{"id":958,"date":"2009-07-21T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/21\/how-to-draw-and-other-life-lessons\/"},"modified":"2018-04-03T08:46:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T15:46:11","slug":"how-to-draw-and-other-life-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/21\/how-to-draw-and-other-life-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Draw (and Other Life Lessons)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI can\u2019t draw, I\u2019m not an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard this many times. Some people must think that being able to draw faces or pictures is something you\u2019re born with. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s just a skill, like any other, that people have worked to become good at.<\/p>\n

I just spent an afternoon doing illustrations for my upcoming guide, Think Outside the Cubicle<\/em>. I\u2019m definitely not the world\u2019s best artist. But, I do think drawing (like many skills) is something anyone can learn and become good at.<\/p>\n

Learn the Rules, But Don\u2019t Obsess Over Them<\/h2>\n

I radically improved my ability to draw faces by learning one simple rule: place the eyes halfway between the top and bottom of the head.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most people\u2019s intuition is to place the eyes in the upper 2\/3’s of the face. If you look at children\u2019s drawings or even the smiley icon \ud83d\ude42 , you can see how this is a common error. Spending some time to learn the basic rules can drastically improve your skill level.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, don\u2019t obsess over the rules. Only practice and trial and error can give you a worthwhile drawing style. Don\u2019t spend energy worrying whether you\u2019re breaking a rule, because that\u2019s energy that could be devoted to practice.<\/p>\n

In learning French, I\u2019ve found it helpful to learn some of the basic grammar rules. However, I don\u2019t worry about these when I\u2019m trying to speak. I know I\u2019ll break many of the rules anyways, so it\u2019s better to practice and correct myself afterward, than to obsess over grammar.<\/p>\n

Great Drawers Enjoy Drawing<\/h2>\n

If you enjoy something, you\u2019ll spend more time on it. And if you spend more time on it, you\u2019ll get better at it. And, if you\u2019re better at it, you\u2019ll enjoy it more. I think this increasing cycle of ability and enthusiasm is why some people are fantastic artists and other people can barely sketch a stick figure.<\/p>\n

Even if someone only had 1% better ability than you, she might receive slightly better feedback. This would encourage her to continue drawing, increasing her skills. This increase in skill would create even greater feedback, encouraging her to continue practicing. In the end, she might have many times your skill level, just because of that cycle.<\/p>\n

But you can short-circuit that cycle for yourself. If you push through those initial \u201cI suck<\/a>\u201d phases of a skill, you can start getting positive feedback. Even if you\u2019re a horrible drawer, once you push through the frustration barrier, drawing becomes more enjoyable and it will be easier to continue.<\/p>\n

Find a Style and Master It<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t try to do everything. Once you find drawing techniques that look good, incorporate them into your style. A great artist you can recognize, just by the style of their work. I think it\u2019s better to master a style, and experiment a little, than it is to try to do everything.<\/p>\n

I learned this lesson when writing for this website. I would see other successful writers use a completely different writing style than my own. I\u2019d try to mimic it, and the result would usually be a disaster. I\u2019d try to write tips lists, stories or encyclopedia entries and they would fail miserably. The problem was that in trying to copy other styles, I was neglecting my own.<\/p>\n

Some people see a style as a liability, it means that there will always be some people who don\u2019t like your work. But I see it as a strength. Having a defined style means that it is much harder to substitute your work. If your irreplaceable, that increases the value of your work to the people who truly love it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI can\u2019t draw, I\u2019m not an artist.\u201d I\u2019ve heard this many times. Some people must think that being able to draw faces or pictures is something you\u2019re born with. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s just a skill, like any other, that people have worked to become good at. I just spent an afternoon doing illustrations for my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,682],"tags":[405,413,418,414,415,417,239,143,416],"class_list":{"0":"post-958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-discipline","7":"category-nc-learning","8":"tag-10000-hours","9":"tag-artist","10":"tag-drawing","11":"tag-frustration-barrier","12":"tag-i-suck","13":"tag-mastery","14":"tag-practice","15":"tag-skill","16":"tag-style","17":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Draw (and Other Life Lessons) - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/21\/how-to-draw-and-other-life-lessons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Draw (and Other Life Lessons) - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI can\u2019t draw, I\u2019m not an artist.\u201d I\u2019ve heard this many times. 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