I Like to Draw

The drawing to the left- I wish I'd drawn it, but I didn't. Drawing is something I really like to do, and I've done it since I was a first grader. Like lots of drawers I've met who love to draw, I got positive feedback early on, and it kept me going at it. So now, I've done more than some people, but much less than I could have. I am trying to find ways of getting very good at it, and trying to understand what "good" is, in drawing, and how I can improve, and how I can tell when I have improved. If you draw, you probably are very familiar with the experience of thinking you've done a good drawing, and then later, perhaps long after, seeing it as a not-very-good drawing. And visa versa. That might mean a few things. It might be not very good. Or it is good, and you're no longer "seeing" it - you've declined in your abilities. Or, maybe, hang on to it longer, and it will look good again. There are lots of possibilities. None of them involve being very sure about anything.
I tend to think that we start out drawing well and we stay that way, and its an exclusive club that you're either born into or your not. You can't really learn it. Other things are this way, why not drawing? Maybe you come late to the process, I know that happens, but its something you know how to do or you flat out don't. And- as there are very,very few really good drawers or draughtsman, or draughtspersons, it tends to support my suspicion. Even among the great artists of all time, few were great drawers, its very exclusive. I myself, hope that I might someday do a good drawing, but never a great one, it's hard to fathom what that might even be.

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