I’ve been trying to learn to draw (traditionally) for a decade, and have never gotten any better at it. I took a twice-a-week college class that was basically 90% 30-second gesture drawings from a live model, for a full semester at one point, and I never got any better.
This is a long-standing frustration that only gets more egregious with time, since visual art is my specialty.
I started drawing at a very early age, probably around 5 (I stopped drawing when I was around 16 − 17). What I think helped me was that I would attempt to emulate the artists that I was most influenced by. First I would start by tracing comic book panels that I thought looked cool. After a couple of months of doing that, I moved up to attempting to recreate a panel that I liked in a comic book. After a couple years of that, I attempted to draw live, inanimate objects and then finally people.
In a way, I guess you could say I apprenticed myself under certain artists that I felt were good enough to emulate. This helped in my case and I eventually got a good reputation as a talented artist (I got accepted to LaGuardia HS and subsequently FIT in NYC, but went to neither in favor of Bx Science and Air Force, respectively). However, I’m not sure taking over a decade to learn how to draw would be an effective path in this context; especially as I was learning how to draw while learning other essential motor functions so I would say the skill was sort of hard-wired into my development. But who knows, this might still be good advice.
I think this is a fine way to become inspired over time, but it definitely isn’t the most efficient way to progress. It’ll take a while before you gravitate towards the skills that will give you the most benefit, and you can accidentally learn habits that may work against you later. More on this in an upcoming post.
Given this information, it may very well be that drawing isn’t worth the time-cost to you. It may also be that gesture drawing doesn’t work as effectively for you. There are some other hacks you can try—have you done the exercises summarized in this article at some point?
If not, I’d definitely give them a try—they won’t take more than a 2-3 hours and you can do them on your own. It’s possible you’re simply an outlier (frustrating as that may be) but I expect you’ll see at least some improvement.
Can you articulate the ways in which you have a hard time? Do you think it’s more about inability to observe, hand-eye coordination or something else? Can you trace over a drawing effectively?
I’ve been trying to learn to draw (traditionally) for a decade, and have never gotten any better at it. I took a twice-a-week college class that was basically 90% 30-second gesture drawings from a live model, for a full semester at one point, and I never got any better.
This is a long-standing frustration that only gets more egregious with time, since visual art is my specialty.
I started drawing at a very early age, probably around 5 (I stopped drawing when I was around 16 − 17). What I think helped me was that I would attempt to emulate the artists that I was most influenced by. First I would start by tracing comic book panels that I thought looked cool. After a couple of months of doing that, I moved up to attempting to recreate a panel that I liked in a comic book. After a couple years of that, I attempted to draw live, inanimate objects and then finally people.
In a way, I guess you could say I apprenticed myself under certain artists that I felt were good enough to emulate. This helped in my case and I eventually got a good reputation as a talented artist (I got accepted to LaGuardia HS and subsequently FIT in NYC, but went to neither in favor of Bx Science and Air Force, respectively). However, I’m not sure taking over a decade to learn how to draw would be an effective path in this context; especially as I was learning how to draw while learning other essential motor functions so I would say the skill was sort of hard-wired into my development. But who knows, this might still be good advice.
I think this is a fine way to become inspired over time, but it definitely isn’t the most efficient way to progress. It’ll take a while before you gravitate towards the skills that will give you the most benefit, and you can accidentally learn habits that may work against you later. More on this in an upcoming post.
Given this information, it may very well be that drawing isn’t worth the time-cost to you. It may also be that gesture drawing doesn’t work as effectively for you. There are some other hacks you can try—have you done the exercises summarized in this article at some point?
If not, I’d definitely give them a try—they won’t take more than a 2-3 hours and you can do them on your own. It’s possible you’re simply an outlier (frustrating as that may be) but I expect you’ll see at least some improvement.
Can you articulate the ways in which you have a hard time? Do you think it’s more about inability to observe, hand-eye coordination or something else? Can you trace over a drawing effectively?