Gregory - How to Draw Without Talent

Why do you want to start drawing?

Wait, let me rephrase thatyou probably dont want to start drawing.

You want to be really good at drawing.

You want to pick up a pen, grab some paper and effortlessly draw anythingperfectly, beautifullydazzling your friends and confounding your enemies. You want to be the next da Vinci; to knock out portraits indistinguishable from photographs; to replace your vacation snapshots with breathtaking watercolors; to have gallerists, collectors and reviewers clamoring outside the doors of your sun-swept Tuscan studio.

Or maybe you have pictures floating in your head that youd like to get down on paper, perhaps to illustrate a story or convey an idea.

Or perhaps you have a more practical goal in mindyoud like to make products to sell in an online store or illustrate the menu in your restaurant or quit your job and live off drawing caricatures of tourists in the park. I have a friend who learned to draw just to save money on creating icons for an app she was developing. Her practical goal soon led her to a deep love of drawing for its own sake.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to learn how to draw, you can. I promise. Ive taught loads of people who considered themselves hopeless at sketching, and Ive figured out ways to make it fun and give them quick and satisfying results. Drawing is not brain surgery (though I have taught a number of brain surgeons and a couple of rocket scientists, too).

Before we start to draw, Id like you to think about why you want to learn. How do you imagine drawing will fit into your life? What would you consider success? What would a perfect day be like when you can draw? What sorts of things will you love to draw? What will happen when you do? I urge you to write these thoughts down some place where you can refer back to them.

Let me tell you why I think this is important.

Learning to draw is fun and natural, but it takes a bit of work to achieve the level youd probably like to reach. Its not unpleasant work, but at times it can be challenging. And when you encounter the types of challenges that are an inevitable part of stretching and growing, a voice in your head may pipe up and suggest you chuck the whole thing and binge watch something on Netflix instead. That voice will tell you that this whole enterprise is a waste of time, that it has no practical purpose, that this book is terrible and that I have no idea what Im talking about. And then it will pull out the big gun and tell you flatly that you have no talent.

That voice can be very persuasive. You may have heard it before when you tried learning to draw in the past. It may have convinced you to banish all sorts of other drawing-instruction books to a dusty fate on a tall bookshelf. But its not going to work this time. No, sir. Im onto the voices tricks (in fact, I wrote an entire book about them called Shut Your Monkey), and I have prepared reinforcements to support you along the way.

The first one is that little essay you are about to write describing why you want to learn to draw, why its a dream youve long held, what wonderful pleasures you know it will bring, what doors it will open, what adventures it will unfold. Write that essay with that little voice in mind. Make it strong and enthusiastic and forceful to beat back the objections you may face. Avoid excuses or stammering or second guessing. Describe your drawing dream and why you want it to come true.

And it will.

Now start writing.

Before drawings.

Alright, thats enough chitchat. Lets make some drawings.

Yes. I know its scary. But I want you to do a bunch of drawings before I teach you a thing.

Itll be a way of establishing a benchmark, something you can look back on when youve worked your way through this book.

But its also worthwhile because it will show you that you can already do more than you think. Even though you may not feel you have any ability, the fact is youre still capable of doing some kind of drawing.

Well do a few drawings just for us. You dont have to ever show them to another human being, ever.

Get out a couple sheets of paper. Grab a pen.

Spend two minutes drawing each of these subjects:

1. A mug

2. A car

3. A tree

4. A building

5. A person

First hand drawing.

And now lets try one more drawingthis time from observation.

I want you to draw your hand. If you are right-handed, draw your left hand and vice versa. Simply lay your hand on the table next to your paper and draw it. Don't trace around your hand. Just draw it.

Spend five minutes doing that, then put it aside with your other drawings.

How did that feel? You just spent a total of fifteen minutes drawing. Was it surprising? Stressful? Disappointing? Eye-opening? Write down your immediate reaction. Itll be very interesting to look back on these early impressions once you become an awesome drawing machine.

Got talent?

We like to think that artists are people who are very talented. Much more talented than we are. And the reason we cant make art is because we werent lucky enough to be born with that gift. We lost the cosmic lottery. Theres just nothing we can do about it. We are destined to be envious bystanders.

The good news: Thats hogwash.

The fact is, drawing is just a skill. Its like a lot of other skills you were taught, probably at a young age, like tying your shoes, riding a bike and driving a car.

You never said to yourself, I cant drive because I have no talent for driving. No, you learned some fundamentals, paid attention, got your learners permit and got on the road. And for years and years, you continued to drive, boil an egg, read a book, operate a computer and use the many other skills youve learned.

Drawing is like that. Its not magic. And its actually not that hard. In fact, I think its not nearly as hard as learning to drive a car. A couple of years ago, my son started taking driving lessons and, in a few weeks, he went from being completely terrified to being confidenta driver. In fact, he was able to move from being a pedestrian in New York to being a commuter in Los Angeles. Now thats driving.