I really wish I could draw. And I don't even mean the incredibly detailed and skillful paintings that get the most attention, I mean simple line drawings like this that completely and undeniably capture the essence of what a simple object looks like in the least amount of detail possible.
If I could learn to draw (as an adult, earlier this year), you most certainly can. Check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
What surprised me is how technical and detail-oriented drawing is - at least how I was taught. Didn't feel at all "artsy."
I'm looking across the room at a self portrait that's very nearly recognizable(!). If you are willing to put in some hard effort, drawing is totally doable, even for the completely "untalented."
That book is wonderful. I only did the first major exercise, but I produced a drawing I had no idea I was capable of. I do not have any "artistic talent". Here's the original, and what I drew:
What was the secret? The book said to hold the drawing upside down and copy what I saw. I produced that copy with literally no training, other than observation of the page.
Let me assure you this was not due to talent. My prior attempts at drawing were horrid. That book is highly recommended.
I'm sure I could learn, given enough time and effort, but I don't consider it worth it, especially since I strongly suspect it will be a very uphill battle for the way my brain "naturally" works.
>I strongly suspect it will be a very uphill battle for the way my brain "naturally" works.
What we have been trying to explain is that this belief is incorrect. Everyone likes to pretend that the ability to draw is some sort of mystical power bestowed upon artists while they were still in the womb. HN in particular should understand how silly this is, because non-technical people generally think the same thing about programming and general computer skills.
Learning to draw is largely the same experience for everyone. If you don't think that this process is worth the effort, then you don't really want to be able to draw, as you originally claimed.
There used to be a threat in an art forum where a member joined, barely able to draw a stick-figure. He kept uploading his work and getting feedback, and eventually, he opened his own art school.
> Everyone likes to pretend that the ability to draw is some sort of mystical power bestowed upon artists while they were still in the womb. HN in particular should understand how silly this is, because non-technical people generally think the same thing about programming and general computer skills.
I used quotation marks around "naturally" because I don't believe that my abilities are completely determined by genetics. I think "nurture" may have just as profound an effect on my lack of drawing ability, namely the fact that I was never interested in drawing when I was younger (when I suspect my brain was naturally more inclined to learning such things). And I do believe the same thing about programming: I doubt that a completely computer- and math-illiterate person in their mid twenties would likely find it easy to learn programming.
> Learning to draw is largely the same experience for everyone.
I highly doubt that. It's one thing to say that anyone could eventually learn a skill like drawing, but an entirely different thing to say that everyone has very similar experiences learning to draw.
> If you don't think that this process is worth the effort, then you don't really want to be able to draw, as you originally claimed.
That's a silly semantic argument about what I meant. Wanting to be able to draw has nothing to do with being willing to do whatever it takes to be able to draw.
>That's a silly semantic argument about what I meant. Wanting to be able to draw has nothing to do with being willing to do whatever it takes to be able to draw.
It isn't about semantics. If you wanted to draw well, you would draw. You said that you will not so I think that its a fair statement that you don't really want to.
Dunno about one who opened an art school, but one stayed wth stick figures and made them very expressive to the point of being one of the most popular cartoons: XKCD.
There's one key piece of advice in that book, and it's simply draw what you see, not what you know. I consider myself devoid of any drawing talent, and yet I could produce pretty decent copies with relatively little practice. Also, if you take it as a hobby, rather than thinking about it in terms of RoI, it might work out better. Good luck, in any case.
My philosophy with art is that it is more technical than "artsy," and that the artistic aspect comes from the layers of logic. The more layers of logic applied, the more artsy it appears.
Art is largely a matter of identifying and mimicking color gradients, angles, proportions, etc., and then learning/practicing the various ways to apply the abstract objects to a certain medium (e.g., oil paint on canvas, charcoal on paper, clay for sculpture).
Then you apply additional logic on top of that by learning (and ultimately extending) various "rules" that make something appealing. For example: rule of thirds, color contrast, and studying what stimulates the brain.
There was some study I read about in Scientific American magazine about how people enjoy impressionistic painting because the effort used by their brain to combine the various individual shapes (i.e., thick paint strokes) into an understandable picture is kind of like solving a puzzle on a subconscious level. That can be stimulating and exciting to the brain even though people may not realize it's happening.
Everyone on the planet that has at least one hand is capable of drawing at a professional level. The only thing stopping you is a lack of practice.
If you want to get good at it, draw, observe objects closely, read books and watch tutorials on youtube(or elsewhere), and then draw some more.
The more you practice, the better you will get. There is no such thing as raw artistic talent. Some people learn faster than others but no one has learned to draw well without lots of practice.
Do you really believe all that? That, given equal amounts of practice, everyone has equivalent drawing potential? That learning drawing at a young age is orders of magnitude more effective than trying to learn as an adult?
What he meant was that anyone with a sufficiently functional hand as a drawing potential at least equal to that of a "professional". That's not saying that everyone has the same drawing potential since "professional" isn't the limit of drawing skill.
And its very likely that learning to draw at a young age is if not orders of magnitudes, then significantly more effective than as an adult simply though greater brain plasticity, and probably having less inhibition.
I didn't say that everyone would progress in a manner that's perfectly equal in every aspect, but I do believe that everyone can learn to draw just as well as professional artists do.
History might not regard you as Michelangelo's equal, but there are quite a few amateurs that (technically speaking) draw just as well as he did.
I used to be able to draw but then I got into photography but just briefly because along came computers. Although I had been drawing a lot and well since before school-age (5 years old) or so my mom says.
Now having been lazy I haven't drawn anything in almost two decades. If I had it and lost it I'm sure I, or anyone, could practice to learn again or as beginner to learn.
It's very zen to do you can't rush it's something you have to slow down to do and learn to love it. It's the only thing where I could really concentrate to the point I'd come out of it (trance?) hours later.
A friend of mine is this crazy awesome Turkish painter, jack of several artistic trades (relief, perspective, murals, architecture and sculpture). His handwriting is fast, perfect and artistic on blank paper without lines, on surfaces or upside-down on a ceiling.
Conclusion: aptitude + experience is indistinguishable from magic for those that don't possess it (like yours truly).
i decided to learn drawing 4 years ago, and have been working on it since then. once you realize that it is about seeing as much as drawing, and that the drawing part is actually really technical and a skill, it gets really fun (and frustrating too, of course).
this is halfway recent stuff from last year or so (not very good at scanning my things):
