So when people come to me and say “Oh I can’t do what you do. I’m not talented enough.” they’re usually using the definition of talent that means “a special natural ability or aptitude.” Basically they’re telling me they weren’t born with the natural ability to draw so they just assume it’s something they can never do.
Boy is that a lame excuse. Who on this earth is born able to draw? No one is born able to walk and talk, why would drawing be different than that? These are things we have to learn. If everything is learned then the idea of natural talent is a complete myth. No one is born able to draw better than anyone else. So it’s completely absurd to think that if you weren’t born with the “art gene” your art career is screwed.
“But Shono,” someone is arguing right now. “How do you explain young kids who are amazing artists. No one taught those kids how to draw, so they had to be born with that natural talent right?” Well… no, actually. As Hank Green says, “Correlation does not imply Causation” Just because the kids are good at art and have had no formal training does not mean that they’re born with wonderful art skills.
Visual art is the reproduction of the world we see. So if a child is really good at art without formal training it means they probably spend a lot more time than the average kid looking at the world around them, observing the shapes and spacial relationships of that world (whether it’s consciously or subconsciously). Then I’d bet that kid spends more time than the average child drawing. Drawing every moment he or she can.
So a kid that seems to have a “natural talent” in reality is doing something we all can do. What we should do to become talented artists: Practice. Do it over and over again until you are fantastic at it.
This brings me to the second definition of talent that means, “a capacity for achievement or success.”
By this definition you are indeed talented enough. We all have the capacity for achievement and success. We just have to be willing to work for it. It’s hard. It’s VERY hard. Every day you’ll hit obstacles that will slow you down. Maybe you have to work extra hours to make rent. Maybe your art materials break and you can’t afford new ones for a couple months. Maybe its any number of near infinite things that we human beings have to deal with every day just for survival. These things will slow us down and discourage us from following our dreams. It’ll make us question if we’re wasting our time. I can say with absolute certainty that you are not wasting your time. But you can’t give up. If you give up, then all that time you put into your art will have been in vain. However if you keep working on it, all this time builds up your skills and knowledge. It builds and builds for as long as you work at it until your inevitable success happens. It’s Guaranteed.
You have this capacity. You have this talent.
So stop making excuses and go make some comics!
Tomorrow I’ll be showing some of my sketch covers so meet me back here and enjoy!
In the mean time check me out around the web:
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and what are you waiting for already? go make some comics!
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