Can anyone learn to draw well?

[simongt]

Any sort of 'image reproduction', be it drawing, painting or whatever is all about how the artist chooses to interprete what they see. There isn't really any right or wrong way to do it. If you're happy with what you've done, fine.

 

[Time Waster]

In that case it's simply whether you can physically put down your interpretation. That's the difficulty and that's what drawing is.

 

[AndyRM]

Nailed it: interpretation is what drawing is.

 

[Reynard]

It depends. Engineering drawings are a set of specific instructions.

Sorry, just had to be nerdy

 

[Time Waster]

Engineering drawings are information with a purpose. Drawings or art are interpretations of what you see. Kind of the difference is about whether they're about imagrs for creating something new or about images showing what's already there.

 

[MontyVeda]

I used to be able to draw a hell of a lot better than i can now... but i used to draw a lot more then than I do now. You more you draw the better you get. Stop and you'll soon forget.

Most objects are just combinations of boxes, cylinders and spheres. Break things down into simple shapes and it's easier.

The book How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way taught me a lot (which I've long since forgot), although i never could actually draw the Marvel way.

This is a lot more advanced than the objects above, but the same simple shapes apply...

(also from the How to Draw the Marvel Way book)

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I was always terrible at any sort of art

in my mind

thinking back, at one point at school we were told to draw a table at meal time - I drew breakfast including a metal teapot and everything
normally we were given our work back to take home if we wanted - mine never came back

a while later I found out why - the Art teacher kept it for display in the main hall as it was (he said) so good
It was displayed after I finished doing Art as our school only did Art until the 5th Form so we could concentrate on 'O' levels - so I never got to talk to him about it - or get it back
And - thinking about it - after the Big School Entrance exams our class had very little that we needed to do - so we had about 1/2 year doing less academic stuff - including, at one point being sent out onto the cricket pitch with some paper and pencils and told to draw something
I did a tree - and I remember looking at the final product and thinking "I didn;t know I could do that"

Then when my daughter needed to draw something for homework at Primary School I had to help her - and found that I could copy anything from a book just by looking at it carefully and doing one bit at a time
Then did the same with something outside and managed to draw something else
but that was just helping with her homework - NOT ctually drawing in my head



but - if asked - I can't draw anything
I do wonder if it is just in my head and I might be able to draw something if I actually tried

but then I don;t want to
or do I not want to because I "know" I can;t


People are complicated

 

[chris667]

She was a talented pianist and teacher. All us cousins had lessons and got taught on visits by our gran. She told my parents that if we lived near she could do something with my sister but I had no talent. She said i simply had no coordination or ability.

That's the reason people don't believe they are good at art or music or anything else for that matter.

True story - my music teacher at school told her "clever" kids that I was too thick to learn music at GCSE. I was really, really upset and gave up.

She's probably dead now, and I get offers of paid work both playing and teaching music. So which of us came off better? The only thing in my life I really regret is I believed that teacher and didn't start learning music again until I was 34.

Of course you can learn anything artistic. All it takes is time, and developing the skill of listening or looking depending on what you want to do. I have been playing music for about six hours a day for the last 12 years. I do a couple of hours before my partner wakes up, then noodle in the evening or go out to play with other people. That's how you get to be good at something.

What most people really mean when they say they have "no skill" is that they've tried something and don't have the ability of someone who has spent decades practicing and developed their own techniques and skills. Have a look at Lowry's early work - he certainly didn't start painting "matchstick men" - he could do very realistic portraits. Here's a self portrait from when he was young:

See, it's not that he couldn't do accurate paintings, it's more that he chose to interpret subjects differently as his skills developed.

Yeah, there are some people who have natural "talent" so can learn a subject quickly, but it's not effortless. And people who were talented when they are young often come unstuck when they meet people who have done the work.

If you can't draw or play music or write a novel or whatever, don't blame it on a lack of talent. Skill needs to be developed, and that's down to you. The question is really are you committed to learn something even though it is hard and you'll spend a long time being crap at it? But saying you have no talent is really an excuse. Get painting, listen to those who are supportive, and ignore people who say you should give it up.

 

[Reynard]

Not forgetting that the actual process itself is enjoyable. Sometimes it's not about the end result, it's about how you get there. Drawing and painting is a great way to de-stress, and I know that I can lose myself in the moment when I'm working on something.

And the best bit of advice - there are no rules. Just try and see what works, and maybe you'll have a whole lot of fun while doing it. Like scribbling on a piece of paper with a wax candle or with crayons before adding paint, or putting liquid soap in your watercolour paint, or sprinkling salt on wet paint and stuff like that.

Sometimes I stick to classic techniques like pen & wash (see the pic I posted of the Chevron B38 Formula 3 car), but other times I will do stuff in a mix of ink and coloured pencils or watercolour and coloured pencils or whatever takes my fancy.

 

[presta]

It depends. Engineering drawings are a set of specific instructions.

Sorry, just had to be nerdy

Engineering drawing I can do, but not the shading it takes to make curved surfaces look right. My father was a draughtsman, and it appears much the same, look at the lack of shape and shading on the curves here:

(Those horizontal stripes are not on the drawing, the scanner has created them because there are corrugations in the paper where he was pressing too hard on the pencil)

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Engineering drawing I can do, but not the shading it takes to make curved surfaces look right. My father was a draughtsman, and it appears much the same, look at the lack of shape and shading on the curves here:

View attachment 700566

(Those horizontal stripes are not on the drawing, the scanner has created them because there are corrugations in the paper where he was pressing too hard on the pencil)

What horizontal stripes ???

I was looking elsewhere

 

[Tom B]

I am dyspraxic (and dyslexic) not massively, but enough. (I have been assessed and given a diagnosis).
Dyslexia is far more complex than the common belief that the words swim on a page, I don't really have an issue with reading or comprehension from written or spoken text. However makign up a pattern from a Kohs Cube set and short term working memory is my trouble.

Likewise dyspraxia far more than "cant catch a ball" (I cant do that - nor kick one - i'm equally bad with both feet) or can't ride a bike (i'm pretty good at that)

I can't draw for toffee, I have no artistic eye, I laughingly, but honestly say I can't draw a straight line with a rule!

My handwriting is awful too... No amount of being shouted at and told to try harder and concentrate helped.

I just can't covert what I see to a drawing, I understand and perceive depth and perspective, but I just cant turn what I see into something on paper.
I'd love to be able to draw, paint or take good photos, (as well as play a musical instrument) but I have long since had to accept I just can't, its just not the way i am made.

* I really, really, really, covet some people's neat, fast handwriting,.

 

[Tom B]

Just for fun....

My house, Drawn by stylus, Pen and Ink is no better.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

* I really really really covet some peoples neat, fast handwriting,.

You would love to see me writing then!

bloomin' awful
and - as you may have noticed - I can;t spot spelling mistakes once I have typed them - I used to tell the kids I taught to never ask me if something was spelt properly - they had to ask me how to spell the word without me seeing how they had done it.
otherwise I would just see what they had typed and not be able to see any other way of doing it

One of the TAs at my first school (as a teacher) was a dyslexia specialist and she reckoned that I was borderline dyslexic - especially when she saw my store room!

dunno - dyslexia wasn;t even mentioned when I was at school

 

[AndyRM]

Just for fun....

My house, Drawn by stylus, Pen and Ink is no better.

If you wanted to convey a house, you've nailed it. Seriously.