Are we born as artists?
Today I’d like to get a debate going. I have a simple question: Do you think that people either can draw or can’t draw? And that if you can’t, you will never be able to? You know what I think, but I’d be really interested to hear your opinion.
And, since I’ve promised daily tasks, and that doesn’t really count as one, here’s a quickie:
Go to the nearest shelf or drawer, or, failing that, look around your desk. Select the single thing you think will make the most interesting subject for a picture, and draw it. Then let me know about it.
Here is my effort:
I seem to have rather a lot to say about this, so I’ll continue behind a cut.
I’m not saying this is a fantastic piece of work, but it’s the first bit of drawing I’ve done since Drawanyway began that I am really happy with. There may be a lesson in that; just the small, regular amounts of drawing I’ve been doing might have reawoken something.
But drawing this piece has reminded me of something I have somehow failed to convey yet - something important, which I had forgotten. When you do a drawing you really like, it makes you feel great. It is like a natural anti-depressant (the downside, unfortunately, is that when you feel you can’t draw, it can plunge you into despair). Honestly, I don’t think I am over-stating the case here - a mingling of pride, purpose, and achievement all come together and lift the mood enormously. It should be prescribed on the NHS.
Here’s how I drew this today: I opened my desk drawer, and found the packet of bulldog clips (which I think I bought some time ago because I liked the way they looked; not because I needed them). I also found an old Habitat catalogue from 1999, which I’d used for collage. I found a grainy page with a large close-up of a pale table, or sofa, or something - anyway, plenty of blank space - and then I went to my art supplies drawer. This is a drawer where I have dumped everything through the years - inks, paints, pencils, everything. I found a nearly-dried-up bottle of black ink, and a threadbare fine brush, and drew the outline of the bulldog clip packet. This is when I started feeling happy. I knew the picture was going to go the way I wanted it to (hmm, I wonder if I was in some sort of optimum ‘zone’ - concentrating, unpressured?).
I was quite happy with the outline on its own; however, I thought colour would help, so I fell back on my usual method of scanning it in and colouring it with Photoshop. Now, here I must admit, it went a little bit awry. Really, I should have got out my watercolours and taken the time to do it properly. But the great thing about Photoshop? I still have the original, so I can still do that one day, and compare the two finished products.
Posted: June 21st, 2007 under You, Confidence, Subjects.
Comments: 15
15 Comments
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Drawing is a technical skill that i believe can be learned. it’s the desire to learn that most people lack. i found that out when i taught drawing to a group of women, it was great to see them improve. the i can’ts turned into what are we drawing next.
I completely agree about the technical skills, but I’m aware that’s easy for me to say from here. If I hear the same thing about music, however - if someone tells me that anyone can learn to sing - I find it hard to believe, and that’s why I understand where the non-drawers are coming from.
There are lots of people though, aren’t there, who say they’d love to draw, but can’t. Do you mean that they don’t want to put the time in, rather than that they have no desire, as such, to learn?
I think that what you’ve said already is true, badger, that people can learn if they have the desire to, but I do think that some people are naturally better at drawing than others; some just can’t do it at all. I think that’s down to if you’re more left or right brained (right side is creative, left side is logical, i think), and so someone who is a genius at maths, generally isn’t so great at artistic things such as drawing.
Having said that, they might me excellent at those uber technical drawings, you know for building designs etc. Meh.
But then there are those who are “all rounders”, who can be artistic and logical.
But from my experience, you do get people who clearly have a natural capability to draw, and willingness to use it, from quite a young age. Those who show no interest in the arts, drawing in particular, generally aren’t that talented at creating it. In my opinion.
*toddles off to draw something from a drawer… could turn out to be a pair of knickers*
Clean ones I hope!
Maybe it all boils down to nature vs nurture though. I’m fascinated in this now that we have a toddler. Does she get out her pens and paints so much because she’s seen her parents do it? Might it also be because we enjoy it, so she associates it with good times and happy parents? Will she be a good artist because she’s learning things now like how to wield a pen that other kids might not get to until a few more years down the line? I don’t know!
Haha yes :P
I would say yes to all those things. I mean, we’re always told that creative play is good for children so it can’t be anything but a positive thing. And the chances are that she’ll be an artistic type because you are.
Having said that, my dad is in the construction industry (god knows what he does… project management or something), and my mum is a veterinary nurse, both very “un-artistic” careers. I was never brought up in a very creative environment in that sense, however I know I’ve always loved drawing and ‘making things’ since a young age. I mentioned somewhere else that my brothers are very musically creative. So it’s weird to think that this has come out of parents that aren’t so creative.
Maybe there’s a creative gene. You know, like the blond gene. It’s probably recessive or something :P ‘Cos my nan is an amazing artist, maybe I get it from her.
I know that when I have kids they’ll have pencils in their hands as soon as possible :P Although maybe that’s forcing things on them at a young age. Hehe.
Aw, no, no forcing required I don’t think - the problem seems to be keeping them off the furniture and wallpaper and directing them towards actual paper.
It is interesting, the family thing. My Dad is an excellent singer and musician; I don’t know whether the potential was there for my brother and I to be the same, but we certainly aren’t! My Mum and Dad both drew for enjoyment and rather well, but I don’t think either of them saw it as something to do regularly or for any purpose other than to entertain us children.
You’re right to mention enjoyment though. I was never happier when I was a kid, than when I was planning on making something out of a shoebox and some crumpled up tissue paper…
Yeah! I used to make so much crap! The one thing I remember most was making loads of ‘arcade games’ out of boxes and stuff, you know like penny droppers.
…I think I was quite a strange child.
It is so strange you should say that, because I did exactly the same with my friend Caroline Doe from down the road. If you were strange, so were we!
I truly believe that everyone can draw. Like all things, some people have more of a talent than others, but they can all draw, even if it’s just a sketch map to show someone how to get to your home.
Of course, not everybody enjoys drawing, which is probably a nurture thing, and can have no correlation with talent.
I agree with you. Interesting, though - I hadn’t thought of it in degrees before, I’ve always thought everyone had the ability to express themselves artistically if they felt moved to do so, they just needed to be shown the right toolset. But if there aren’t any degrees of talent, that negates the whole idea of society having ‘great’ artists they look up to and whose works go for huge sums of money.
As for those who don’t enjoy drawing, I wonder if that boils down to feeling that you can’t do it - no-one likes doing things they feel they are doing badly at.
I suppose that boils down to what you mean when you say someone can ‘draw’. Because, yes, everyone with fingers can pick up a pen and draw a stickman or a map to your home, but I think that’s completely different to being able to draw, you know, observing something and recreating it on a page so that it has a likeness to the original object.
This is a big topic for me because, although I am an illustrator, I never drew until secondary school - but I did make things and sew all through my childhood. Now that I teach illustration, I have arrived at a personal certainty that drawing is a technical skill that can be learned (after all, it was a necessary cultural skill for the upper classes for years) based upon learning how to look at what they see, and not assume what we see. My biggest struggle with new students is getting them to really look and not stick so rigidly to that idea they all have that all great drawing comes entirely from the imagination or from copying someone else’s work/photograph. I feel strongly that what actually is intuitive is design sense: a feeling for the overall balance of things, an aesthetic sensitivity. I’m doing a lot of digital collage as a departure from drawing right now, and I feel I’m using the same skills that are in action when making a collection of inspirational clippings in a sketchbook. I have always felt so relaxed after a few hours sticking things into books, I can look back on them and wonder why the pages look unified and pleasing - not always the experience with a commercially commissioned drawing or even some sketchbook drawings!
Hi Carol!
Thanks for this, I find it all really pertinent and it also reflects what I have come to believe, although I don’t have a class on which to test my assumptions. The ‘really looking’ is something I am sure I’m going to address in future posts (I do feel like a bit of a fraud, having set myself up as a kind of teacher on this website, and then having people I know to be ‘real’ illustrators come and comment! But I keep telling myself ‘those who can’t, teach’ - present company excepted, of course!).
I am interested in the idea of digital collage. Can you explain more?
Some people may be born naturally gifted towards art and creativity, but I also like to think that others can train themselves in the craft as well. I also think that a lot of nature versus nurture, socio-/psychological aspects play into it as well.
For example, if a child is raised by parents who are more concerned with society (e.g. “What will others think?”) than the individual (e.g. “My friends hates yellow, but I love it. I’m going to wear my new dress anyway, no matter what they think of it.”) then they’re less likely to think outside of the box, more likely to be perfectionists, less likely to take creative risks, more likely to emulate others than try to achieve their own style, et cetera.
Or perhaps they’re raised by parents who admire discipline, hard work, and perseverance. Then, if they are not naturally gifted but are interested in the fine arts, there would already be the predisposition to practice diligently until a masterful level of technique is achieved.
It could be a combination of these factors (and probably others; there’s an endless list of personality traits (naturally and nurtured) that may hurt or help one’s (mis)adventures in art) that determine the outcome of a potential artist, or it could be one dominating factor (e.g. they’re naturally gifted but too self-conscious to nurture their talent, or they’re not naturally gifted but are determined to continue anyway).
Ooh, I found this really interesting. It almost suggests that different upbringings might breed differing types of artists, some more suited to say, technical drawing, and others to wild abstracts. Which I could subscribe to, for sure.