Many people believe strongly that there is an elite population of people that have some sort of uncontrollable skill.
They believe that these people can do things that they themselves cannot do, and are able to do those things because of raw talent that they were born with.
The people who think this, cannot draw.
Are you one of those people? Or can you draw, but for some reason think that it is raw talent? I am here to tell you, that it is not.
People can draw or can't draw, because of one thing.
Practice.
Those who can draw like da Vinci, or replicate a pile of grapes and a wine bottle on to a canvas to an inch of the said grapes life, can do so because they have practiced doing so from a young age.
Think of that person in school.
Who you have dim memories of them, sitting quietly in the corner of the library and drawing her lunch hour away.
Or that cool guy that doodled in his books instead of listening.
Or the girl who always had a 'How to draw this' or 'How to draw that' in her desk.
And sometimes she let you borrow them, but you always felt that she was better.
She probably was better.
But not because artistic ability runs in her family since the early 18th century.
The reason these 'talented' artists can do what they do, is because of practice.
I can draw because I spend so much time drawing.
You can read fast, because you spend so much time reading.
Or you are a amazing rock climber, because ever spare moment will find you at the gym climbing the toughest wall.
The old saying goes, practice makes perfect.
It is true.
So now you are probably thinking, if all it takes is practice, then why can't I learn? My answer to that is that you probably can.
However because it takes practice, you have to be committed.
There is one style of drawing that you could possibly learn with out to much practice.
It does take a significant shift in the way you see things, though.
That is drawing from life.
Most of you will have probably tried this at one point or another in your life.
Whether it was in art class in primary school or a recent attempt because one of your children said, "Draw me!" Either way, if you are unpracticed in drawing then the result was probably the same.
A childish looking picture and a further blow to your drawing ego.
But look at one of those pictures.
Really look at it objectively, and try to see what the problem is.
It should be obvious as soon as I tell you.
Your drawing is of what you think you should be seeing, and not what you were actually seeing.
So in other words, if you drew a hand, you would have drawn all five fingers at their true lengths.
But in reality you might not have been able to see all five fingers.
And some of the fingers you could see may have been foreshortened.
To Draw from life you must be able to draw what you see, and not what you think is there.
A good way to think of this is drawing a train.
The train you are drawing is coming towards you.
The train has 18 carriages.
You know this, but in reality the only carriages you can see are the first two.
Because the rest are hidden behind these ones, at least from your point of view.
That brings up another point.
You don't need to tell everyone that will look at your art, about all 18 carriages by drawing them.
If you really need to tell them, do it verbally, but I doubt they will be interested.
This is because art is about your own point of view.
You are telling everyone about what you could see of this train.
You are not teaching someone how to make the train.
Lets leave that to engineers drawings.
Art is about drawing life.
Draw from your point of view to tell about your life.
Draw from life.
And most important of all...
Enjoy drawing all your life.