Why Take Drawing Lessons?
You Used to Love Drawing
Then something happened:
They told you you couldn’t draw well.
You couldn’t figure out how to make it look “right”.
They told you, you didn’t have “the eye” for it.
When you were young, they said, “Better stick to writing/basketball/math” or later, “Better stick to your day job”.
Only the people who taught themselves were able to draw, and they were called, “talented”.
“Creativity Scars” (as referred to by Brene Brown) are real and can be quite painful. So why take drawing lessons?
However, they are not the whole story, nor are they the end of the journey.
You weren’t expected to divine Taxonomic Classification, intuitively, alone, by trial and error (unless your name was Darwin, or you earned a PhD and were conducting groundbreaking research). No one anticipated that you would teach yourself Long Division, without the aid of an elder imparting the rules, giving you drills, correcting your attempts and encouraging you along the way. They didn’t say you weren’t “gifted” when you couldn’t diagram a sentence – without first being taught the alphabet, how to spell words and how to compose a sentence.
Why is it then, that in schools across our nation, drawing is relegated to talent
– or those who are able to teach themselves how to draw –
rather than broken down into understandable, cumulative steps?
It is like that because it was rare that our teachers/parents/elders were taught how to draw by a skilled instructor of drawing.
But look back, a little earlier than elementary school, and remember when you drew.
We all draw when we are young. It feels good! Next time you have the opportunity, watch a 3 year old draw. Notice, they have no care in the world about what they are drawing! They just like how the crayon feels in their hand… the fluidity of moving their arm across the paper… the sticky wax trail it leaves behind… the movement, the dance of their body and the materials… the power of creation. The sense that making that mark demonstrates that they are there, they exist, they have the power to move matter.
It is only later that the pressure to draw well, or an accurate representation of our world, even matters. The only thing that truly limits our ability to draw other than lack of interest,
is our judgement and our shame that we can’t teach ourselves how to draw.
Drawing is Your BIRTHRIGHT
Holding ourselves back from it because our fear that we can’t do it well disconnects us from our very sacred truth. We are all creative, generative beings who benefit from sharing own vision and experience of the world. Creating builds connection with ourselves, each other and the world around us. It reminds us that we are spiritual beings, powerful beings and that we matter.
Learning to draw is just like the process of learning another language.
There are steps that can be taught. It starts off simple, and then builds as you develop muscle (literally, your brain muscle and your coordination). First you learn about line, proportion and condensing space to the flat page. Then you learn about value, how light falls on objects, texture and soon you’ll find yourself with the ability to compose an image to express yourself.
Why take drawing lessons? So you can show us how you see your world, what it’s like to be you; what moves you and troubles you; so you can communicate something that is beyond words, that is enlivening and speaks to all of our souls.
Thanks for reading! Your views help a small business to grow! For more in-depth online drawing tutorials & a forum with other drawing students & support from me: www.lzmstudio.com