You don't have to be good at drawing to enjoy the benefits of making art. And there's a growing body of research suggesting that picking up a pencil might do us more good than we realise.
When did you last sit down and draw something, just for the pleasure of it?
Not for work. Not because you had to. Not because you were trying to create something impressive.
Just because you felt like it.
For many of us, drawing was once an ordinary part of life. As children, we drew without worrying too much about whether we were any good. We invented creatures, made pictures for people we loved, filled pages with patterns and imagined whole worlds.
Then, somewhere along the way, many of us stopped.
Perhaps someone told us we weren't very artistic. Perhaps life became busy. Or perhaps we simply forgot how enjoyable it could be.
At The Drawing Room, we're interested in what might happen if we made space for drawing in our everyday lives again.
And it turns out that researchers have been asking some interesting questions about this too.
Drawing might help us feel less stressed
In 2016, researchers at Drexel University in the United States invited 39 adults to spend 45 minutes making art.
They measured participants' levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, before and after the activity.
The researchers found that cortisol levels were significantly lower on average after the art-making session. Participants also described feeling relaxed, enjoying the experience and becoming absorbed in what they were doing.
Perhaps most encouragingly, the study found no significant difference in the results according to participants' previous experience of making art.
In other words, you didn't have to be an experienced artist to take part or potentially benefit.
It was a small study, without a comparison group, so we can't conclude that making art alone caused the change. But it offers an interesting starting point.
Drawing can help lift our mood
Psychologist Jennifer Drake and her colleagues have explored how drawing affects children's emotions.
In one study, children were asked to think about something disappointing and then draw.
Interestingly, children who drew something unrelated to their disappointment experienced greater improvements in mood than those who drew about the upsetting experience or copied another picture.
Later research also found that drawing something enjoyable or absorbing could help children feel better, even after just a few minutes.
This suggests something rather lovely: drawing doesn't always need to be about expressing our feelings or working through difficult experiences.
Sometimes, the pleasure of becoming interested in something else is valuable in itself.
Drawing a flower, a dinosaur, an imaginary landscape or a particularly interesting teapot might be just what we need.
There's something special about becoming absorbed
Have you ever become so involved in making something that you lost track of time?
Researchers sometimes describe this kind of deep engagement as flow.
Studies of art-making have reported experiences of absorption, enjoyment and freedom from everyday concerns.
It's an experience that many of us recognise, even if we haven't thought much about why it feels good.
Drawing invites us to pay attention: to notice shapes, shadows, textures, patterns and relationships.
For a little while, our attention can rest on what's in front of us rather than everything else competing for it.
At The Drawing Room, we'd like to make it easier for people to find those moments.
Not by telling anyone what they should draw, but by providing interesting things to look at, materials to experiment with and time to follow their curiosity.
Creativity can help us reconnect with ourselves
This is something we're particularly interested in exploring.
Many adults describe having enjoyed drawing when they were younger, but no longer thinking of themselves as creative people.
And yet, that part of us might still be there.
The Drexel University study found that some participants described discovering things about themselves through making art, feeling freer to experiment and wanting to make more art in the future.
That doesn't prove that drawing restores a person's creative identity. But it raises an interesting possibility.
What if returning to drawing isn't just about learning a skill?
What if it's also about remembering something we used to enjoy, finding time for ourselves or reconnecting with a part of our identity that has been neglected?
Perhaps the important change isn't simply “I can draw.”
Perhaps it's “I'm someone who draws.”
What about drawing alongside other people?
The evidence becomes broader when we look beyond drawing specifically to participation in the arts.
In 2019, the World Health Organization published a major review examining evidence from more than 3,000 studies on the relationship between arts engagement, health and wellbeing.
The review identified many ways in which arts participation may contribute to health and wellbeing, including through emotional expression, social interaction, cognitive stimulation and opportunities for meaningful participation.
The research covers many different art forms and settings, so it doesn't tell us exactly what will happen in a community drawing space.
But it does suggest that making creative opportunities accessible to more people is worth taking seriously.
At The Drawing Room, we're interested in something quite simple: the possibility of being creative alongside others.
You might arrive with a friend, strike up a conversation with someone new, or sit quietly and enjoy drawing without speaking to anyone at all.
All of those experiences are welcome.
We think there's value in having somewhere to go where you can enjoy an activity in the company of others, without any pressure to perform, achieve or even socialise.
You don't need to produce a masterpiece
Perhaps one of the most encouraging messages from the research is that the experience of making art can matter independently of the finished result.
Enjoyment, curiosity, experimentation and absorption are all worth paying attention to.
You don't need expensive materials.
You don't need to know the rules of perspective.
You don't need to make something beautiful.
And you certainly don't need to call yourself an artist.
You can simply begin.
What we'd like to discover at The Drawing Room
The research gives us plenty of reasons to be curious, but we don't want to assume that everyone will experience drawing in the same way.
That's why we're planning a twelve-week pilot in Exeter.
We want to explore what happens when people have an affordable, welcoming place where they can draw regularly, without needing to book a formal class.
We're interested in whether people enjoy themselves, feel more confident, discover new things, make connections or begin drawing more often.
We'll be inviting visitors to share their experiences through playful feedback activities, including simple questions about how they're feeling when they arrive and when they leave.
We'll also be listening to what people value about the space, what would make it more accessible and whether it's something they'd like to become part of their everyday lives.
We hope to discover things we haven't even thought of yet.
Perhaps the best reason to draw is that you enjoy it
Research can help us understand why creative activities might be beneficial. It can help us make the case for more accessible spaces, and it can help us learn whether we're making a difference.
But we don't believe that drawing needs to justify its existence through measurable improvements in health or wellbeing.
Sometimes, doing something simply because it's enjoyable is reason enough.
And perhaps that's where the benefits begin.
The Drawing Room is an invitation to pick up a pencil, make a mark and see what happens.
We'd love you to be part of it.
Find out more and help shape The Drawing Room:
www.thedrawingroomexeter.co.uk
Further reading
If you're curious about the research behind this article, here are three good places to start.
Kaimal, G., Ray, K. & Muniz, J. (2016). Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making. Art Therapy, 33(2), 74–80.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5004743/
Drake, J. E. & Winner, E. (2013). How Children Use Drawing to Regulate Their Emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 27(3), 512–520.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2012.720567
Drake, J. E. (2021). How Drawing to Distract Improves Mood in Children. Frontiers in Psychology.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33603704/
Fancourt, D. & Finn, S. (2019). What Is the Evidence on the Role of the Arts in Improving Health and Well-being? A Scoping Review. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.
https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289054553
Research note: The studies discussed here include small experimental studies and broader reviews of arts participation. Their findings are encouraging but don't establish that drawing will produce the same benefits for everyone or that an informal drawing space is a substitute for professional mental health support.