How Almost Anyone Can Learn To Draw
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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!
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Mail me the results, please.
I love that song too, and hated school till I was about 14 or so. Don't want no education, yes, but you asked for it!
A circle, two dots and a U is as good as it gets for me.!!
I will have to wait for your next Hub to be proved scientifically, until then;)
Hope you are happy with the result; thanks for trying! Sci proof coming soon :D
That was fun and encouraging.
Wonderful! Does anyone remember the Saturday TV show where Jon Nagy taught how to draw?
Those faces have real personality on this Hub!
Thanks, Bob! Please keep drawing away!
Patty, great pointer! Thanks to you, I have include two videos above from that show!
And thanks for appreciating my faces, too. At least my drawn faces have personality! :D
O goody! - Videos! I used to draw along with the show. :)
I learnt that viewers bought his kit, which included a cel sheet that they placed on top of the sreen and drew along with him?
I heard that the cel sheet was a popular thing for awhile. I never saw one, but I heard about people having one for the Jon Nagy show and for a cartoon show called "Tom Terrific." In the second one, kids were to draw in tools for Tom and his sidekick dog to use against invading aliens and such. I saw one of the Tom Terrific cells in a traveling museum exhibit.
Kenny! You've just got the seal of approval from my granddaughter. She loved your faces and promises to practice every day.
Thanks Super Hub
regards Zsuzsy & sidekick
Now I'll try to find out about Tom Terrific, Patty! Thanks!
Zsussy, nobody loves my real face, sob, sob, sniff! Thank you, both of you, Z and sidekick, for drawing faces and calling the hub super! I can't wait to post the next one of the series!
Great hub, this will help my little borther who thinks he cannot draw. Although I keep telling what you tell! :D
If he wants to draw, he can, Volatto! I keep telling people, too, but they don't believe! Which is why I put up that experiment, and hopefully the written word is respected more than the spoken. Thanks for reading my hub and for the comment.
I've always wanted to be an artist. This was a lot of fun! It's amazing how YOU can create such characters with just a circle, 2 dots, and 2 U's. The one in the middle on the next to the last row looks like Charlie Brown!
Ah, Angela, you treaded on my secret! IMy love for Charlie Brown and Ziggy kinda influenced my style! Very perceptive comment, thanks!
It's not just the dots and the lines: you feel the emotion and all you need are lines and dots.
And everyone who can feel emotion can draw!
Fun Kenny . Will try this with the children when I get back to work next week..G-Ma :O)
Wonderful, G-Ma, have fun! :)
Oh my goodness Kenny, fabulous. I AM an artist!
It is after 12 midnight, and here I am, inspired by your encouragement... and I have duplicated each and everyone of your faces. Hooray!
I doodle on everything whenever I am talking on the phone, etc. and have access to paper and pen. It drives everyone in my family nuts. They know when I have been hanging around, because of my signature scribbling.
Mostly stars, asteriks, little silly circle flowers, etc... I do this until I cover whatever is in front of me... But nothing as magnificent as your faces.
Wait until they see my new skills!
I am signing up for your course:-)
tDMg
" I AM an artist!" That would be music to my ears, if I could hear you. I add my hooray to your cheers! That's a great start, delightful! Keep scribbling!
You will do better and better till you'll be teaching others to draw! That's the idea!
Good night, happy dreams!
Kenny your timing is impecable. Our grandaughters are coming again this weekend. What timing i have more things for them to drawThank you
I am glad, Frank, thanks for telling me.
I have no problem with children: they all know that they can draw. Adults take more time. Have fun, all of you.
how do u draw a sidekick?
The same way, Le-Le. Just change the shape of the face.
Kenny that's great!! I have always wanted to draw. I have a cousin who is a fabulous cartoonist although he doesn't admit it. ~Peter
LOL! He has a secret ID?
Good that you want to start cartooning, Peter. It's easier to draw toons than real people.
Wonderful! Had no idea a circle and a few lines could create so many different expressions - I mean I did, but not that I could do it, too :)Looking forward to your science proof that I could possibly get beyond stick figures... I "see" but putting it to paper/canvas/whatever has always eluded me :(
Good God, i forgot about that scientific proof! Should add that soon!
But till then, please put pencil to paper and try out these very simple faces.
great hub, but you devalue yourself and other artists in a way. the key ingredient I think besides self-discipline, study and practice is vision. I think that is an inborn personality factor.
you should credit yourself more highly. you are a lovely artist. :)
Thank you, my dear friend, for rich praises. You have trapped me in a corner here. :D Your kindness does not allow me to disagree with you, and my honesty would not let me accept the praise as it is.
I believe that nobody is born special, and that everything can be learnt.
And why need I credit myself highly, when I have friends who are generous with their praises?
well, you may continue to rely on this one. I enjoy even more than your work itself, the joy and delight you take in making it inclusive and the enthusiasm with which you encourage interest in the arts.
on a more personal level, I appreciate too you making it as easy to understand and basic as possible for those of us who like to create, but are less artistically talented.
you, my friend, are quite the delight. :)
And you, my friend, are not just wise and kind, but are also very clever, haha.
"but are less artistically talented."
You managed to put that in, knowing that I would never agree that you are that!
My turn to be delighted, though outwitted. :D
bah, you aren't supposed to catch me. I may have some aptitude for verbal propaganda or what I prefer to call agitprop or slanting.
:D
I still think you are the cat's meow, though. :)
Yes Kenny you are surely that...G-ma :o)hugs
Ladies, I hope that is a compliment! Nobody has called me a cat's meow; I must have led a sheltered life. :)
Please read the scientific proof I have furnished just now, in pursuance of my cause. Now I am an activist!
you are, indeed! in irish "Tá tú, muise."
lolz, scientific proof indeed. I might call that good manners, humbleness and hopeless optimism in others' abilities. nice addition, though! :D
You disagree so delightfully, O poet. If someone needs to learn how to disagree, that person can take your corresspondence course.
Tá tú, muise? Goodbye, mouse?
(Oops, didn't realise that was a translation. Apologies.)
haha
for goodbye, slan. for hello, dia duit
for my favorite 'there is that' = bhuel sin fior (well, that's true)
I do disagree well, ty. I think it's because I have a lot of practice at being disagreeable. hehehe
You are agreeably disagreeable, Iðunn, and delightfully annoying! Being a poet, you are figures of speech personified.
I believe that is one of the best compliments I've ever received. I'm going to just say to that, thank you! :)
Welcome, always! I take great pleasure in declaring that, too!
I counsel and teach blacksmiths. Most are doing decorative ironwork, this makes them what is known as "artist blacksmiths". Many claim they cannot draw or learn to draw. They are surprised when I tell them they better learn to draw if they are going to be an artist blacksmith. I am othen confronted with that "I cannot leanr to draw statement.
People who say they cannot draw have tried and given up. Drawing, like any other manual skill requires practice. It also requires learning skills that apply to the kind of art they want to produce.
The manual skills are no different (as noted above) than learning to write, or throw a ball, play a musical instrument or pound hot iron. They all require the desire to learn and practice, practice, practice.
From my parents, Jon Gnagy and other art instruction manuals I learned to be a "constructionist". This means to build complicated shapes such as the human form using basic elements. From HS drafting classes I learned about analyzing views. If you can draw two or more flat views you can generate an isometric solid. From a mentor I learned to not think or to try to control the line, but to just feel it. This is the opposite of being a constructionist and helps to develop a more expressive line. See the drawings of Picasso for someone who could express a great deal with few lines.
But mostly I practiced. I started drawing seriously in kindergarten and spent almost every class for the rest of my school career drawing SOMETHING. I drew in school and out of school. I took all the art classes I could including mechanical drawing while in school. By the time I graduated from HS I had the skills of a professional artist. It only took me 15 years. Many have called me a "natural born artist". But I tell them there is no such thing. Unlike many adults I remember most of my childhood in clear detail. I remember strugeling to draw simple things. I remember tracing coloring book drawings when I was 4 years old. I remember trying to use the constructionist technique to build realistic nudes as a teenager. There was no being born to it, it was simply the desire to do it and trying again and again.
Anyone with the right instruction and practice can learn to draw adequately. Anyone with the desire and lots of practice can learn to draw well.
Yes, Jock, what we call talent is the passion that drives people and the confidence they have in their ability to learn. Kind of insulting them by calling something that took years of practice a talent.
Thank you for this valuable addition to my hub.
The show with the gel shet was "Winky Dink" You drew things on the screen following the host to help the character do things. Sort of an early Dora the explorer. I tried it with a crayon when I was younger. Next week I had the kit from the show. Crayon is not east to remove ftom a TV Tube.
Thanks, OldePhart, for that extra! Actually I thought crayon was impossible to remove from a gel sheet.
Hi There,
You make the statement "I'm a pro!
Presumably you mean you are a professional so what is it that gives you justification for calling yourself a professional how do you quantify that statement?
Thank you, Dominic.
Hi Dominic.
I draw for a living, have been doing that for twenty years. So I mean I am a professional illustrator. Thanks! :)
this is was my first time actually trying to draw something other than stick figures and birds thanks for showing how to make something. i had fun
I'm delighted that you had fun, Jessica. :)
Fun hub! Thanks! :)
Delighted, thank you, Mhuze! :)
Kenny, you are to be commended for encouraging others to pick up pencil and draw.
But you certainly dated yourself, (and me), using Jon Nagy as an example. The TVs that he was seen on were the size of boxcars with screens the size of postage stamps. Or so I've heard!
Write on.
CP
Thank you, CP.
I am dated, but when those shows were on, we didn't have TV in my part of India. :D When we got one eventually, they were good-sized ones though black and white.
I picked those videos from Youtube. :))
Ha,ha, these faces remind me of the faces they show you in the hospital after surgery where you are supposed to point to the one that shows how you feel.
Never knew they did that, Dolores! :D
You are absolutely right abou practice, practice practice. When my daughter stopped practising piano I was astonished at her rapid decline. For some reason I truly believed drawing talent was a gift. You have given me hope because it is a skill I have always admired in others. Great hub and voted up.
Right, Seanorjohn! And practice with passion is not only painless but pleasurable! Have fun!
SunSeven 4 years ago
I tried, I failed, I tried, I failed, I tried, and I failed again. Pink Floyd was right.
Hey! Teacher, Leave The kids Alone!
No, just joking. I wish there is some way to post the results in the comments.
You are brilliant!
Best Regards