I keep trying to learn to draw but I simply suck at it no matter what. I’d love to learn how to draw all kinds of things like architectural drawings, or cute designs, etc. But I can barely even copy something if I have the picture right in front of me.

I’d like to take a class that teaches the basics of drawing that I could follow along with using Procreate or something. Does anyone have good recommendations for someone who seems unable to gain any proficiency at drawing?

  • cobysev@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    You only get better through failure. Drawing and art is a skill that you develop over time like training a muscle.

    I’ve been given this advice my whole life and I’ve always hated it because it’s never worked for me.

    I used to love drawing as a kid. I was always sketching things. I got a lot of praise for my artwork and was told that I was highly skilled for my age.

    The problem was, I mostly just copied other works of art. I wasn’t very good at drawing something unique. And even with decades of practice, my skill never improved. I never figured out how to draw unique styles, shading, or details. Despite my “skill,” I eventually gave up drawing altogether.

    As an older man looking back, I realize now that I was focused on technical details I could actually see and I could never recreate them from a mental image. I never had an artist’s mind. I was just really good at copying exact details from other art. I could’ve even draw based on a photo, because I didn’t know what details to include and what to exclude; there was too much information in a photograph and my brain couldn’t parse it all.

    To this day, I can mimic other works of art very well, but I can’t create unique works, and no amount of practice will fix that. I’m just not artistically inclined. I can’t visualize a scene well enough to create it from scratch.