Good drawing - is it just talent or can it be learned?

[Turanil]

Ask professionals! Namely: me, Klaus, and Vin Dies... Melkor.

My opinion on this subject: theoretically anyone can learn how to draw. However, it is much about the time you want to devote learning and practicing. Anyway, a long, long time ago I had a book which was really excellent on the subject. I just noticed that it is still available for sale! (an indication of how good and worthy it is). I can tell you that at 12$ it's a good investment (provided you practice it extensively thereafter, of course) and will help you greatly learn the trade: Drawing With the Right Side of the Brain

Really, you can believe me. I had the book, improved my skills with it, and could tell why it is good since drawing is my profession.

 

[sniffles]

I hate those stupid tv ads!! They say, "If you have the interest and desire, you can learn to draw". Nothing about talent!

Yes, anyone can learn to draw, but I think there is still a certain amount of innate talent required to draw well.

 

[Turanil]

Yes, anyone can learn to draw, but I think there is still a certain amount of innate talent required to draw well.

You need passion and talent to become the next Picasso, Van Gogh, or Da Vinci. But to draw good pics of your favorite D&D characters, you need a good method to understand how drawing works (see my book suggestion above), and then a lot of practice. So maybe without talent you won't become a great artist, but you can nonetheless learn how to draw well (I mean: realistically).

The same goes for writing. Anybody learn how to read and write at school. However, to learn writing sci-fi novels you of course need to know the basics of writing a novel, but then you really need to have read a lot of sci-fi novels, love that above all else, and constantly read about related subjects (science advances, technology, etc.). Then, even if you don't become the next Stephen King, you will be able to write an enjoyable story.

In fact it's the same about getting a huge muscle mass. I remember when I was a teen-ager, I bought a miraculous thing (a "Bullworker") that would give me Arnold's muscles in simply 5 minutes of easy exercises every day. Needless to say that it didn't work (to my profund dismay... ). But then, I bought heavy weights and all the stuff, and built muscles in sweating 1 hour everyday. IT WORKED! Now, I didn't become Arnold junior; it takes the appropriate genetics to make that sweating into Lou Ferrigno's bulk, but I can tell you that everyone can get a strong and nice body.

Same with drawing.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I agree that it is a little of both. I used to hate art class when I was a kid because I couldn't draw well. Then I started gaming when I was 10. I really wanted to draw my characters, so I tried, but my drawings sucked. But I didn't care, I kept at it, and started paying attention in art class, and reading books about drawing, and hanging out with artists, and before I knew it, I was drawing things that made people say "wow."

But, I am still not as good as many of the freelancers out there. I've done a few illustrations for my PDFs, but not many. Its just cheaper and easier for me to hire a freelancer with better skills than me to do the job.

However, I have found that my ability to draw helps a great deal when it comes to communicating ideas to artists. On several occasions, I have told an artist in specific detail what i am looking for. They go off and draw a sketch and its nothing like what I'm thinking. So I grab a piece of paper and a pencil and do my own sketch, hand it to them and say "like that, but better." They go off and work some magic, then come back with exactly what I was thinking, or better.

So, I'd say if you want to learn to draw, you can. It just takes practice. You also have to be patient. Drawing is a very Zen-like experience.

 

[crystal]

I think you are born with it. It just has to be worked with. I have drawn since I can remember. I taught high school art class at age 17. Only cuz I was better than tha teacher. Drawing is like a passion, obcesion (sp?) It is natural within tha soul. Eather you have tha tallent or you dont. I can drawl, paint, and do interior design. But I suck at every thing else. Find tha things you are good at. Focus on them. Every one has something they are good at..

 

[caudor]

Ask professionals! Namely: me, Klaus, and Vin Dies... Melkor.

My opinion on this subject: theoretically anyone can learn how to draw. However, it is much about the time you want to devote learning and practicing. Anyway, a long, long time ago I had a book which was really excellent on the subject. I just noticed that it is still available for sale! (an indication of how good and worthy it is). I can tell you that at 12$ it's a good investment (provided you practice it extensively thereafter, of course) and will help you greatly learn the trade: Drawing With the Right Side of the Brain

Really, you can believe me. I had the book, improved my skills with it, and could tell why it is good since drawing is my profession.

Thanks for the link! I might order that book.

And thanks to everyone for the comments---much appreciated. I'm willing to work a reasonable amount to improve my drawing skill. I should point out that don't have a passion to draw, and I don't have a desire to become a great artist either. I'd just like to be able to draw some of the monsters and NPCs I've created well enough so that people do not laugh at it.

I do have a creative passion; I absolutely love to write. This thread makes me wonder if I should focus on my writing and leave the drawing to someone else.

 

[mikedidthis]

I'll second Turanil's recommendation of Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain and also recommend purchasing the workbook that goes with it:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...gy_img_2/104-7307110-3857527?v=glance&s=books

It's not absolutely necessary, but it does help you feel more like you can jump right into each lesson from the book.

I personally think drawing isn't just an either/or thing. I think it's more of a continuum. Stephen King wrote once that he felt there are three basic camps of writers (I'm paraphrasing here). At the high end are what he considered the literary equivalent of supermodels; freaks of nature, basically. People who can put pen to paper and come away with a masterpiece (he put people like Hemingway, Kafka, and Joyce into this camp). It's not something that can be taught -- you're either born with that gift or you're not. At the low end are people who can't write but have convinced themselves that they are brilliant writers. They'll never get any better because their pride will keep them from learning or accepting outside advice. In the great big middle area, though, are people who are reasonably competent and creative. This is the group that can learn, practice, and improve to become very, very good over time (King considers himself to be in this camp). They may never have the sheer genius of the literary giants, but they can carve out a very respectable niche for themselves.

I think that the same idea applies to drawing. Yes, some people truly do have a gift, but that doesn't mean other's can't learn to become great at it.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I am not good at drawing at all. But one thing I have trained myself to be good at is Math I used to have a self-defeating attitude and I always did bad, now I can make myself like the subject and I do well.

 

[Thotas]

As someone who's drawn since I was little and is generally told by others that he shows artistic talent ... I'm going to chime in with one of my old college professors, Berkeley Chapelle, who said it so well. Chapelle said that if he was given a year-long project to work with someone with enough coordination to legibly write their name, he could give them the skill to make drawings that look like photographs. But, there's nothing he could do to make someone an artist if they aren't one already.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The mechanical aspect taking an implement and applying it to a medium can be tought. This is pretty much all technique, and can be honed via practice, practice, practice.

The ability to visualize something that doesn't exist in your mind, and taking those implements and creating that thing that only exists in your mind, is pretty much something people are born with, IMO. Folks who think they don't have this may be surprised.