It’s just hit me, when I was scrolling though some webcomic’s site (Machall), that I really can’t draw.
And I’d really like to.
I mean, the ease in which he transforms some line art, while in itself wonderful, into a whole detailed scenery… It makes me and my stick figures feel so inadequate. It’s like I’m some uncreative, untalented, unbeautiful being. This urge to create art, to be beautiful… It’s such a consuming desire in me, but all my attempts let me down.
I can’t sing, or play any instrument well, either.
Can code, can fix computers, can make webpages, can solve differential equations, can understand physics concepts… can’t create beauty.
Actually you can. Get a vector based tracing program, and using varying effects parameters slap it on some random pictures. The one I used about 10 years ago with WordPerfect 6 (now part of the CorelDRAW suite) was the bomb. I did some absolutely wild and original stuff with it, that would I consider gallery quality, and I have a reasonably good aesthetic sense.
Ever tried whittling, sewing, potting, welding, or some other non-drawing form of expression? I can’t draw for shit, but I make a darned nice endtable.
Sure you can. Seriously, the idea of “artistic talent” is one of the most repugnant ones in our society. Maybe different things come easily to different people, but anyone can, with a little practice, learn to draw decently, or play something simple on an instrument (at least, in the absence of any kind of physical disability that would prevent those things). There’s nothing magical about the power of hard work.
I’m still trying to be good at certain instruments, but I consider myself a decent artist, and I would suggest the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you’re interested in learning how to draw realistically. It really is a skill that almost anyone can pick up.
I´m a poor piano player, I stink at it, I´m bereft of any trace of talent for the instrument… so I don´t play very well, you get the idea. It took me two frigging months to learn how to gore the Turkish March.
I suck, I really do.
But I like playing the few pieces I know and I like to challenge me with new things; I don´t have to be Mozart reincarnated to enjoy playing the piano.
Every now and then I do play some tune well, sometimes quite well, something simple usually, and it feels great, it´s worth it and is all I can ask for.
Maybe, someday, after years of practice, intense commitment and billions of notes played I´ll become a lame piano player, and it´ll be fine by me. I´m good, very good at other things, and I don´t need to be good at this, so I just try my best and enjoy myself with it.
I advice you to do something similar, you don´t have to be a great artist, just pick up something you like and have a good time.
Hey, TC, if you can recognize good art, you can probably create it in some form or another. You don’t have to be talented at drawing. If you can recognize good composition and arrangement of elements, you can always try your hand at photography or flower arranging. And remember anything worthwhile takes time to learn.
I like to cross stitch. To my own mind, this isn’t much more than paint-by-number, where someone else has dictated exactly what color should be placed in each position on a grid. However, I have to admit that when I compare cross stitch that I have done to cross stitch that others have done, I’m pretty darn good at it. When I was in high school (pre-job, pre-marriage, pre-kids), I actually designed a few good cross stitch patterns myself.
In the long run, though, I see myself as a connoisseur of good Art, rather than a practitioner. I can do some amount of sketching, and some amount of painting, even some amount of playing piano, but in the long run, I would much rather study in extreme minutiae someone else’s work, and admire their genius and creativity.
What it boils down to is, what good is an artist if no one appreciates the artist’s works? This seems to me rather like a poetry reading that no one attends.
