It is common for us artists to wonder if drawing is a talent or a skill at some point in our learning journey. In my case, it was an art teacher who made me wonder about it, and the way she differentiated the two concepts helped a lot in setting my artistic goals.So is drawing a talent or a skill?
Drawing is a skill you can learn even if you don’t have talent. Drawing requires a vast set of skills that people do not acquire at birth. Although some people may naturally draw better than others initially, practice and study are the factors that differentiate a good artist from a common one.
Still, how can we explain when someone draws so well it is almost unbelievable? To answer this fully, I asked many artists, from beginners to pros, and found very interesting facts.
Is Drawing A Natural Talent Or A Learnable Skill?
Answering if drawing is a natural talent or a learnable skill is complex. When gathering information about this topic, I found that this is a very controversial question among the artistic community, but don’t worry; I’ll give you a quick analysis of every aspect we need to consider to find a definite answer to this matter.
We have two different scenarios: in the first one, you’re born, and you can immediately draw like a master; in the second one, you’re born with no exceptional talent to draw, but you master it by practicing it a lot. To give you an objective answer, I considered it was best to do research.
At first, I polled two different drawing groups to see the overall opinion about drawing being a talent or skill, and the results looked like no more research was required to answer the question. Here are some screenshots of the results:
As you can conclude by the 231 artists who participated in the poll, 69% think drawing is a talent, and 31% think it is a skill. But as someone who has studied drawing for so many years, I felt more research was needed.
I had to be a bit more specific with the people I asked this. So I went ahead and asked friends who I knew for sure had studied drawing enough and had an outstanding drawing level. Things changed a lot: from the 14 artists I polled, 12 think skill is more important than talent when it comes to drawing. Here are their opinions:
But what was most interesting was that I asked the two people that picked talent why they did it. Both of them used almost the same words: “When you meet someone truly talented, you know it’s improbable you will ever reach such a drawing mastery, regardless of how much effort you put into it.” They didn’t necessarily mean you cannot get good at drawing. They meant that there is a limit to how good people can get at drawing without talent. And I agree with that.
Finally, I researched all over the internet, trying to look for professional art teachers addressing this question, and I found that almost all of them think drawing is a skill. I discovered artists like Jeff Watts, Graham Show, Shoo Rayner, Chris Pacione, and Stan Prokopenko. They all talked about drawing being something you improve with constant practice and study. What’s even more curious is that if you try to look for professional artists saying drawing is a talent and nothing else, you won’t find them. I couldn’t do it, and I searched for hours.
I want to end the research with a very famous quote from Michelangelo.
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
– Michelangelo
Conclusion
Drawing is a skill, but talent still plays a role in how quickly or how good you can get at it at any given time. If drawing were solely a skill, artists wouldn’t get better and better over time. They would be perfect artists from day one, and we know that’s not the case. Instead, it’s prevalent to see beginner artists become exceptionally good at drawing over the years, just as you see with almost any learnable skill.
Still, we cannot deny some people are born with extraordinary talent; but we will talk about that more in-depth later in this post. If you ask me, drawing is 80% skill and 20% talent. But don’t overestimate what that 20% could do.
Can I Learn To Draw If I Have No Talent?
Everyone can learn to draw if they put in the work, time, and effort it takes. People with zero talent can still learn to draw, but it might take them longer than someone more talented. Achieving a high, above-average drawing skill level doesn’t require exceptional talent; only time and practice.
Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn’t Work Hard.
-Tim Notke
I can confidently say anyone can draw because I’ve seen people with little to no talent get very good at drawingeople that couldn’t even draw a circle and then were able to draw superb portraits and complex illustrations. But if it is that simple, why do so many people struggle to get better at drawing? Most times, it is because they don’t practice and study drawing long enough to see real improvements.
However, this is something that doesn’t happen to talented people. See, talent doesn’t only make you draw better than others. And it also makes you learn to draw faster than others. Talented people still need to practice a lot, but not as much as zero-talented people. With things being like that, many people will think they cannot draw after only three months of drawing practice, but the truth is that they just needed to keep doing it for a more extended period.
If anything were easy, then anyone would be able to do it! Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you will be a professional artist in just two weeks. 99% of the artists you admire had practiced and studied drawing so much it’s natural they are so good at it.
Everyone’s pace is different, you just need to find yours, and you will get better at drawing over time. I promise.
So can you learn to draw if you have no talent? Yes, you can. Follow a routine, practice mindfully, and most importantly, enjoy the process! Here I have a blog about how to get better at drawing, step by step! I hope it works for you.
Is Drawing An Inborn Talent? Or Can It Be One?
Some people may be born with a greater talent for drawing than other people. But mainly, drawing is a skill. The difference between people with a talent for drawing vs. people without a remarkable talent is that talented people will learn how to do it faster.
We know drawing is mostly skill, but what about the extraordinarily talented artists you’ve met or seen online? We can call those the exceptions.
Skill is the most common way artists get better at drawing and how anyone can get better at it. However, talent is a different animal. There’s no denying some people are born with exceptional gifts, not only in drawing but in many other things as well.
To give you an example, I’ll talk about Kim Jung Gi, a professional artist worthy of being called a genius. I was watching some interviews to learn more about how he practiced getting so good at drawing, and he told the interviewer he was already drawing complex shapes when he was a kid. Kim Jung Gi claims he had very good observational skills, so that helped him a lot.
Although he’s an exception to the rule, later in the interview, he said that his drawing level wouldn’t have increased so quickly if he didn’t learn perspective and shape theory when he was in college. He, an artist that draws so well you think he’s not human, says he had to study and practice to get good at drawing. We cannot deny he’s talented and born to draw, but the talent for drawing wasn’t his only virtue; discipline, constant practice, and passion for drawing were the things that made him the artist he is now.
So Are Artists Born Or Made?
It’s a little bit of both. Many believe, I included, that everyone is born an artist. I wasn’t born with an exceptional talent for drawing; I had to draw a lot to achieve the drawing level I have up to this point. I’m improving, and I’m sure everyone can do it if they put in the work it takes to get better at anything, including drawing.
Is Drawing A Skill You Can Develop?
We know we don’t need an extraordinary talent for drawing if we want to get good at it, so anyone can learn to draw if they follow a good drawing routine and practice consistently. Still, many people think otherwise.
Surfing the web, I found many people think they cannot get good at drawing, but I think that’s a misconception and lack of knowledge. From experience, it is very easy for people to stop doing the things they set out to do if they don’t see quick results. This behavior applies not only to learning to draw but to anything.
To give you an example, I will talk about an average person that wants to go to the gym after deciding on his New Year’s Resolutions. In a study of 4,000 people who wish to achieve their fitness goals after the new year, 90% of people quit after a month. And only about 5% of them were able to be somewhat consistent throughout the year. The most common reason that 95% of people didn’t continue was that they didn’t see their bodies having a significant change after a month. The reality is you shouldn’t see any changes in your body after such a short period.
Let’s now apply that example to drawing. Just as with the gym, acquiring a good drawing level doesn’t happen in a month. It may take many years, depending on your artistic goals. And what happens is exactly the same thing that happened in the gym example; after one to three months of constant practice, most people don’t see significant improvements, so they just go away and think drawing is talent and not skill. But drawing is a skill that takes time to develop.
On top of that, there’s another reason why people struggle besides not knowing the time it takes to get better at drawing; they don’t know how to study. Knowing how to study is crucial because you can spend three months learning how to draw with the wrong approach and see little to no improvements. There are a ton of resources over the internet, my blog included, in which you can find very helpful tutorials and steps on how to draw.
I have a blog about the time it takes to learn to draw anime if you want to have a general idea!
In short, drawing is a skill you can develop if you follow the right approach and put in the time it takes.
Why Do Some People Draw Better Than Others?
Some people draw better than others because of two main factors: the time they have been drawing and talent. Statistically, a person who has drawn for 10 years will draw better than a person who has been drawing for 1 year. If 2 people draw for a year and one draws better, talent is the reason why.
There are even cases where you could find people that have been drawing for five years, and then someone that started to draw just two years ago is already drawing better than the artist with five years of experience. These are rare cases, and some factors can help you identify why this happens:
- Real drawing time: Anyone can say: “I’ve been drawing for 30 years.” but if the artists didn’t do it consistently, we don’t know the exact amount of hours they did it for. Suppose that person drew every day of those 30 years for at least an hour. In total, the artist drew 1,095 hours. Now, let’s talk about an artist who has been drawing for ten years, but he drew at least four hours every day. In total, he would’ve drawn for 1,460 hours. In this case, if artist #2 draws better, it is because he has drawn for more hours than the other person.
- Drawing routine: Depending on how you study and practice drawing, you can learn how to do it faster or slower. If artist #1 draws without any routine for 1,000 hours, he will only get so far. In contrast, if artist #2 draws with a purpose, studying and learning the fundamentals like perspective, form, value, and more, she will get good at drawing a lot faster than artist #1.
- Talent: As explained initially, some people are simply more talented than others in a particular aspect. If artist #1 and artist #2 both follow the same routine and study drawing for 1,000 hours, the one that draws better is the more talented one.
Now that we know why and how people can draw better than others, let’s dive deeper into how talent compares to skill.
Talent Vs. Skill
This section will talk about the comparison between these two factors and how they can affect artists. So what’s more important for drawing if you want to get good at it, talent or skill? Although talent is essential, the skill will always be a more reliable way to enhance your drawings.
But in the end, every person is different, so everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Based on this, it is crucial to be aware of the problems you might face, whether you’re talented or not.
Talent In Art
For talent, we stated this aspect would help people learn to draw in less time. However, this might create some problems. Many talented artists tend to think drawing is easy and that they don’t need to study hard to achieve their peak level. Still, sooner or later, they will realize that no matter how talented you are, there will be people more talented than you that will be studying and practicing ten times more than you. And they will be at a whole different level.
Strengths:
- They learn faster: Talented artists have an easier time sticking to drawing for longer periods because they are much more likely to see significant improvements in their art consistently.
- They are more confident: Talented artists are more likely to be praised, and that will encourage them to draw more often.
Weaknesses:
- They don’t study enough: Many talented artists tend to ignore drawing fundamentals because they think they don’t need to do it. That will take its toll when they reach a level where they cannot progress any further.
- Lack of discipline: When you’re talented, it’s easy not to be disciplined. The reason why this happens is that you see yourself improving so quickly that it makes you think whatever you’re doing is more than enough. The problem is that being a highly skilled artist requires much more than just talent.
Skill In Art
For skill, artists have to develop the technique through practice and discipline. The good news here is that anyone can learn to draw just as anyone can learn to write, but it will take time. But when they learn how to do it, they are unstoppable. In many cases, they become artists that are far better than talented artists without enough practice.
Strengths:
- They are disciplined: As artists without extraordinary talent, when they realize they can get good at drawing by being very disciplined, it’s easier for them to learn the drawing fundamentals. And since their art has a lot of theory behind it, they know how to draw and understand what they are drawing.
- They are more open to receiving advice: They understand theory and experience play considerable roles in their learning journey, so they take criticism very constructively. This aspect about them is a virtue that can get them to achieve their artistic goals much faster.
Weakness
- They can be discouraged very easily: Since it takes them much longer to learn to draw, they think they’re not good enough to be artists. But the reality is that they just didn’t practice and study long enough. If you’re in this place, continue drawing! You’ll see results over time.
For the rest, artists who draw consistently realize they can get better and grow into really complete artists.
Is Drawing A Rare Or Hidden Talent?
Depending on how you measure talent, drawing can be a very rare or an ordinary talent. If we talk about artists like Michelangelo or DaVinci, we can consider having such a talent for drawing is very rare. But most professional artists, and people in general, don’t have that extraordinary talent and still perform very well.
As kids, we are all artists, and it feels like every kid was born with a talent for drawing. But when kids grow older, they tend to stop drawing. Talking to some friends that draw at an above-average level, we found that many of us have been encouraged to draw since we were very young. It was funny because some of us produced “horrible” art, and still, people told us otherwise. We were told our art was the most amazing thing they have ever seen, and we grew up believing we were amazing artists.
Of course, we grew up and realized that wasn’t exactly the case. Still, since we thought we were somewhat talented already, we drew a lot in our childhood, so it was much more natural for us to learn to draw.
If you ask me, I think drawing is a very common talent. Many people believe otherwise because they haven’t drawn enough to realize they can do it. If you consider drawing something you would really like to learn, by all means, do it without fear! I’m sure you’ll get better at it. If you do not see results fast enough, don’t be stressed; everyone’s process is different.
Happy drawing!
