Far from being simply an admirable pastime, research has found that drawing is actually parallel to language in the way it is structured and the way we learn it.

Like language, it is an inherent part of us that develops consistently in children from birth until puberty, after which time we face a “period of oppression … when our progression abruptly slows and stagnates”. Dr Fisher points out this is largely because over time, we have simultaneously devalued drawing as a skill (a 2020 poll ranked artist as the top non-essential job) while viewing it as the growth of an individualistic skill in which some are more or less proficient.

This detachment from drawing is even more surprising when we think about its benefits on not only our cognition and health, but also our souls.

“How we feel influences how we draw,” Fisher says. Likewise, engaging with drawing affects how we feel; it can help us understand and process our inner world, and is particularly useful in working through trauma.

“My whole doctorate was around autobiographical comics, which was very powerful for me,” he says. “Drawing helped me think about events that had happened ... because drawing is so slow, you’re forced to spend time in that past and to really think about it.”

Artists often refer to their art practice as a way of working through their innermost emotions. French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, known for her feminine forms, giant spider sculptures and “cell” installations, often expressed her feelings and experiences of love and marriage through visual art, suggesting that “the artist is lucky to [be able to] overcome his demons without hurting anybody”.

Similarly, artist and writer Terry Sullivan recalls how drawing helped him process a horror shooting on a New York train in 1993, during which he witnessed a gunman gun down several fellow passengers while sparing him.

“I’m a writer, and I use words to tell stories. But after a tragic event in 1993, I felt as though words had lost their efficacy,” he writes. Instead, he found solace in still-life painting, where he “used the canvas to visually piece together fragments of personal memories, emotions, and fears during this time”.

“It also helped me avoid obsessing over remembering the shooting, a common problem with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD,” Sullivan writes.

The fact that drawing can help us make sense of traumatic experiences that words themselves cannot express is further evidence of how visual art is intimately connected to how we think, feel – and who we are.

“We can learn a lot about ourselves through the act of drawing,” Fisher says. “It’s a way of thinking, a way of being, something that really slows down our brain and frees it up to process all of the important stuff.”

A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.