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How Almost Anyone Can Learn To Draw
What do you need to be able to draw?
Creativity? Talent? Long fingers? Good genes?
Are these the equipment every artist has?
Please be indulgent, and obey me blindly while I take you though a very simple exercise. On your right.
Let's explode some myths
1. Long Fingers?
I have long fingers, true, but I can draw with my feet or mouth or nose. Have you seen those delightful pieces of art created by artists with their feet and mouths?
2. Inborn Talent ?
17 years ago I went for classes in Visual Communication. I used to draw as a child, but there were a lot of students who had not drawn anything in their lives. Wonders! When the merciless drawing teacher forced them to draw, every day, even those wretches could draw! That also dishes the myth of
3. Genes
Sure, genes work in one way. They give you confidence. Everybody in your family sings beautifully, so you should be able to sing, at least one day, if you practice enough. And you know how it is: When I drew a creative stick figure at 3 years of age, my father said, "He's an artist like me!" and he was my superhero, and I doodled away, trying to be like him.
4. Practice and Passion
Those are not myths, they are the real thing. You have just drawn a face. Draw a hundred faces, and you are experienced, more confident, more an artist!
While you do a hundred faces, do some variations. Change shapes, expressions and positions. Like I did below.
Scientific, Logical proof
Now, I'll prove to you scientifically that if you can write, you can draw!
What does an artist actually do, when he or she draws? I look at the subject, memorise it visually, then transfer my memory to paper. Some have great memories, but though the memory is willing, the hands could be weak. Remember our kindergarten scrawls when we struggled to replicate each letter of the alphabet? After years of practice, you can write so beautifully, your 'y's and 'h's making quite artistic loops and swirls. You sign with wonderful flourishes that is fit to be framed and displayed! If you can do that, why can't you draw? Stands to reason, doesn't it? The key to craft is practice, only that. It's not talent; it's refusal to do hard work.
Keep practising.
You are an artist!