The 4 Reasons Why You Can’t Draw Well - (And Why You Actually Can)
There are times when we’ve done our best, and it still doesn’t feel good enough.
Many attempts ctrl + z’d, eraser marks all over the page, and each attempt looking worse than the last.
It’s a frustrating feeling. Like you’re just not made for drawing...Like every great artist you’ve ever seen was handed gobs of talent, and a secret instruction book on how drawing works
Meanwhile, you’re having a hard time even drawing a decent circle, let alone a teapot or a person.
It might feel like you’re never going to get better.
“Am I doomed to a life of mediocre art?” You ask yourself in moments of defeat (the worst possible time to ask yourself that, by the way. One could argue there’s actually no good time to do so.)
Listen, you’re not the only one.
Drawing can be tricky, but the one trick you need to know is that it’s a learnable skill. Unlocking all of the latent potential within you is no small task, but there are several keys to your creative power.
You see, the solutions are actually pretty straight forward (and no, it’s not too good to be true.)
Read on an I’ll help you tune into them.
There are 4 drawing secrets that the masters spent their lives learning, testing, distilling, and teaching.
You’d like to know those secrets— wouldn’t you?
1. Learn to see (and squint!)
This is key no.1 — retraining and sharpening your sense of sight.
You may think that you’re seeing, but what you’re accustomed to is closer to “looking.”
You see, seeing is the act if really taking something in, and allowing your mind to perceive it as it is, not as you think it is.
The problem starts when you try to use your normal, “everyday” sense of sight when you sit down to draw.
That’s a mistake.
We’re visually bombarded with a world of infinite detail. Our brains have learned that many of those details are irrelevant to our survival, and thus millions of them are ignored, or at the very least they’re minimized.
In order to develop your ability to draw, you’ll have to exercise your sense of sight.
The best way to do this is to consciously tap into it. When you mentally override the brain’s tendency to glaze over things, you’ll notice a deeper connection and understanding of whatever it is you’re seeing.
Often times all those details that we’ve been unconsciously suppressing start to rush back. This is a bit of a shock, especially when it comes to drawing, but there’s an easy fix for that.
Squint.
That’s right. I’m talking about narrowing the amount of light that’s entering your pupil by partially closing your eyelid
(Do you feel like a piece of bio-technology that’s learning to run it’s OS yet?)
Things will invariably become blurry. Everything that was becoming rather detailed is now the opposite.
Now, at first this may seem like a paradox. Why would you unlock the ability to see more detail than ever, only to squint those details into large, blurry shapes?
The reason is that your sense of sight has now expanded. You’ve learned to see details and you’ve learned to see simply. What was once a very narrow bandwidth of everyday observance is now a spectrum of sight.
I’ll elaborate upon how to use these new visionary powers below, but in short, you’ll want to squint at your subject/reference for the large masses and their relationships to one another, and only gradually begin to add detail as those masses are laid in accurately.
For now, let’s hand you the other keys.
2. Don’t Associate Your Self Worth With Drawing
Or for that matter, the act of drawing, or the outcome of drawing.
Not even with the response or lack of response from a finished drawing.
Here’s the deal, we all have a tendency to be too self critical. It’s a fact of human life.
Those who are drawn to creative pursuits are especially susceptible.
When you’re too fixated on whether you’ll succeed or not, or what others will think of you, you’ve already lost.
Not only will you lose the ability to tap your full potential (i.e. self sabotage)
But you’ll also destroy a great deal of the joy that the process is trying to give you.
You can learn to draw. That’s a given. It’s not about whether or not you’ve been lucky to start early, have great teachers, or get blessed with “talent.”
The problem lies in letting internal and external factors stir up the inner critic.
Once your inner critic goes off the rails, it’s essentially time to put down your pencil. You’ll stop seeing at your full potential, you’ll mechanically work your way through, and you’ll be disappointed at the end.
Instead of giving the inner critic any food or fodder, just take the time to refocus yourself on the sheer fortune that you’re drawing. Develop immense respect, sincerity, and gratitude for the mere act.
Detach from results, and hold fast to the process.
3. Think in the abstract.
It can be very tempting to think in words while drawing. However, that’s a sure-fire way to play down the right-brain’s ability to truly see.
Whether you’re working from life, a picture, or imagination, you’ll want to be focusing on the big picture— a symphony of shapes and forms.
Lines are one tool of enclosing shapes (masses) and forms are how you render things in accordance with whatever light sources are at play.
This is the secret to a powerful piece of work. To think in forms, shapes, and lines, rather than in words.
It’s a key mental shift, that once you’ve engaged it, you’ve merely got to remember to hit that gear every time you’re making work.
If your brain keeps saying “I’m drawing a piece of cloth draped over a chair.” Then you’re doing it wrong.
It shouldn’t really be translating it to you in that fashion if you’re drawing or painting.
In other words, we don’t draw in words!
Now if you were writing a paragraph describing the detailed cloth falling manifold across the structure of the chair— that’s another story.
But you’re not, so you’ll have to learn the language of drawing.
Here’s a small glimpse into the language of drawing.
Don’t worry to much about the technical at this point, you already know most of it intuitively.
It goes back to secret no.1 - how you see.
Seeing and forming mental pictures is part and parcel of the language of drawing.
Once you’re able to let go of words, and simply enter a state of sense perception, you’ll feel a key shift.
It revolves around being able to be present for the unfolding of form. You see, you’re not drawing a piece of cloth falling across the structure of a chair at all.
No, what you’re really drawing is a series of shapes, lines, and the way that light is articulating itself across those surfaces.
This is visually conveying what’s before you. The brain will try to do it linguistically, but in order to learn to draw, you’ll have to override that.
Seeing as an artist sees is a skill that’s accessible to everyone, it’s just a matter of switching states.
4. Learn how to learn how to draw.
Drawing as a learn-able skill
In fact, learning is a learn-able skill.
Without diving off the subject of drawing too far, here are 10 ways you can optimize and accelerate the process of learning to do so:
10 ways you can optimize your learning when drawing:
Study from a powerful resource that you could draw from for months - an example would be an 8 or 12 week drawing course.
Don’t work for any more than 45 minutes per session without a 5 minute break.
See, hear, say, do. Use all of these modalities when trying to learn something new— drawing a portrait, for example.
Take a minute to close your eyes, take 1-4 deep breaths, and clear your mind during the process.
Work in very focused ways at first, and more diffused ways when energy levels begin to dwindle. (Put on music, listen to a podcast, have a show in the background, etc…)
Always strive to sleep at least 7-8 hours per night for optimum retention
Review what you’ve learned within 24 hours, and again within 48 for even better retention
Aim for 1% improvements every time. The effect is exponential, not linear.
Stick with one subject long enough to begin mastering it. If you’re rendering spheres and basic shapes, that’s how you learn form. Don’t hop off into doing gesture drawing that’s very line-focused before you’ve got at least 500-1000 shapes.
Teach others what you’ve been learning. Do so as simply and clearly as possible. This is how you cement your own knowledge, and expand upon what you’ve learned.
Bonus tip - Stay consistent. 1 hour per day is better than 7 hours in one day.
If you remember to apply even 2-3 of those whilst working on your drawing education, you’ll see such notable improvement you’ll be amazed.
How to learn to draw (In 12 weeks of study)
Look, in one week, you likely won’t notice much improvement, but after 4 weeks of consistent effort, your results will be notable. After 3x that (12 weeks) You’ll have momentum and skill ascent on your side.
Often times we end up playing videos games, or scrolling social media feeds. We lose our precious hours in consuming media, rather than giving form and life to our own ideas.
It’s not easy to develop a new skill, but it becomes easier to face the challenge of doing so. Working on the very edge of your abilities is where the sweet spot of exponential improvement happens.
It doesn’t come as quickly when we’re way out of our depth, or wallowing in our comfort zones.
And don’t forget that the drawing habit is a crucial component to the puzzle.
Proving to yourself that you I can draw better simply by putting in the hours and absorbing drawing fundamentals will change your life forever.
Seriously, it’s not about talent, it’s about pursuing your interest.
With the tools you’ve learned in this article, you’re in good standing for ascending within a matter of weeks, not years.
Just remember to start off on the fundamentals. Make them fun, and take it easy on yourself. You wouldn’t be unkind to a baby learning to walk or talk, so why would you mentally diminish yourself for doing so as an artist.
Drawing fundamentals are where the fun begins. They’re where the love of the masters can be felt flowing out of our drawing tools and onto our picture planes.
In the end, I know that if you’ve made it this far in the article, that the art spirit dwells deeply within you.
You can choose to cultivate it. Or you can spend the rest of your life wondering “what if?”
A rings of keys has no power of their own. They’re hunks of metal, shaped to open the doors where the true treasures await.
Now that I’ve laid these keys before you, it’s your job to spend time exploring the nearly infinite number of rooms that you can unlock.
Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
1. Grow & Sharpen Your Drawing Skills here. (1,800+ students)
2. Build better Paintings and get Commissions here. (500+ students)
Happy creating.
