This is why most people don't dream in text.

Now making images is not only an art

but a visual form of communication

that it's rich and is complex as written language.

The most fundamental way to make an image is to draw one.

Now I've drawn for my entire life

I've taught thousands of people to draw

and I am convinced that drawing is a skill

that is as essential as literacy and numeracy.

Now specifically I'm talking about observational drawing,

which means to observe something

and draw an accurate representation of it.

Observational drawing is more of a science than an art.

It requires learning how three dimensional

forms occupy space,

how they interact with light,

and demands that every attribute of the subject

be analyzed and recorded.

Now people often assume that

a good drawing is accurate from it start

but this is absolutely not the case.

The first lines of a drawing are rarely accurate,

so they're drawn lightly

often so lightly they're hardly visible.

Light lines can be drawn, evaluated

and redrawn as many times as necessary

in order to arrive at an accurate representation.

This means that drawing trains our minds

to view our mistakes

as an essential part of a process.

Too often people experience a sense of

shame regarding their mistakes,

but imagine what might have been different in your life

had your mistakes in any area been viewed as normal, temporary,

and holding vital clues your eventual success.

Now in addition to being fundamental to drawing

this is also the mindset that is crucial for innovation to occur.

The ability to innovate is essential

in a global economy

where almost anything to be commoditized

except the process of innovation.

In fact new ideas only occur when we take risks

and our failures become productive.

Drawing habituates that thought process

and bearing it in mind is a perfectly

natural way of finding solutions.

Now I often hear people say

that drawing doesn't have a practical use outside of art design

and I actually agree with one addendum,

if you're a human you're a designer.

To design is to analyze and solve problems.

Limiting ourselves to words and numbers

leaves a gap on our problems solving skill set.

Human beings have a powerful imagination

that when tempered with a design process

can solve almost any problem.

Drawing is a tool that allows us to visually tap into that imagination

and extract ideas so they can be developed.

Drawing when combined with language and mathematics

offers a complete set of tools

for solving and exploring creative challenges,

as well as communicating those solutions to others.

Now in almost every drawing class I've ever taught

there are students who are convinced that they can't learn to draw

because they're not talented.

The whole concept of talent is that of a skill-based aristocracy,

that if we're not born into we're doomed to mediocrity.

This idea create a dangerous mental block to human capacity.

Fortunately researchers are proving that mastering any field

depends much more on passion and practice that innate ability.

Just like language and mathematics drawing can be taught

and while you're learning how to draw,

you may begin to wonder

what else you are capable up

to use to assume required talent.

There is a sense that people often get

when viewing an old drawing

that it was done because the camera

had not yet been invented.

But the act of drawing is much closer to solving a mathematical equation

than taking a photograph.

Drawing is an active way of engaging reality

of observing, analyzing and recording it

with the possibility of reimagining it.

40% of our brain is devoted to processing visual information,

that's more than all over other senses combined,

but most people never gain the conscious understanding

of how to communicate visually through an image based language

which is a universal language.

Now in my own life, drawing is how I've made sense of the world,

to borrow from thorough drawing is always been my way

of driving life into a corner and reducing it down.

I would encourage everyone

to participate in this fundamental human experience.

I'm calling for a widespread visual literacy,

whether it's on paper, tablet or any other form of technology,

visual literacy begins with drawing.

Thank you.

(Applause)