. All its pages are well-made and crafted with love. There's just nothing like it. I wish more books were like this, that took advantage of the pages rather than just dump words on you.

If you want to be convinced to take up drawing, read this book. Here's your argument for drawing or learning how to draw. Here's something that you won't regret ever.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. It is gorgeous to look at, and intellectually stimulating to read. The words and images flow together (the way the words and music in a song seem of a piece - inseparable from one another).

Fascinating explanations of the newest science on how the mind works, how drawing works, and how they each impact upon the other.

Highly recommended, especially if you are interested in drawing, art, and consciousness.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that I feel helps people who need exercises in imagination if you can't easily generate drawing content or an emotional outlet, like art therapy. I wasn't in agreement with the spiritual ideology threaded throughout the book, so I lost interest quickly.

[Karen Carlson]

saw on Five Books; wait until price comes down but it might be worth a shot even though I CANNOT draw no matter how many times some smartass tells me everyone can.

[Sophia Exintaris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting conjunction of art, art education, neuroscience, and some art practice exercises.

[Julia C Luft · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picture book on how drawing improves cognition. Did I read this to affirm my life choices yes. Did it work no