Learning To Draw

"I can't draw" was part of my vocabulary of self. It's a skill I never developed largely because I was more drawn to words. I doodled, sure, but never anything that I would class as good.

In October of 2018 I decided to draw a pair of scissors on a whim. I sat at my desk with a pencil and a piece of paper and sketched, following lines and curves as accurately as I could. The end result surprised me. I hadn't realized that I was capable of drawing.

That was that. I felt satisfied in having dissolved a self-limiting belief, but didn't feel a draw to pursue it further. I had shown myself that I could- that was enough.

Now, three years later, I want to learn to draw properly. Inspired in part by conversations with the Shamanic Coder's Guild and in part by Wrath Of Gnon, I have an urge to be able to represent my ideas about what the future could look like visually.

A few drawings can convey how things could be more concretely than words alone can. Further, 3D models can convey entire products, buildings, worlds. I've done some simple work in Fusion 360, and recently started playing around with Sketchup. I intend to pursue both (maybe even a little Blender), but principally I want to learn to draw.

I've always loved writing- particularly with a mechanical pencil. Drawing by hand is romantic to me. It's also dead practical. I've worked on projects where I've needed to sketch out objects and my lack of skill at drawing makes that difficult.

I also feel that learning to draw will allow my visual imagination to flourish. The procedure of drawing will begin to inform my idealization. I'll meta-edit ideas for representation as I conceptualize.

In the past, I've shied away from formal learning for this exact reason. If I'm meta-editing my thoughts, how will I produce anything original? I've sort of stopped worrying about that. Knowing tools and processes well enough to get things done quickly has served me better than novelty & creativity. Still, I don't want to completely optimize my life for utility- novelty & creativity are important to me, and everything is a remix of a remix anyways, so I'm in the clear.

So, to the drawing board. I like textbooks, so after a quick round of googling, I settled on "How to Draw: drawing and sketching objects and environments from your imagination:" by Scott Robertson.

According to one review...

I've already cracked into it. So far it has me drawing, uh; straight lines, intersecting lines, and boxes! Trust the process, right?

I'll post updates as I go through it here. I'll also likely do a follow up on this site, just so I can see the fruits of my labour.