Hello from Osaka !
I am travelling with my good friend Eliane and her big family in Japan.
We are a group of 10 people travelling all over Japan ! :).
Last night, we arrived at a new apartment near Namba area, we rented for few days.
After unpacking my things, I sat on the sofa,
Switch ON my Samsung Pro Note graphic tablet and started to give correction to my students of Sketch Like The Pros course.
The 2 youngest kids of the group, Angelina (11yo) and Theo (12yo) came to look at my tablet to see my student’s sketches.
They looked interested even though they did not know much what “Product design” is about. Most important, they was curious and felt attracted by the drawings.
I told Theo how sketching is fun.
And her mom Loan, with enthusiasm and encouragement said he could also learn sketching like how I did !
We never know, she may have planted a little designer seed in her mind ? :)
Then Theo said he’s very bad at sketching.
I guess he meant that he doesn’t have the required skills to succeed. I replied him If only he could see my first sketches !
Here is the sweet spot.
The reason why most people fail or never start – is not a lack of skills, but a misunderstanding.
I call this “the mythe of the innate talent” that is most often relayed by people who themselves don’t know how to sketch… who somehow think like “I can’t do it, why could you do?”.
Have you ever heard:
“It’s only for gifted people.”
“To become a great sketcher, you HAVE TO be a great artist !”
“Oh of course he can succeed, he has talent. Not you.”
It’s all simply FALSE. And super wrong.
To illustrate my point of view,
I gave Theo a straight forward example.
Let’s say you wanna learn Piano.
Do you think you could play well from start ?
The answer was no.
You will have to go through the basics and get exercises to practice first, right ? So only you can soon enjoy playing music !
It’s the same for drawing.
You would be surprised how Learning how to sketch is FIRST OF ALL about TECHNIQUES. That actually give no much room for improvisation. Which means that it is more like a process that can be assimilated by anyone.
The basics of sketching difficulty has nothing compared to the complicated Cosinus, sinus and infinite… that gave me “homework headache” from school.
The basics of sketching are actually a “piece of cake.”
If you doubt of yourself, remember that :What you need to succeed is NOT a”random” sense of art. But a GOOD SENSE OF LOGIC.
In other words, anyone who has the willing to learn will succeed.
Hope this article helps you to see wider horizon, and help you believe in yourself to always pursue your dreams. :)
Take care.
Cheers,
Chou-Tac
[…] It is an iterative and internal process that any designer should learn. Sketching is somehow like body language. People know how to move their bodies to communicate with someone when they were young. But as people got older, they lose their ability to use their body language since they are not using them anymore. Sketching is like body language. We loved drawings and paintings when we were a child, yet as we got older, we are not using them anymore to express our thoughts and feelings. Sketching is about how to use your body precisely. It is all about learning the right movement in a step-by-step procedure. […]