Learning to Draw

In order to help out new drawing students or people who want to explore drawing I have put up this blog posts on learning how to draw and barriers to learning to draw.

Initially when we start out we all have no clue on how to approach a certain subject or skill, drawing is similar with a additional issue that to learn to draw correctly first involves learning to see the artists way, you have to be aware and let go of the pre conceptions and morphing of images by your brain which you can only convince your brain by deliberate practice, It also requires developing certain mechanical skills as we move forward like, drawing straight lines, drawing ellipses, drawing circles, using shoulder joints to  draw long curves, straight lines.

Why our drawing sucks as an adult?
Answer is simple in order to simplify processing and reduce workload our brain maps everything to symbols and when we draw we are drawing these symbols instead of what we actually see.
Try it out, try to think of a scenery, the first thing that comes to your mind is the scenery you did as a kid. Even objects and faces, instead of drawing what we actually see we draw what our symbol system tells us.

Bypassing the symbol system
So the question comes how do we bypass the symbol system, overtime you will start to distinguish between what you see and what your symbol system tells you, but for a start
start with drawing this upside down drawing

1. Find a spot with no disturbance, somewhere in solace
2. do not think of what it is, just copy lines, edges, spaces, don't think in terms of hands, legs, eyes, think in terms of relations, this line is longer, this line is shorter, don't verbalize what you see.
3. Start drawing from any part of the image
4. Do not invert any of the image till it is done.
5. Be fascinated by what you drew

Learning through exploration

Plenty of times in my life I have thought of what is the best way to learn something?, I thought structural, analytical approach was the best way until I realized how it all started and how I learned computers in the first place, there was no structure to it, I just picked up random stuff and read them, It was exploratory style of learning, the sheer joy of learning by exploration I still remember, as I grew up I got more and more confused, there was no one to correct me or tell me when I was a kid the "right" way to learn, but now people have a lots of theories on the right way to learn.
I know direction is important in learning, but your learning shouldn't be restricted to direction or where teacher points you to. it should be more of an exploratory learning process.

Lets take music, In music you should be improvising, that will get you a sense of how the notes combine together and form melodies, I am not saying theory isn't important, it is important if you want to know the reason as why and what you did sounded so good.
but that won't help you get good at it.
Developing your ears should be carried out by practicing, exploring different styles, playing random notes and sticking with what you like.
As a beginner  I found it hard to improvise, I thought what am I even playing it sounds so bad, but over time I realized the value of improvising, It made me trust my own music and form my own compositions through sheer experience on what sounded good to me and what did not.
After all a musician conveys to the world what he hears around him.

Another example would be that of an artist, when I first started to draw I found it really hard to do stuff, straight lines were hard, but exploring medium, recording my perception and realizing that whatever I draw is my perception of the world made me realize how important exploratory learning really is.
You gotta try different styles, different mediums and find the ones that let you express your perception in the best way possible.
Theory helps but it isn't enough.
After all artists  draw their perception of the world.

With this in mind I hope anyone reading this post will stick to 80% exploratory learning and 20% theoretical learning. Find techniques, use them, abuse them, find ways to improvise. Get good at it.
Exploratory and practice goes hand in hand, you practice what you explore.

Go ahead play what you like, draw what you like, learn what you like, don't let anything be a barrier in between, your way of doing things is unique in this world and no one can do it the way you do it. 

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