What surprised me is how technical and detail-oriented drawing is - at least how I was taught. Didn't feel at all "artsy."
I'm looking across the room at a self portrait that's very nearly recognizable(!). If you are willing to put in some hard effort, drawing is totally doable, even for the completely "untalented."
What we have been trying to explain is that this belief is incorrect. Everyone likes to pretend that the ability to draw is some sort of mystical power bestowed upon artists while they were still in the womb. HN in particular should understand how silly this is, because non-technical people generally think the same thing about programming and general computer skills.
Learning to draw is largely the same experience for everyone. If you don't think that this process is worth the effort, then you don't really want to be able to draw, as you originally claimed.
There used to be a threat in an art forum where a member joined, barely able to draw a stick-figure. He kept uploading his work and getting feedback, and eventually, he opened his own art school.
I used quotation marks around "naturally" because I don't believe that my abilities are completely determined by genetics. I think "nurture" may have just as profound an effect on my lack of drawing ability, namely the fact that I was never interested in drawing when I was younger (when I suspect my brain was naturally more inclined to learning such things). And I do believe the same thing about programming: I doubt that a completely computer- and math-illiterate person in their mid twenties would likely find it easy to learn programming.
> Learning to draw is largely the same experience for everyone.
I highly doubt that. It's one thing to say that anyone could eventually learn a skill like drawing, but an entirely different thing to say that everyone has very similar experiences learning to draw.
> If you don't think that this process is worth the effort, then you don't really want to be able to draw, as you originally claimed.
That's a silly semantic argument about what I meant. Wanting to be able to draw has nothing to do with being willing to do whatever it takes to be able to draw.
"Gee I wish I could run a marathon" *sits on couch w/ bag of cheetoes"
It isn't about semantics. If you wanted to draw well, you would draw. You said that you will not so I think that its a fair statement that you don't really want to.
Find a reasonably sized drawing of a relatively "simple" bird (not too patterned, e.g.).
Copy the drawing, a little at a time.
I couldn't believe how well that worked first time I tried it.
(Don't use "scientific" drawings, they tend to be too complicated. You want something simple yet recognizably complex, challenging but feasible.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z893vyv5qdj3k93/original.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/elfqn6ll64du1u3/my%20version.jpg
What was the secret? The book said to hold the drawing upside down and copy what I saw. I produced that copy with literally no training, other than observation of the page.
Let me assure you this was not due to talent. My prior attempts at drawing were horrid. That book is highly recommended.
It's like magic, really - I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it for myself.
My trade is definitely computer science first, but every once in a while, I get in an artsy mood: https://picasaweb.google.com/samuel.jennings/Art.
My philosophy with art is that it is more technical than "artsy," and that the artistic aspect comes from the layers of logic. The more layers of logic applied, the more artsy it appears.
Art is largely a matter of identifying and mimicking color gradients, angles, proportions, etc., and then learning/practicing the various ways to apply the abstract objects to a certain medium (e.g., oil paint on canvas, charcoal on paper, clay for sculpture).
Then you apply additional logic on top of that by learning (and ultimately extending) various "rules" that make something appealing. For example: rule of thirds, color contrast, and studying what stimulates the brain.
There was some study I read about in Scientific American magazine about how people enjoy impressionistic painting because the effort used by their brain to combine the various individual shapes (i.e., thick paint strokes) into an understandable picture is kind of like solving a puzzle on a subconscious level. That can be stimulating and exciting to the brain even though people may not realize it's happening.
If you want to get good at it, draw, observe objects closely, read books and watch tutorials on youtube(or elsewhere), and then draw some more.
The more you practice, the better you will get. There is no such thing as raw artistic talent. Some people learn faster than others but no one has learned to draw well without lots of practice.
And its very likely that learning to draw at a young age is if not orders of magnitudes, then significantly more effective than as an adult simply though greater brain plasticity, and probably having less inhibition.
History might not regard you as Michelangelo's equal, but there are quite a few amateurs that (technically speaking) draw just as well as he did.
I used to be able to draw but then I got into photography but just briefly because along came computers. Although I had been drawing a lot and well since before school-age (5 years old) or so my mom says.
Now having been lazy I haven't drawn anything in almost two decades. If I had it and lost it I'm sure I, or anyone, could practice to learn again or as beginner to learn.
It's very zen to do you can't rush it's something you have to slow down to do and learn to love it. It's the only thing where I could really concentrate to the point I'd come out of it (trance?) hours later.
Conclusion: aptitude + experience is indistinguishable from magic for those that don't possess it (like yours truly).
this is halfway recent stuff from last year or so (not very good at scanning my things):
http://31.media.tumblr.com/48180b9cea9e0876e4d37abcb4d50f81/...
http://24.media.tumblr.com/060a76d8bd81e04aea194885f685e370/...
http://24.media.tumblr.com/8d75e199fe914e8c95fff78c900638d8/...