How many times have you tried to do something but the voice inside your head said: you can’t do it, you have no talent for this.
Well, I thought the same thing until I decide to ignore my voice and go ahead with my challenge. You can try it as well and you might be surprised with the results.
Before describe my challenge let’s first put some thoughts regarding “talent”, “skill” and “ability”.
So talent by definition is the “natural ability to be good at something, especially without being taught”.
Skill is “an ability to do an activity or something well, especially because you practiced it”.
Ability is “the physical or mental power or skill needed to do something”. Metal is related to thinking and power is related to control. So my point is:
If you think that you have no talent that’s ok but you can have skill if you practice and also can have ability because you can think and can control yourself, this is too messy right? In a nutshell, you can do it.
Based on my experience, I’ll organize the mistakes that you shouldn’t do when you’re learning something specially when you have zero skill.
Mistake #1 – Practice before theory (known as putting the cart before the horse)
I might agree this is not a rule but remember it was based on my experience. I think the first mistake that people do is when they start something new without understanding the theory first, how to do it before actual doing so it starts wrong, no results and then easily gave up. Let’s include drawing as an example.
Let’s say you want to draw. If you get a pencil and start drawing there is a good chance let’s say, won’t be good results (unless you have “talent” that for sure was not my case).
Before actual drawing you should understand light side, shadow side, cast shadow, blending, highlight, halftones, paper type, paper weight, differences between pencils (10H,9H,8H,7H,6H,5H,4H,3H,2H,H,F,HB,B,2B,3B,4B,5B,6B,7B,8B,9B and 10B), types of rubber, how to sharper the pencils, type of sharpers etc. See the bunch of basic things that you should understand before start to draw?
Mistake #2 – Don’t be impatient.
If you’re doing something that easy gets you angry, impatient or any uncomfortable behaviour there is something really wrong because the meaning is “Challenge yourself” not “Hurt yourself” so I suppose that you’re trying to do something pleasurable.
Mistake #3 – Unrealistic expectations.
Do not compare your level or create unreal expectations like in six months I want to draw like Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci etc.
Mistake #4 – No clear end goal.
You want to draw but don’t know the style and then you buy at once colouring, graphite, watercolour pencils. This could be a waste of money, confuse your goals and then what happen? You stop even before start. Try to set a goal before start.
Mistake #5 – Trying to do it alone.
When you’re learning something new there is a training curve and it looks like this:
In almost any aspect of our lives, we should have a reference, coach that we work with. This is a good way to learn and also a good way to avoid quitting. Life is too short to go at it alone. Share your knowledge, learn with others and you might be surprised how much help there is in the world.
I mentioned draw as an example because it was what I chose to do and I did few improvements in few months.
# The beginning
I bought a book and start to understanding the concepts and I did my first drawings (I did a lot but I will just post few drawings).
# Keep studying and understanding few techniques
# Keep studying and applying new skills
# Keep studying and applying new advanced skills
# Keep studying and applying new advanced skills (realistic style)
Do something new and have fun.
You can check my instagram https://www.instagram.com/bissoliart/
Leonardo Bissoli.
