You Can Draw If You Want To
Why it’s never too late to create
Why you think you suck at drawing
Some time in primary school, I marched up to Mum and proudly exclaimed that when I grew up, I was going to be a Children’s Book Illustrator. It was really nice of my folks to play along with my dream, but eventually someone told me I “wouldn’t make any money doing that” and to aim for something more realistic. I was later informed that Space Cowboy / Treasure Hunter / International Super-Spy weren’t realistic dreams either (whatever), but eventually stumbled upon and fell in love with Graphic Design.
Now that I’m ‘all grown up’ (debatable) and working as a UI Designer at Outware, I’m frequently asked by my colleagues how to draw and be creative. Frankly, I believe that everyone has the ability to draw. Many people though, young and old, are hesitant to pick up pen and paper, and I totally get why — we’re actively raised to devalue and stigmatise our creative pursuits as frivolous, unskilled or wasteful. So, I’m not saying you’re all a secret Michelangelo genius-artist inside, I’m just saying that drawing is a tool that can be used by anyone open to trying.
Don’t believe me? Humour me for a second and think back to your childhood. You would have been absolutely bursting with creativity and lateral thought (due largely to a limited awareness of external judgement and the self). But, as you became more self-aware/conscious of how others viewed your creative pursuits, the pressure to perform and a new-found ‘fear of failure’ slowly killed your passion.
Before you knew how to care what people thought, before you were taught to fear mistakes more than trying, drawing was a tool that was enjoyable to explore. You were but one of the millions of children throughout history who were shamed or scared into stopping your passion — just because people made you feel bad for enjoying it.
We don’t grow into creativity, we get educated out of it” — Sir Ken Robinson
The definition of creativity can be simplified into ‘ideas that are original and have value’. Do you think you’re likely to be original or innovative if you’re afraid of being wrong? It’s totally ok to make mistakes! In fact, it’s the way we’re designed to learn. The only reason I can draw is because I’ve practiced it for 20+ years — and was awful at it for at least half that time. Terrible. I don’t come from a creative family either (right-brain fam represent), so didn’t have artistic parents nurturing me, they were just happy I wasn’t breaking things or eating sand probably.
How to stop thinking you suck
The phrases ‘I can’t draw’ and ‘I can’t draw artistically’ are very, very different, but we have a tendency to convince ourselves they’re the same. So, if you’ve ever thought to yourself “I wish I could draw”, I want you to tell your brain to stop sassing you, and to do what you tell it to do.
Technically, if you can place a pencil in your hands, and make a mark on paper, you can draw. At it’s core, a drawing is just a tool for communication, not high-art that has to be perfect to have value. While I was learning to draw I was also figuring out how to control the flappy sausages at the end of my arms, but you can do that already (right?). You’re an adult now! You have dexterity and problem solving skills!
The key to learning any new skill is simply practice, persistence and realistic goal setting. What do you actually want to achieve? Are you looking to render images photo-realistically? To create architectural diagrams? Produce caricatures? Defining a goal will help you focus and find the resources you need — and having the confidence to believe you can get there will guarantee your progress.
Real life example: Last year I decided that enough was enough, I should battle my fear of colour and tone. Historically, I’ve stuck to cartooning and flat illustration as my main strength, and always dismissed painting as ‘beyond my capacity’.
I bit the bullet and watched some painting tutorials. I bought reference books and a brush pack for Photoshop. I sat down and told myself that it was okay that I couldn’t paint perfectly, and removed all expectation from my practice. I reached out to people whose work I admired and became friends with them. Pro tip: there’s immeasurable value in the people you surround yourself with. I wanted to give myself the time and freedom to develop a style that felt comfortable and honest.
It’s also important to acknowledge that the creative’s journey is never complete. You don’t finish something, dust your hands off and say to yourself “Yup, I’m the best now, wheee!”; creativity is a wonderfully diverse and dynamic skill that you can hone for the rest of your life. Who cares if it takes 10 years for you to draw the way you’d like? The important thing is to constantly improve, and congratulate yourself on your growth.
“Your art shouldn’t be for the approval of others, it should be a conversation with yourself” — Aaron Grech
So, why not give it a go?
How good is the internet? If you were born a few hundred years ago you’d have to be extremely lucky (genetic lottery, anyone?) to even learn how to read, let alone practice art. Today, there are so many free knowledge bases out there — as well as paid/subscription ones — that you could realistically learn any skill you wanted to if you have the patience and persistence.
My favourite tool for art reference and inspiration is currently Instagram. Find someone who does the thing you want to do and learn from them, that’s how it used to be done! Artist’s apprentices learnt the ‘tricks of the trade’ from copying their master’s every stroke. It’s not cheating, it’s not wrong, it’s how you learn.
Good places to find artists and tutorials include Instagram, Patreon, YouTube, Gnomon, DeviantArt, Artstation… and so many more. Find what works for you.
If all else fails, blame the muses
I’d like to leave you with a story, one that I often turn to when I feel overwhelmed or unskilled. Back in Ancient Greece, if you created something cool, all the folk would say “Oh you lucky dog, you were visited by the muses!” Rather than being perceived as god-like, you were simply thought to have been visited by a god, which removed all pressure to create future work. If you did do some more cool stuff, you were even luckier and the muses liked you. If you never did anything cool again, that was ok, the muses only visited you once.
There’s so much pressure on today’s creative to always be ‘on’, to continuously create. If you alleviate yourself of this pressure, and create for you, I can guarantee you’ll lose less hair and spend less time sobbing under your desk.
Have fun, good luck, be rad.
