How I Taught Myself to Draw - Are Artists Born Gifted?

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog. Okay so let's talk about how I learned how to draw. Firstly I was always interested in drawing so I'd spend a lot of time doing it through my childhood but there was probably a point in time where I wasn't exactly good at it because of course, everyone starts off in the same position having to go through that process of trying to learn and practice. At a young age, I would just spend more time drawing for enjoyment rather than worrying about if my drawings were good. Because I was drawing a lot and practicing consistently and naturally improved over time. I became more experienced and more comfortable with what it was I was actually drawing. As a kid, I was always drawing my favorite cartoon characters and anything that I found interesting. I'd set out to draw these as best as I could but I suppose in somewhere it was the process of drawing it, which I actually enjoyed the most. For a young kid, it gave me the opportunity to recreate my favorite things on paper and I enjoyed seeing the resultant images of things that I could relate to as well as actually drawing it.

I think that's what a lot of children do as they grow up. Every child likes to draw and eventually they end up wanting to draw things they can relate to and it's at this point when a child maybe becomes a bit discouraged and stops drawing because they struggle to draw how they are supposed to look. In turn, they see themselves as not being good at drawing because of that. That is at least something that I experienced when I was practicing if I was to draw something like a cartoon character and aim to draw it the best that I could and capture the likeness of that character. For instance and maybe I didn't do that too well then I'll be under this illusion that the drawing isn't a successful drawing. That'd be a lot of people who would also set out to create drawings and if it didn't look correctly as the actual reference or something they were trying to draw then they'd think that the drawing was bad. It's almost like this man said that can be quite frustrating. If you are learning how to draw and you have to look at these situations in a different light. For instance, if you are drawing something and it doesn't end up looking like it should don't consider it to be an unsuccessful drawing. Think of it as being more of a step forward and aware that you can then improve and learn from.

Look at the mistakes analyze your work and then move on and try again and see if you can improve on the things that you maybe struggled with in the last attempt. As long as you are spending time drawing then naturally you will be improving and working on your drawing ability. Don't worry about the actual outcome instead just try to spend a lot of time drawing and focus on the process of learning. Going back to the subject where I was talking about growing up and drawing as a kid, how sometimes we can be discouraged if our drawings don't look like we want them to and then as a result of that, we maybe stop drawing completely because we come to this conclusion that drawing might not be for us. There are children who maybe have more practice or found something else in drawing that keeps them doing it. It might be a talent but I don't like to throw that word around too much because if there is some form of talent, it can only do so much.

I was the type of child that kept on drawing even when I wasn't happy with it. I'd just start again and aim to do it better next time. It was a challenge for me to draw all of these different things. I also enjoy showing people my work in hopes of getting a good response out of them once they had seen what I had created and in somewhere that helped push me forward. It was motivating me to always create better things. If I was to go ahead and answer the question how did I learn how to draw then I'd say that just being obsessed and wanting to draw all of the time, naturally helped me to learn new things. It was something that I carried on through school and as I was growing older the drawings and things I was making were also changing as well. I started to do a lot of design work for other subjects and so I was still learning different drawing aspects I also came across hyper-realistic drawings. In somewhere that inspired me to try and create work on that level. I'm not sure why I had the mindset to draw as realistic as possible. I guess it was a style of work I wanted to strive for.

It was pretty much like a goal to make every drawing better than the last one and over time it came to a point where I was confidently drawing with a realistic style. I started to learn a lot about different elements of drawing and just started to immerse myself in everything creative. I started to learn more by looking at other artists and paying attention to all of the things that make up a successful drawing. I also look at my weaknesses and trying to work on them. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I have learned everything there is so much involved in so many things to learn when it comes to drawing and that's what makes it exciting I'm still learning and just like when I used to attempt to draw as a kid.

If I was to give someone some advice on how they should learn to draw. I'd say that first of all you need to want to do it, you need to want to be drawing whenever you get a chance. Just enjoy the act of drawing and start getting a feel for it. Draw anything you want in anywhere. Don't worry about how the drawing appears instead just keep on drawing, doing something is better than doing nothing and from doing that you will learn more about your drawing ability and give yourself a starting point where you can then find the things that you want to work on. You should try and analyze your work and honestly recognize the areas you need to improve in.

Going back to when I would draw as a kid I remember drawing the same things over and over again and with each attempt, I would always look at why I could do better and then take that into consideration with the next one. Sometimes this would lead me to study more of creating textures and so I would set myself goals of working on those areas. Coming back to the drawing and going again analyzing your own work can be really beneficial but you need to be able to recognize what it is that you need to work on. This can be tricky for a beginner. Sometimes looking at other professionals and more experienced artists and analyze their work can help you to learn how and what you need to do in your own drawings. However, don't compare yourself and your work to others in a way that will discourage you. Instead, recognize the fact that you are learning and take advantage of it. Now of course when you are learning to draw, underlining everything will be the drawing fundamentals. This includes perspective which from experience, I have learned to be one of the most vital elements involved in drawing.

When it comes to perspective without it you will struggle to draw anything. Then, of course, there are other fundamentals, anatomy, light, and shadow but don't let all of this overwhelm you. You don't have to tackle it all at once, just take your time with it and also try to figure out what will be most important to you in terms of what it is that you want to draw and what you will be creating. When I was drawing at a young age I didn't really have a concern with these fundamentals. However, eventually, I realized that they allow you to really improve your work in other directions and I started to pay more attention to them. They can seem like a boring and tedious part of drawing but you will benefit a lot from a basic understanding of them when you want to draw anything. If you are mainly interested in creating realistic drawings like portraits or landscapes which involve mainly working from a reference image then you might benefit more from focusing on creating textures and details the actual techniques you use to recreate these images. On the other hand, if you want to explore character design and focus on more imaginative work then anatomy perspective and most of the fundamentals will be needed and all of this will require lots of practice.

Don't think that you need to learn all of it before you start drawing because we learn all of these things from actually drawing. What I mean by that is that you should just start drawing and make mistakes then recognize those mistakes whatever that might be. If it's in terms of perspective, for instance, it will give you a starting point to then go and learn more about that before then correcting it or drawing again. It's a constant cycle of drawing and learning and there isn't an endpoint and overall that's what makes drawing exciting. So there we go that pretty much concludes this. I hope you enjoyed this. Thank you, everyone!

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