Learning to see the world through lines and spaces
Since I got to Toronto, I have been taking drawing lessons. I go once a week (or sometimes every second week), and each lesson, my art teacher introduces me to a different part of the human body. We’re starting with the basics so that ultimately, I can have all the tools I need to illustrate my own story book. (The story book idea probably merits an entire other post, but more than happy to share about this directly if you’re curious!)
Learning to draw as an adult has been an entirely different experience from anything else I can recall doing in the last couple of years.
I remember taking art lessons as a child, when my parents would drop me off every Saturday, and I’d draw what I was told to. It was primarily watercolour and consisted of reproducing famous works of art with some guidance from my art teacher. It was a group class, so there was little room for picking what I wanted to learn and draw — frankly, I also did not have a good sense of what I wanted to learn at that point in time, and went to art lesson simply because it was part of my Saturday routine.
When I reached out to find an art teacher (through Kijiji, which is a Canadian competitor to Craigslist), I started by sharing my ultimate goal. (This is yet another example of how being a management consultant has permeated into all corners of my life. Even my hobbies are goal driven…) After I found a teacher whose availability, approach and individual style fit my vision, I met up with her for a first lesson.
She explained to me that we could not just skip to the final product and would have to start with the basics of the human body.
I was initially a bit frustrated and wondered if she was just trying to drag out our lessons, but now that I’ve finally done lessons on the face, the torso, legs and arms, I can really appreciate her pedagogy.

As I’ve gotten back into drawing (the last time I did this was probably 9th or 10th grade of high school), I have been reminded of familiar frustrations I felt when I last took art class and concluded that I wasn’t a good enough artist. It is incredible how drawing is essentially the exercise of taking what we see in the world in 3D and breaking it down into lines and shapes.
It sounds so straightforward and simple when my art teacher shows me how to depict something, yet when I pick up a pencil and start to draw, my lines never quite curve the way I want them to, the spaces between my lines don’t quite resemble what I see, and the whole drawing always just looks a little bit off.
I have been fascinated by the process of drawing because it challenges me in a very different way from my day-to-day work. It is incredibly refreshing to be taught how to manipulate lines in order to form specific shapes that then convey something that I see. Especially because my day-to-day work is mostly in the form of words, charts and graphs (on a computer), producing output by hand is really refreshing.
When I leave art class, clutching the paper on which I’ve just sketched some body parts, I feel a different type of fulfillment. It feels like I’ve learned a new language — a new way to express myself, a new way to see the world around me, and a new way to interpret meaning.
Especially as my lessons have been centred around the human body, I have found it fascinating to look around at all the people that surround me and start to actually think about how they would look in drawing form. It is incredible to think about the potential ability that I’ll have to capture certain sentiments and convey particular ideas through drawing. Of course, that’s likely a loftier goal than I can achieve in these six months, but the potential to even begin to unlock a little bit of that thrills me.
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A few weeks ago, I wondered if I would be stuck learning every single body part for my remaining four months in Toronto. I wondered if I’d ever make it to my characters.
I wanted to count down from March to now and figure out where I should be in my timeline of learning to draw, but I consciously resisted the urge.
I wanted to make sure that at least a handful of parts of my life weren’t catalogued and scheduled down to a T. I wanted to preserve how much of a break the drawing lessons have come to feel like, instead of making them into a chore. As a result, I hope that my art teacher has a good schedule in store for me–but I don’t need to ask and know it.

I have also started to wonder if I want to continue with drawing lessons (or at least setting aside protected time to draw every week) after I’m back in San Francisco. How I feel every Sunday as I head to art lesson has reminded me of the simple pleasure and joy I used to get from scrapbooking or making jewelry. It’s made me realize that maybe I need some sort of artistic activity to feel even more fulfilled in life.
Something I’m hoping to try in the next few months is going to the art gallery here and sketching sculptures or other pieces of art to test out whether I can apply my skills in a real life context, independent of my art teacher’s guidance. As well, I’ve been told to try out sketching a live model, so that is also on my longer term list of goals.
Here’s to hoping that I can keep up the first really externally-held-accountable hobby I’ve adopted over the past few years.
