You Don’t Need Fairy Dust to Learn to Draw

Have you ever heard yourself or someone else say, “I can’t draw.”

I have heard those three words more times than I can count. Maybe you’ve said them yourself.

• I can’t even draw a straight line.
• Everyone else in my family got the artistic talent.
• I wish I could draw like that, but I just don’t have the gift.

For some reason, we tend to think of drawing differently from almost every other skill we learn. We assume artists were simply born knowing how to draw—as though a little fairy appeared at birth, sprinkled them with creative dust, and somehow skipped the rest of us.

I’m here to tell you: You don’t need Fairy Dust.

Drawing Is a Skill

Think about how you learned to read. First you learned letters. Letters became words. Words became sentences, sentences became paragraphs, and eventually you could read an entire book.

Learning those skills didn’t turn everyone into Shakespeare. It simply gave us the tools we needed to read and write.

Drawing works much the same way.

You learn how to really look at your subject. You learn to see shapes, proportions, angles and relationships. You learn measuring, contour, perspective, light and shadow, surface contour and form. Little by little, those individual skills begin working together. And something wonderful happens:

You stop drawing what you think something looks like and begin drawing what you actually see.

Why Do So Many People Believe They Can’t Draw?

Because many of us were never actually taught. My early art education included the usual construction-paper projects, clay creations and craft activities. Later, in college, a model was placed in front of me and I was simply told to draw.

I remember thinking: How?

Where were the steps? Where were the demonstrations? Where were the tools for figuring out proportion, measuring, form and perspective?

Years later, I studied with Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and became certified to teach her approach. It reinforced something that has shaped the way I have taught drawing ever since:

People can learn to draw when they are given the right tools and taught how to see.

That doesn’t mean everyone will draw the same way—and I wouldn’t want them to.

The goal isn’t to become Leonardo da Vinci, Georgia O’Keeffe or Rembrandt.

The goal is to become YOU—with the skills and confidence to create the artwork you want to create.

One Student Set Out to Prove Me Wrong

Recently, one of my students, Elsie Aldrich, came into my drawing class convinced that she couldn’t draw.

In fact, she was almost determined to prove that I was wrong when I said drawing could be learned.

Here’s what happened:

“I’ve known my whole life that I can’t draw… or so I thought.”

My drawing ability was actually legendary in our family, and my last art class was in grade school. I signed up for Mindy’s class almost determined to prove that “not everyone can learn to draw.”

Instead, I proved myself wrong.

Within just a few weeks, I was drawing things that actually looked like what I was observing. I went from being embarrassed by my drawings to creating artwork from my own wildlife photographs—including a colored pencil drawing of a Painted Bunting that I was proud enough to put on my refrigerator. None of my artwork had ever made it onto the fridge before!

More importantly, I discovered something I never thought possible: I can actually learn to draw.

I’m sure I’ll continue drawing and taking more classes. Mindy is very good at helping people realize that learning to draw really is possible. The amount I paid for this class was some of the best money I have spent.

Thank you for proving me wrong!

— Elsie Aldrich

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I love Elsie’s story because it isn’t really about creating a drawing worthy of the refrigerator.

It’s about changing the sentence “I can’t draw” into “I can learn.”

That is a very big difference.

Strong Drawing Skills Give You Freedom

Drawing isn’t only for beginners.

If you’re already painting in watercolor, working in colored pencil, exploring pen and ink, or creating botanical and natural science illustration, stronger drawing skills can make everything else you do easier.

When you understand proportion, contour, perspective, light on form and how to truly observe your subject, you spend less time wondering why something doesn’t look right—and more time making creative decisions.

That’s when foundational skills become something more than exercises. They give you the confidence to experiment, explore and create.

I hope that this gives you hope that you can achieve your goals and learn to draw. Have you struggled with drawing? Let me know in the comments. I am here to help you on your artistic journey.

Interested in taking classes? Check out my offering under the classes tab.