Comic Genesis Forums

I think it's true to an extent. Like, there are some people who are just not meant to be artists...like there are some people not meant to be doctors, or build buildings, or become a mathematician.
My belief is you have one talent that you're born with that just comes naturally to you, and many others you have to work at. In order to be a good artist you need a couple of things other than talent: ambition and imagination, namely. There are people who aren't very good at drawing, but have gobs of drive and imagination (moi, for example). And there are some people who are good at drawing but haven't the desire or the imagination to make use of it. And everyone in between. Some people haven't got enough imagination to fill a thimble and so they really aren't meant to be artists.
I also think if you've got a natural talent with an artistic bend, you're more likely to be able to get the hang of drawing than someone who's naturally good at say...dental work. Or something.
The thing about people who are "born" to be artists is that many times they're NOT as good as people who aren't. Because they get lazy and don't put as much effort into it.
And then there's this "everyone can draw if they want to" thing. I dunno if I'm buying that. Like passing abstract art off as great...newp, not buying it. Anyone can do abstract art, in some form...but it's personal and it isn't meant for mass consumption. That's like putting your soul up for sale to the highest bidder. But anyone can be an artist? No, I don't agree. Because then everyone could have the same strengths and weaknesses, and the world would be boring! We weren't meant to all be able to do the same things.
And I'm not really religious or anything, I just believe that we were all made to be different.

Or even better!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000 ... ZZZZZ_.jpg

With 20 more points of articulation!

What War showed us reminded me of how much I've improved. And I forbid anyone to say, "But that's still okay..." It was a comic for my friends and I about our adventures of trolling RP chat rooms. Oh gawd.

That was...maybe 2.5 years ago? Either way, OMFG BAD DRAWINGS.

I want to find a better example. I think I have some drawings from kindergarten. That'd be awesome.

WHEN I WAS BORN IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS THAT I WOULD BE AN AWESOME ARTIST SO I JUST LAID BACK AND WAITED FOR MY TALEND TO SPRING.

Seriously guys. I am of the belief that every human being is free to do whatever they want, including developing talents, skills or whatever you want to name them.

The problem is not that people are or aren't talented. They are just, simply put, lazy and conformist. They are too comfortable with sitting around watching TV or chatting around the net to do something of their lives like drawing, painting, making music, learning a second language, etc.

There's a little passage from the movie Waking Life that I love:

"When you come to think of it, almost all of human behavior and activity is not essentially any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us at best up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between say Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved. Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes. No greater values can develop. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this. Which is the most universal human characteristic? Fear or laziness?"

Soap Soaperson wrote:

supernerdcore wrote:and who cares if you are good anyways?

Generally, artists that aspire to draw for a living.

I think you can get by on decent or mediocre. Heck, if you can draw on paper what you see in your mind's eye then I think you are awesome. I mean we can all say Peanuts is a great comic, but it's not the best draw. Everyone has goofy heads and weird little shoes that look more like beans, but Charles Shultz had a vision that he was able to share with everyone and made arguably one of the best comic strips ever.

Okay, supernerdcore! I've decided to stop improving, because apparently you can succeed being mediocre!

Soap Soaperson wrote:Okay, supernerdcore! I've decided to stop improving, because apparently you can succeed being mediocre!

I think in order to get by being mediocre with your drawing, you have to be really, really good at something else, like story or humor or something.
But maybe not. There are a lot of people in the art world who will jump at crap just to keep from missing the boat. My ex-boyfriend's mother made "art" out of things she found in the garbage and someone actually paid $180 for one of the peices.

I'm glad everyone's able to post some real good points on this. (Shakes fist at Ghastly. That's some good shiz). I

RPin wrote:Which is the most universal human characteristic? Fear or laziness?[/i]"

"Oh noes! Zombie apocalypse! What shall we do?!"
"Look how slow they move! If we just roll a few heavy drums of water at them, they will disperse, and we can move in their wake!"
"Wait, wait. Heavy drums?"

Sad to say, but I'll probably take the road more traveled. It's probably paved. ::weeps for soul::

Digital War wrote:

2 and a half years later...

All that time, and not one bit of improvement?



See, that first image is better than I can draw after years of trying. I are teh suck, and no matter how much I practice. I are be teh suck.

godoftarot wrote:

Soap Soaperson wrote:Okay, supernerdcore! I've decided to stop improving, because apparently you can succeed being mediocre!

I think in order to get by being mediocre with your drawing, you have to be really, really good at something else, like story or humor or something.
But maybe not. There are a lot of people in the art world who will jump at crap just to keep from missing the boat. My ex-boyfriend's mother made "art" out of things she found in the garbage and someone actually paid $180 for one of the peices.

I don't know what the art looked like, so I probably can't make a valid point on this...But I'm about to take a sculpture course that apparently involves making art out of junk. I get to go to the scrap-yard, and everything. People like that sort of thing enough to put it in museums, pay hundreds of dollars for it, and make art courses dedicated to it - it's art for THEM, and that's what matters.

But you're right. You can be a half-rate artist, and still have something to offer. There are some comics out there like that - the art's okay, but the story is so awesome that you can't keep me away!

I am, perhaps, biased on this matter, knowing my dad. For one, he's a dentist going on thirty years now, and served honorably in the navy. Add to that, he's a carver who can sculpt maple sugar into something too beautiful to eat. He one time replicated Michelangelo's statue "The Pieta" in snow in our front yard. He used to carve eggshells into works of fancy before he developed a certain twitch in his left hand (the one he doesn't use in dentistry, I might add).

He's also a carpenter; I helped him build a deck on the back of the house for my graduation party. He's an electrician. Shortly after my family moved to our new house, the old one burned down ... from a spark in the one wall he /didn't/ rewire. He was able to help all five of us kids with our homework, almost no matter the subject.

And on top of that, he sings bass with the local choir and so far the only person who's ever beaten him at chess or scrabble is his wife, whose talents/skills I could also spend a good half-hour listing.

The point is, yes, people are born with certain inclinations, abilities, and so forth. But people can still become darn good in just about anything they set their mind to.

There was a man named Heber J. Grant, who was informed that he could be a pleasant singer if only the listeners were in another state. However, he wanted to sing so badly, he would spend several hours a day practicing hymns aloud again and again ... and by the time he died, he was surprisingly pleasant to the ear in the hymns he had practiced.

Just about anything is possible if you only take the time to work at it.

--Sij

I clearly wasn't born good at drawing.

To post something better than I've ever drawn and say you weren't born good at drawing ... that makes puppies cry.

--Sij

If you want to improve your artwork, I recommend two things.

1. Explore art.

Go to a museum. Go to the bookstore. Go on the internet.
Try different styles. Try different tools. Try a different medium. Read about artists.


When you've figured out what you want to do...


2. Do it.

Puppy-depresser!

Here, all you humble people stop being humble and saying your art sucks, cuz you're all bastards. I will never be able to draw well, and don't tell me to work on my technique and practice because it AINT GONNA HAPPEN. I cannot draw well. Sometimes I get lucky and something looks okay, but that's LUCK.

Barring physical or mental disabilities, I'd have to say that anyone can learn to draw. It is a skill that requires certain things, such as dexterity, imagination and a certain perspective (namely proportions).

If someone is lacking in these they will have a harder time in drawing, but as with anything these normally can be worked on. Practise and studying can overcome a good amount of lack of talent.

But what is talent, really? In the sense of drawing it's just those qualities. Dexterity to make the pencil do what you want, perspective to keep everything relative, and imagination to make it look good. Someone who is born with "talent" just is born with a little more of any or all of these qualities.

I consider myself born with talent. I'm fairly dextrous, and I have a good grasp on proportions (far from a PROFESSIONAL grasp, but a good one for a beginner). What I lack, currently, is imagination (when it comes to my drawings). Born with these skills at a higher level than others makes it easier to start drawing, but I still will have to work hard if I ever want to get as good as War, Derenge, Soap or any number of you here on this board.

That doesn't mean, though, that if I weren't born with these skills I couldn't draw ever. It just means that I would have a harder time of it.

At the beginning I mentioned "barring a physical or mental disability". In this case the mental disability that most harms potential artists is the belief, perpetuated by much of society, that in order to be good at an artistic endeavor you have to be born with a talent for it. This stigma keeps a lot of people who don't have "the knack" from even trying.

The reality is, though, there are a lot of people out there who thought they could produce nothing but crap, and end up producing beautiful works of art through practise. "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" has several "before and after" examples.

Anyone can learn to draw, and draw well. They need to practise, they need to target their weak points, and they need to believe they can do it.

I guess saying stuff like "you have to be born an artist" is really self incriminating and a way to say... "so this is why I suck.. okay I'll just sit around and wish!"

Cause how many people here have heard the whole "oh I wish I could draw you are so lucky" and they you explain you've been drawing for years, and it just takes practice and people are like "oh yeah I could never draw like you can."

and the conversation totally gets to the point where the person isn't listening to what you have to say and they are all like in the whole.. excuses cause they weren't born with a pencil in thier hand.

thats what I think it amounts to. granted some people are born with better eye to hand cordination, and some people in thier youth learned how to read lines and shadows better than otheers. but I don't think anyone is born an artist. I'm more in the school of... early in life the enviroment they are in teaches them to do things better and learn the fundamental skills even if they don't realize it.

People like to say its herdeitary, the arts are... but if your parent is a musician and you grow up hearing chords even before you pick up your first sax your going to understand how things are supposed to sound and by hitting diffrent valves you are going to learn the gist of it quickly.

The same can be sais about art-- and even if your parents arn't artists things like, growing up where you can see lots of shadows, or lots of light.. or even lots of people, and junk I feel would make infant minds grasp how things are supposed to look cause you see them a lot.

course this is just a theory. I don't really believe in "born to be" stuff, I think as humans we are all animals of our enviroment, and experience.. like Ghastly mentioned, are products of our talents and skills.

I want to see someone who started out as badly as I draw and improved tremendously. All these people who say they used to be bad still drew better than I ever have.

Depends on the type of art.
Visual-Spatial ability is an inborn mental construct that allows the brain to analyze proportions, distances, perspectives more easily than others who don't have this ability. However, not all forms of art use this. Cartooning doesn't require proportions, or even physical accuracy, rather it requires different abilities.