The Initial Steps : Learning To Draw

I always wanted to draw and longed to have skills so good so that whatever I could see, I could draw. When I started to learn drawing, I had this feeling that, “oh, it will come to me naturally”. If I can copy from books so well, I can draw objects from real life as well. I tried drawing and bam! I totally missed the shot. It was just so difficult to draw a simple rectangular object.

Sadness slowly started settling in. There I was, a person who risked everything for learning art and didn’t know how to draw a simple object. I felt terrible. I tried again and again; I couldn’t feel any good. I kept persuading myself that one day I will be making stunning still life drawings. I just had to be patient with myself.

I was eventually able to draw the way I wanted to

I used to enjoy watching those tiny ants working tirelessly as a child. I don’t know why I was fascinated by the way they kept on trying something unless they succeeded. I never disturbed them. I just kept watching them. Maybe that picture fitted in my mind somewhere. Though I felt very frail and vulnerable, I kept on trying to draw. Convincing myself that it couldn’t be so difficult after all was the best alternative. I concentrated more on the theories of measurements, perspective, shading, lines and less on the fear of failing.

As they say, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. One fine day, I was asked to make an object in my art class. As usual, I was scared as hell. Calming myself and repeating to myself that I can do it was the need of the hour. For the next few hours, I gave it my best shot. The way the drawing was building up surprised me and I started enjoying the process.

Not only this, my teachers were also quite surprised. In fact, they showed my drawing to other fellow students as an example. I was at the top of the wor

My initial days of learning drawing taught me several important lessons in life:

1. If we work tirelessly at something, we can achieve it at some point of time.
2. We should not let our fear control us. We should acknowledge its presence and still keep facing it.
3. It’s all in the mind, if you think you can do it; you can do it.
4. An immense pleasure is felt when you succeed at something after multiple bad attempts.