The 7 Benefits of Painting and/or Drawing Classes

1. Improves Communication

Art helps us communicate in a different and more personal way, which allows us to express emotions and feelings that sometimes are not so easy to communicate verbally. Painting a picture gives us the opportunity to externalize what we carry inside and show the world how we see reality. This is a great benefit for everyone, but artistic activities are especially advisable for people with communication deficits, such as excessive shyness, autism, and other disabilities.

2. Painting as Therapy

Painting helps us distract ourselves from our problems. To paint, you have to concentrate fully and leave aside negative thoughts and other worries. It is an individual activity, whether at home or in class, where the student enters their own world. Focusing on a blank canvas allows one to isolate positively from reality, a sort of mental break that helps reduce stress, generates relaxation, and feelings of happiness.

Creative activities promote a better mood; you can transform everything that worries you into something pleasant. That’s why psychological therapies with artistic activities are becoming more common, especially in children, but also in adults, painting reduces depression and anxiety.

3. Increases Self-Esteem

Thanks to the challenge involved in facing a blank canvas, self-confidence and self-esteem are reaffirmed. Creating something from scratch, even if we make mistakes, is always positive. The fact of continuing to advance to learn how to fix those mistakes or how to correct them in the next painting increases our self-confidence. The best art academies provide a relaxed, non-competitive environment that helps students achieve greater personal accomplishments, strengthening individuality and self-esteem. Performing activities that can strengthen autonomy is very beneficial for people with some codependency or elderly people.

4. Stimulates Mobility

Did you know that painting improves fine motor skills? Learning to hold and handle a brush and/or pencil helps regulate hand movements and stimulates brain connections. For children, painting is especially important for developing this type of motor skill, and for adults, it helps maintain and strengthen it.

For the elderly, learning to press the brush more or less on the canvas, mix colors without spreading them all over the palette, dip just the tip of the brush, or apply paint delicately requires practicing small, calculated, and very precise movements that help prevent Parkinson's.

5. Increases Brain Activity

You’ve probably heard this quote many times; well, art classes are like a gym for the brain. Just as when you exercise, your muscles get in shape, the same happens to your brain when you paint: Drawing and painting stimulate the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The first deals with rational and logical elements, and the second maximizes our creativity and emotions.

The practice of painting is especially useful during the growth and development stages of children; it’s no coincidence that it’s a compulsory subject in school. But it is also considered important in adulthood, being very useful in combating diseases like Alzheimer’s, as it improves quality of life and reduces anxiety and depression in patients.

6. Develops Emotional Intelligence

Painting teaches us self-control and patience to achieve our goals. A painting is not completed in one afternoon, at least one with some detail or requiring previous layers of paint to dry. Gradually, students, unconsciously, will begin to apply the patience they have learned in class to solve their daily problems.

It improves the ability to evaluate and analyze, as well as self-criticism, without falling into excessive and unfair self-criticism, which is not positive. Students will compare their work with the original piece they are reproducing, the photograph or model. Observing the similarities, errors, successes, and comparing their evolution with that of their peers, ultimately learning how to improve their technique.

Making emotions flow through art helps create harmony between the heart and the mind, so painting will help us educate our emotional intelligence, develop empathy, and have a more open mind. Art provides a broader view of the world around us and how to harmonize with our inner self.

7. Improves Concentration

In this chaotic and increasingly stressful society, it’s becoming harder for us to concentrate. Television and social networks, where most of the time we are mere spectators and barely require concentration, make it increasingly difficult for children and adults to pay attention.

However, when painting, we first have to identify what color we need to apply, then which colors to mix to obtain the required color and in what proportions. After that, apply the color by choosing the right brush and paying close attention to how to move and press the brush. All this requires a lot of observation and concentration ability.

I hope you enjoyed this article and now have a much clearer understanding of the benefits of your classes for all your students. Whether you teach painting to children or adults, it is very important to know how to convey these benefits so that they value your art academy even more."