The Five Skills you need to Draw
Are You a Drawing Instructor?
National Directory of Instructors
So back to the question: If you want to draw, and you're not, what's stopping you?
At some level you're probably still saying to yourself : "I don't have it in me to draw. All you people who can, well that's a gift. And I just wasn't born with it."
Of course those who can draw just lap it up and say smugly "Yea, I guess I'm just gifted". And that doesn't help the situation. At all. Would you like to take a quick 60 second test - to show you - you have the skills in you right now to learn how to draw? I'm serious! There's no trick and I'll gamble 1000 to 1 that you already have those skills and probably don't even know it !
But if you don't give it another try, how will you ever know? I said this on the home page, I said it in several other places on this site I'm gonna say it again: the key to drawing has nothing to do with drawing! And has everything to do with seeing. I'll say that again. Drawing has little to do with your manual dexterity - with how well you can make marks on a page. It has everything to do with how well you look at things, how you observe. It's a "frame of mind", and one you're already popping in and out of all the time throughout the day. (back to top)
In fact, Betty Edward's in her multi-million selling book "drawing
on the right side of the brain" was such a success because
she proved that drawing could be taught by learning
5 skills - none of which have anything to do with
drawing! All of which have to do with skills of
perception - of how we use our brains.
The key to drawing is learning how to shift from the language
bound, logical, reasoning, abstracting side of the brain (the
"Left" side), to the visual, spatial, "in-the-now"
not-time-concerned Right side at will. (See "Right
and Left The 5 skills of drawing") And that's exactly what
you did in the "60 Second Test" above.
When I asked her that, she kind of locked up, paused, then followed with the usual objections I know I give when I'm facing a painful or nagging question: ...."too busy, too much time, no money, can't ever get motivated"..."But you'd still like to get around to it, someday, right?" She just looks down. Maybe there's something behind those objections?
Sure it is! Just like back in the 5th grade, at age 10 or 11, when your and everyone else's self-image and popularity became the most important thing in the world. That was the time most people - and probably you - quit drawing! Because if it something didn't make you or I look good, we quit doing it. And you know what? That same fear of things not working out, fear of embarrassment, the fear of looking bad and the hurt that comes with it, that's what stops so many people from trying anything again.
In Latin culture, they have "medicine men". They're called "Curanderos". When somebody is ill, down, depressed, or just "feeling listless" for too long, for no identifiable reason, guess what the first thing the modern day "Curandero" makes them do? Clean out their closet!
I'm not asking you to literally clean out your closet (though it's not a bad idea). But I am inviting you to reconsider just one small niche of it. And that is this: your desire to finally learn how to draw.. (funny thing is, when people start on "just a corner", they seem to get inspired to tackle a whole bunch of other things.) But let's take a little bit at a time.
That's my sister Carol grilling me again. That's a great question. So how will this happen? How will you get from reading this to actually drawing? Let me tell you about what I think are the three ingredients to success. (And success could be as simple as picking up a drawing pencil for the first time in 25 years, or it could mean actually starting a profitable business in the arts.) (back to top)
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