Learning to Draw

I wrote yesterday about some new things I’ve adopted this year. Another new thing for me is learning to draw. Although it’s not technically new because my mum is an artist so I drew a little when I was younger, but I felt like I never developed this skill to my full potential.

More recently I’ve felt limited by my inability to draw, when I’ve considered starting projects that need that skill, like a designing a card game, or creating a comic.

Inability is a strong word - I can draw, but I’m not happy with the result.

At first I thought I would try and copy other people’s drawings whose work I admire as a way to improve my drawing ability. I still think this is useful, but I think it’s also a trap. It’s very easy to think, “I can’t draw like X yet, so I need to continue practicing”.

And then my family members pulled me out of this trap. “Why are you drawing?” my wife asked.

“I think it’s about communicating ideas,” I said. I was thinking about the comic idea.

“Do you need to be able to draw perfectly to do that?”

“Well, no…”

And so now I’m focusing more on expressing my own ideas on paper. The more, I do that, the closer I get to my goal. I’ve realised that my favourite drawings are the ones I’ve drawn freely without trying too hard to make it “good”. So I’m going to continue down that path…