If I could learn to draw (as an adult, earlier this year), you most certainly can. Check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
What surprised me is how technical and detail-oriented drawing is - at least how I was taught. Didn't feel at all "artsy."
I'm looking across the room at a self portrait that's very nearly recognizable(!). If you are willing to put in some hard effort, drawing is totally doable, even for the completely "untalented."
That book is wonderful. I only did the first major exercise, but I produced a drawing I had no idea I was capable of. I do not have any "artistic talent". Here's the original, and what I drew:
What was the secret? The book said to hold the drawing upside down and copy what I saw. I produced that copy with literally no training, other than observation of the page.
Let me assure you this was not due to talent. My prior attempts at drawing were horrid. That book is highly recommended.
I'm sure I could learn, given enough time and effort, but I don't consider it worth it, especially since I strongly suspect it will be a very uphill battle for the way my brain "naturally" works.
>I strongly suspect it will be a very uphill battle for the way my brain "naturally" works.
What we have been trying to explain is that this belief is incorrect. Everyone likes to pretend that the ability to draw is some sort of mystical power bestowed upon artists while they were still in the womb. HN in particular should understand how silly this is, because non-technical people generally think the same thing about programming and general computer skills.
Learning to draw is largely the same experience for everyone. If you don't think that this process is worth the effort, then you don't really want to be able to draw, as you originally claimed.
There used to be a threat in an art forum where a member joined, barely able to draw a stick-figure. He kept uploading his work and getting feedback, and eventually, he opened his own art school.
> Everyone likes to pretend that the ability to draw is some sort of mystical power bestowed upon artists while they were still in the womb. HN in particular should understand how silly this is, because non-technical people generally think the same thing about programming and general computer skills.
I used quotation marks around "naturally" because I don't believe that my abilities are completely determined by genetics. I think "nurture" may have just as profound an effect on my lack of drawing ability, namely the fact that I was never interested in drawing when I was younger (when I suspect my brain was naturally more inclined to learning such things). And I do believe the same thing about programming: I doubt that a completely computer- and math-illiterate person in their mid twenties would likely find it easy to learn programming.
> Learning to draw is largely the same experience for everyone.
I highly doubt that. It's one thing to say that anyone could eventually learn a skill like drawing, but an entirely different thing to say that everyone has very similar experiences learning to draw.
> If you don't think that this process is worth the effort, then you don't really want to be able to draw, as you originally claimed.
That's a silly semantic argument about what I meant. Wanting to be able to draw has nothing to do with being willing to do whatever it takes to be able to draw.
>That's a silly semantic argument about what I meant. Wanting to be able to draw has nothing to do with being willing to do whatever it takes to be able to draw.
It isn't about semantics. If you wanted to draw well, you would draw. You said that you will not so I think that its a fair statement that you don't really want to.
Dunno about one who opened an art school, but one stayed wth stick figures and made them very expressive to the point of being one of the most popular cartoons: XKCD.
There's one key piece of advice in that book, and it's simply draw what you see, not what you know. I consider myself devoid of any drawing talent, and yet I could produce pretty decent copies with relatively little practice. Also, if you take it as a hobby, rather than thinking about it in terms of RoI, it might work out better. Good luck, in any case.
My philosophy with art is that it is more technical than "artsy," and that the artistic aspect comes from the layers of logic. The more layers of logic applied, the more artsy it appears.
Art is largely a matter of identifying and mimicking color gradients, angles, proportions, etc., and then learning/practicing the various ways to apply the abstract objects to a certain medium (e.g., oil paint on canvas, charcoal on paper, clay for sculpture).
Then you apply additional logic on top of that by learning (and ultimately extending) various "rules" that make something appealing. For example: rule of thirds, color contrast, and studying what stimulates the brain.
There was some study I read about in Scientific American magazine about how people enjoy impressionistic painting because the effort used by their brain to combine the various individual shapes (i.e., thick paint strokes) into an understandable picture is kind of like solving a puzzle on a subconscious level. That can be stimulating and exciting to the brain even though people may not realize it's happening.
What surprised me is how technical and detail-oriented drawing is - at least how I was taught. Didn't feel at all "artsy."
I'm looking across the room at a self portrait that's very nearly recognizable(!). If you are willing to put in some hard effort, drawing is totally doable, even for the completely "untalented."