Art, I can't draw.
81If you say you can't do something it usually means you won't even try.
I can't draw is a statement I have heard many, many times and if I had a penny for every time that has been said to me I would be more than a few thousand pounds better off for sure.
In response to this statement I usually say nothing but think plenty, I do not argue over this because who am I to do such a thing but we can all draw, I have seen people with no arms and almost no legs draw… And here is a statue of such a person.
An artist with no arms.
- Alison Lapper
Amongst many other things, is an artist, with a first class honours degree, graduating in Fine Art at the University of Brighton in 1994.
Everybody can draw.
I don’t really know what these people who say that they can't draw actually mean but everybody can draw, some drawings may be considered better than others are but everybody can draw. If you can make marks you can draw, most drawings are broadly considered to be a form of expressive art and all art is subjective, meaning it is an individual choice like beauty.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, have you ever heard that said before? Well it’s the same for drawings, one person’s drawing is another persons scribble so to say.
Perhaps people just think they can’t draw.
Drawing is not an end it is a means, a means of capturing or creating an image quickly using co-ordination between your choice of tool and your eyes. Not all drawings are created with a pencil in fact any tool that can be used to make a mark can also be used to draw. Even the action of drawing it’s self is considered to be a tool. A process for developing visual skills, co-ordination and creative imagination, it is again not generally considered to be an end in it’s self in fact many believe that it is the process that is the outcome not the end result or drawing.
Perhaps people just think they can’t draw because they never really tried? Perhaps they expect too much of themselves so quickly become self-defeatist and judgmental of there own abilities when they never really tried?
I don’t know these answers but I do know it was very hard for me because I had to teach myself to draw without a teacher or guide so I think perhaps that is why it is hard? Perhaps that's why people say they can’t draw because they don’t have a good encouraging teacher to help?
Other people where very eager to tell me when something didn’t look the way they expected it to look, they would say it’s wrong and seemingly took pleasure in doing so in the world I lived. So perhaps that’s another reason people say they can’t draw because people in the world around them tell them they can’t draw and not themselves, perhaps they are discouraged by other people’s careless comments?
My own son at nine years of age loved drawing and used to draw his own little wrestling figures that where really very imaginative, he would give them names spending hours doing this enjoying himself.
I asked for help.
I asked my son if he would help me and listen to me for an hour a day while I showed him how to draw himself and he agreed, so we did this for a few days. He was quite soon able to draw a likeness of him self, capturing the defining elements that made his self-portraits recognizable to others. He worked mostly using a line drawing style with very little tonal modeling or shading, which is how I think most children translate information quite naturally.
Even children can draw well with a little help.
I was very happy with his outcomes and it proved to me that even small children can draw very well when given the right information, encouragement and instruction. I am not saying that these drawings show any great artistic skill or merit but they do show an improvement in many ways. Even nine-year-old children can draw and so can you.
- Art, primary painting skills revealed.
Why all great painters draw? Look, look and look more. The basic ingredients for both drawing and painting are the same, both skills are firmly based in making marks that are representations of the...
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na your site really helps me alot thankyou xoxo p.s i like your drawings
Thanks Jake, glad to have served a purpose, best wishes, Gareth.
pathetic dint help one bit Xxx soz
Hi Kim,
I am not pleased it dint help one bit but if you could be more specific about the help your after then it would help me to perhaps provide it.
Thanks, Gareth.
Thanks, you make some good points - yours is one of many articles I found online that were ispirational and encouraging for some of us who might not be able to 'draw' in the classic sense - my attempts at drawing hold little resemblance to the subject - how does the person without arms manage to draw? I followed the link but still haven't uncovered that part hehe - well I just wanted to thank you for the encouraging article and now I'm spending time every day trying to create art!!!
Hi Gareth - I would love to be able to draw far batter than I can. I can copy things that are in front of me, but can't get dimensions right right from memory. Any tips? For the record, I thought this was a great hub!
Hi Denny,
Thanks for the reassurance and I just wanted to say I have seen a person drawing quite remarkable drawings by holding the pencil in their teeth because it was the only way the could hold anything. Some people are just mad for it and will be creative regardless of the obstacles in their way.
Regards, Gareth.
Hi Party Girl,
Drawing from memory I think comes to 2 types of people one person is for what ever reason able to see an image within their mind and copy it, a person with a photographic memory who has the desire to draw. The other is some one who is well practiced, having drawn similar subjects so many times they know where everything goes. Also when you have been drawing for a long time and practiced a great deal, proportional representation comes almost without thinking like notes to a musician where one mark or note naturally leads to or suggests the next. As for getting dimensions right from memory I am struggling to understand what you are saying because I don’t often use the word dimensions in relation to drawing I don’t think in terms of the word dimensions. I think in terms of shape, size and proportion so what I think you are saying is you get the proportions wrong meaning you might try to draw a figure and get head out of proportion to the body it might be too small or too big?
That problem is only lack of practice and reflective analysis but there is a truth that says everything is based on well-defined shapes because if you move too far away from them they become unrecognizable. Like wheels can only be round, a human figure can only look like a human figure and even a stick drawing looks like a human figure to most people in any language. So the point I am trying to make is everything is copied and being able to copy is the main ingredient that most people lack the ability to do, when first trying to draw. People naturally tend to look too much at the drawing they are trying to do on the paper instead of looking at what ever it is they are trying to copy onto it. They focus on doing the drawing instead of looking at what they are trying to draw and it’s natural to do that so makes it seem more difficult.
One other point to think about also is people have natural tendency to focus too much on just one area of the drawing instead of the whole drawing and that often is the cause of getting the proportions out. The way around this is to teach your self to work around the drawing and not focus in one place to long work from side to side, up and down, doing a bit on one side, then matching it on the other side. The same with the top and bottom working the whole drawing together so if for some reason you have to stop there is enough information to make it useful as a drawing.
I hope this is helpful to you and anybody else, Gareth.
This did help. I was wondering if you could give any tips on shading.
Hi Laura,
I have another hub that you might find helpful.
http://hubpages.com/hub/ModenMarkMakingRevealed
Thank you, Gareth.
i cant wait to learn more on this excited adventure!!!!!!!!!.........
Hi Kadir b,
I wish you all the very best on your adventure and may I suggest that if you click on my picture you will find more hubs about learning to draw.
Thank you, Gareth.
You have shared some very interesting points, which have helped.
Thank you
Hey mittens,
You have also been looking at my other hubs thank you for this and I am very happy they have helped that was the intention.
Gareth.
A very nice, encouraging article. I'll be sending this to my friend who thinks he can't draw :D
It's great to encourage our kids to draw, because you can see a marked improvement even more as a viewer of their work.
Your son seems to have gained some good drawing skills at the age of nine, drawing should be encouraged for those who are interested at an early age. Inspirational comments cheers!!
Hi waynet,
Thanks for your encouragement, you make some interesting hubs yourself so thanks for them as well.
If drawing is used for particular jobs such as design the quality and skills are extremely important because without those two elements it is almost impossible to be a designer.
So I agree with you partially, when I was reviewing entry-portfolios of young students for design school admission I used to keep only half of them to make sure not to create a fake illusions and make them spend money for nothing (to their parents).
However drawing and illustration is only a part of the game. In fact; those are techniques that we all can learn driven by our passion and with a lot of hard work. The most important aspect on wich everybody should focus on is the level of creative talent. No creativity no Design or Arts in general, if we have only a good technique that we manage really well then we are illustrators.
At the end it all depends of what we want to do with our ability of drawing and its level.
Luciano
Hi Luciano,
Thank you for your response and observation.
This is what I am doing, I want to encourage people to draw, I want them to realise it is not very hard if somebody explains how it is done I want them to wake their brains up.
I want to do this because I believe drawing is one way to stimulate or encourage creative thinking.
That’s what I am doing with my drawing ability, trying to demystify it in order to motivate action in others because the true engine of all creative endeavors is action.
Thank you again, Gareth.
Hi Gareth,
I just came across this hub and really enjoyed it! I have so many people tell me they can't draw...drives me nuts! I always wondered what it was about visual art that people just think they can pick up a pencil and it'll look like a masterwork, but when it doesn't they just give up. Good thing musicans don't do that - or, doctors for that matter - we'd be in a heap of trouble!!! Thanks for your wisdom on drawing.
Hi Laura,
It drives me nuts too when people say they can't draw I think what it really means is they can't be bothered.
Thank you for your comment, Gareth.
Hi Gareth,
I CAN draw and I love to copy everything from portraits of friends to buildings and landscapes. However, drawing from imagination proves great difficulty (see - I avoided saying 'I can't'). I find it incredibly hard trying to get down what is in my head onto paper - for instance, if it is a person, how do I draw the nose, the eyes, the mouth? All of these features are SO important to make that particular person them ... but I need to copy them.
I'd love to be able to draw frmo my imagination however I do not know where to start as I end up burning my brain up when I cannot get down what i see.
Rachel.
"most drawings are broadly considered to be a form of expressive art and all art is subjective, meaning it is an individual choice like beauty."
A classic excuse.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ever heard that said before?"
To an extent, but quality remains just that.
"Well it’s the same for drawings, one person’s drawing is another persons scribble so to say."
Not true.
Hi Rachel,
You said "I find it incredibly hard trying to get down what is in my head onto paper - for instance, if it is a person, how do I draw the nose, the eyes, the mouth?"
Perhaps you might find the answer in the next quote.
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso
Without knowing you or being able to talk to you about this makes it difficult to answer but perhaps you need to practice more by trying to draw from your head. One other point that might be causing you problems is that when you copy draw something you have in front of you to look at and compare with.
When you draw from your head you don’t have anything to compare it with so you are trying to copy from memory but our memory is not that good so perhaps you need a method to help your memory.
More than anything perhaps you are comparing the drawing you try to do from your head with other drawings you have done by copying and really there is little comparison. The copy drawing is informed by what you see and the other comes from memory which is never as good as we would like it to be.
Perhaps you are being over critical of your memory drawings by comparing them with your copy drawings which are probably very good because they are informed.
Thank you Rachel I hope this helps but if it doesn’t then please keep asking more questions, Gareth.
Hi Spawn,
You said ""most drawings are broadly considered to be a form of expressive art and all art is subjective, meaning it is an individual choice like beauty."
A classic excuse."
And I say yes a classic excuse, that old chestnut it's called freedom of choice something perhaps you don't really want.
You said or was it me?
""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ever heard that said before?"
To an extent, but quality remains just that."
Do you not think that quality is as subjective as beauty is because I sure do?
You said ""Well it’s the same for drawings, one person’s drawing is another persons scribble so to say."
Not true."
I stand by that scribble statement 100% as being true because I am not a clone identical to the others; I am alone, just like you.
The biggest problem with drawing is people get too preoccupied with negative crap about what’s good or bad when if they just enjoy it then it’s all got to be good.
Enjoy.
Thanks for the opportunity, Gareth.
You provide nice insights into drawing, and I enjoyed viewing your son's artwork. Nice hub.
great answer
Gareth, I suppose I too have a problem drawing from memory. I consider myself to be a satisfactory artist aside from this problem. My question to you is, how will I get my concept across despite my "memory drawing" flaw? I am an aspiring fashion designer and can verbally convey my designs well, but I'm trying to make a portfolio now. Any advice would be great.
interesting article. God Bless You
Great hub! I just became your fan... RosWebbART
Well i guess its better for me to say "I can't draw well"
Hi Me,
the word can't is a stop word which usually means you won't
because you have decided that you are not able, I can't.
I could draw better or my drawing skills could be better is far better than can't but I get your point I think.
Thanks for pointing that out, Gareth.
Its easy to say that drawings easy when you can draw yourself. They CAN draw well. They CAN get the anotomy right. They CAN make it look real.
People or "artists" say you should draw everyday to get better. I've drawn almost everyday for the last 4 years. No improvement :/
that's very true ,even I meet so many people saying that can't draw ,
Is it really difficult , nah ,actually anyone can draw and paint !
Even wrestlers's sketches by your son are amazing and what individualistic detailing he had given for every sketch
Thanks for sharing !
good job
I just see what I did and it always looks terrible, and I feel discouraged... then I think I have to practice more, I try and it always looks terrible. I feel like a worthless piece of crap.
Great hub :)
I can draw anything that is in front of me, but I can't seem to be able to draw something from my head, for example a dragon, or fairy. What happens is a drawing that I have seen somewhere before develops. Do you have any tips?
Thanks
I do not know what you are saying or mean when you say this "What happens is a drawing that I have seen somewhere before develops."
My understanding about people who draw from their head is that they have drawn the same or slimier drawing many times in the past. For example a fairy is usually just a little, slight girl, with wings, so if you know how to construct a human figure then you know how to draw a fairy.
The people who draw figures in this way know the dimensions of a figure, like for example, the width of a persons body from shoulder to shoulder is about the length of a arm held out straight, from the shoulder to the wrist.
A leg will have a knee about half way, the same with an arm and elbow.
They know the measurements so they can construct a human figure from scratch because they know all the different sizes of the limbs compared to each other. Plus I know from experience that if you draw the same things over and over, you can see them in your mind because you are focusing on them all the time.
I can draw faces easy because I know how a face works, I know where the eyes go in relation to the size of the head, where the ears go or where the nose and moth go because they all go in the same places on all human beings and I have practised drawing faces a lot as well.
Hope this helps.
i cant draw to save my life. there r very few things i can draw and you can tell what it is. im so jelous of people who can draw good that it makes me never want to draw again. PLEASE HELP. I WANT TO DRAW GOOD.
Hi molly,
Drawing is about practice, the more you do it the better you get at it. The best way to see this is to draw a picture now, put it away somewhere, practice for a couple of weeks doing some drawing every day and then do the same drawing again a couple of weeks later to see if you have improved. I will be very surprised if you haven't.
You can get some more help at this page: http://garethpritchard.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-dra
I know it's about cars but if you don't like cars then just transfer the idea to drawing other things that you do like.
All the very best, Gareth.
Hello,
First off I'd like to tell you that this article got my attention because I've been wondering about this subject for a long time now. And you were very good discussing it.
But if you don't mind, I have a question for you, as I read from your profile you seem to be very experienced... I'm a digital artist, I draw quite often specially on the computer using a tablet, but I got criticism from a fellow artist because I use reference pictures to draw some parts of the human body better. According to him using reference pictures is for those who have no talent. Do you agree or do you support the use of those pictures?
Also, when I draw portraits that same artist says it looks like I just paint over the original picture and it looks awful... is there any way to avoid that?
Thanks in advance :)
Hi Ana Dias,
I think people who don't reference their work are not really bothered enough about their work to check if it is correct.
Taken from the dictionary "a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing." I believe everybody has a natural ability to draw, they just don't use it.
I draw portraits myself and I like messy loose drawings of people because they have a kind of movement to them and the marks themselves look interesting often but... People are so used to seeing photographs of themselves that when they see a portrait they expect it to be photo realistic and often wont accept the kind of drawings I like because they do not look like photographs. So if you are doing something for others then you have to give them what they want otherwise they won't want it. Or you can just do what you want regardless but a lot of the time you will not get much reward for it, praise or otherwise in my experience.
You should practice drawing with and without reference, and my advice would be to draw using traditional tools as well as a graphics tablet. I do not use graphics tables myself much, I do try now and again but I don't feel good about the end results as they don't feel right because there is nothing to touch. I am not saying don't use them, what I am trying to say is you should try everything you can think of. I also think you would get some benefit from taking a look at this other hub I have written especially the last part titled Mark making is king.
Very informative, I will never say again 'I can't draw' 'I can draw'. I certainly will start again. I have not done any drawing since my teenage years. when I used to copy pictures out of a books. Thank you
jake 4 years ago
how ugly ha ha ha