Shishir Ahmed Prima

Is Drawing A Talent or A Skill? Drawing is the heart of art. It has always been the closest contour to nature. This article is about those who are passionate about drawing but hasn’t started yet because you were unnecessarily worrying about if you have what it takes to be an artist or not. Drawing is a skill you can learn to possess. As long as you have a steady hand, without any doubt you can learn to draw as an adult. So, it’s a fact to keep in mind that anyone can learn how to draw. If you are an adult who has questions about how to learn drawing? Or are you talented or skilled enough to pursue this further or if talent really has to do something withdrawing or not? Then follow this guide of ours. Difference between talent and skill If there is someone in your circle, who is known as “naturally talented” in drawing usually just has finer visual ability to perceive than other people. Meaning, this person is genetically better at measuring ranges, observing colors, gripping things visually and more. Many of us often use the words talent and skill interchangeably. Where there is actually a vast dissimilarity between them. Talent is an inborn power to act and not every one of us can have this. Before anyone tries to advance their talent, it needs to be recognized/noticed first. If you want to have a proper idea about talent, know that it is the ‘character’, meaning it is a capability that has been existing inside you from the moment you were born. It is an inherited ability, where without having any kind of experience or practice you are good at something. Unlike talent, a skill can be earned by anyone who wants to develop it in a specific department, for example, “drawing”, by going through suitable training for it. If you want to possess a skill, you have to nourish it through substantial education, learning the accurate theories in the right order, and both committed to doing your work and dedication to that commitment of yours, you can definitely achieve a professional level of skill within a year or less. Drawing is a skill I know plenty of people who had no obvious talent at all, but they were drawn to the arts so they pursued this into a passion, and everyone has a different kind of an “artist version” inside them. It doesn’t matter if you do not draw like someone else, it doesn’t mean your artwork isn't good or it lacks potential. What you need is dedication in that matter, and be capable of taking constructive criticism with a grain of salt. There is a chance that your eyes lie in a place that is unique to everyone else as they are not capable of seeing it like you. Nothing is impossible but it does take hard work and dedication. In order to make yourself better in your drawing skills, you should try to make a schedule and draw almost every day and this does not mean beautiful scenarios or pictures, even scribbling or doodling will count as practicing. Keep in mind, a person’s ability to draw is as individual as their own handwriting. Drawing is definitely a skill because it can be taught and with continuous practice, you can hope to achieve an expanded high standard. Still, even with a high amount of practice, some people will never master this skill. How can I improve my drawings? 1. While practicing never erase your mistakes. You need to learn to draw over them and embrace your mistakes. 2. At first draw lightly then increase the pressure gradually, as the drawing develops. Put in your lighter tones first then the darker ones slowly. You need to work your way up to deeper shadows; rushing will only make your work a mess. 3. You can begin looking at things in the world as shapes and not as an object which they already are. 4. Try to draw vertically as much as possible. And try not to lay your paper down horizontally on the table. Because if the paper is horizontal it may alter your perception of the image you have inside your head and you might end up with drawings that have a shaky perception. Drawing vertically will help you by providing a more accurate view of things and keep things in proportion. 5. To grow your confidence and intuition try to do short sketches over longer ones in the beginning. 6. Learning gesture drawing is quite important as gesture gives life to your drawings. First, you can start out with short 30-second gesture sketches by sketching literally anything. This will teach you how to add energy into your drawing; how to look at big shapes, and how to approach a drawing with a mixture of boldness and confidence. 7. Learn to draw on different sizes of paper. When working in a small sketch it may be ok to hold the pencil-like you are writing but most of the time you need to be holding the pencil. You might ask why? The answer is it will give your drawing the energy you need. Also, it will loosen you up. Try not to forget that in the beginning, you should be drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist, especially when you are working on a large-format paper. 8. You have to learn what a value scale is and how to use it, as it is a basic requirement. One can say, this is probably one of the most necessary needs in drawing as well as painting. Value means to have an idea about how light or dark something is. It will help you draw light and shadow better on paper and give your works 3D solidity, meaning “form”. 9. Human beings are one of the most interesting and challenging figures to draw on paper and will gradually increase your skills greatly if you just be a little brave and dive in and start learning how to draw them. A fact is figure drawing will teach you the concepts of most of the drawing. 10. Draw from your imaginations. It expresses your creativity. Without wasting time, start doing it now as it really forces you to understand what you have to draw and not just drawing what you see in front of you as usual. 11. You could check out other artist’s work to get an idea. It will help you to see the work of modern artists and even how the older artists used to work. Why drawing is good for you? Visualization Visual aids can help us grasp large amounts of data that our brain cannot understand easily. As feelings are too complex for us to figure out, and drawing helps by recording and expressing them. Cerebral advantages It is a form of great release, and as we are working our brain while drawing, new connections and pathways can be made in our brain. Also, both sides of our brain participate equally. The left side of our brain is responsible for logical thinking and the right side supplies the creativity, as a result, our brains will grow. Concentration If you are trying to draw from life, to record the beauty of everything you want to be present at the moment. The way you imagine your drawing to become, you need to concentrate fully on what is going on and what you are looking at. Seeing things differently This might or might not be true, but people who draw from life on a regular basis are practiced in picking up on measurements, relationships, and structures. They tend to become good judges of characters. Pleasure Nothing could be better than being capable of filling an empty page and bring our thoughts and emotions to life. It gives us immense pleasure which can’t be measured through naked eyes. Conclusion If you have the passion and desire to learn how to draw then what are you waiting for? Picking up a pencil, and grabbing some paper to start something is just a matter of time. Try to draw every day and practice as much as you can. There are so many books you will find on drawing, borrow them from the library or read them online. Watch YouTube tutorial videos and start practicing what you see there and always remember, no one has zero skill when it comes to drawing. If you are capable of making a line on paper, then you are already drawing, it’s where you take that line that will change how you imagined to see it and yourself. Reference sites 1. https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/why-is-it-so-hard-to-draw-from-imagination-heres-how-to-do-it--cms-22967 2. https://www.interaliamag.org/articles/anna-ursyn-drawing-way-thinking/ 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_intelligence_(psychology) 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences 5. https://www.livescience.com/19878-drawing-ability.html Source of images 1. https://unsplash.com/photos/yjXlyrKIz2A 2. https://unsplash.com/photos/FwF_fKj5tBo 3. https://unsplash.com/photos/WhVO1xKiDVw 4. https://unsplash.com/photos/hE8Mog4qK4Y 5. https://unsplash.com/photos/8rj4sz9YLCI 6. https://unsplash.com/photos/IhXrWDckZOQ