Is it too late for me?

I’ve heard from two or three documentaries that abilities are determined by what you do in early childhood. If you play sports as a little kid, you will later be athletic. If you play video games as a little child (as I have), you will be able to quickly jump into any new video game (as I can).

For the past month or two, I’ve been trying to learn to draw, but still have pretty much gotten nowhere. I never drew pictures unless I had to when I was a little kid. Now I think I may be paying for it because I can’t do it, even after a month of trying. In relation, I was playing musical instruments when I was 8-9, and now I can play without much effort on a few different kinds of instruments.

So, is there a way for me to still be able to draw, or have I pretty much screwed myself out of it?

Quite a lot of your problems come down to the central issue of the nature versus nurture debate, and it’s my personal opinion that people are better at various things thanks to their childhood activities not because they practiced certain things during childhood and then magically became good at it, but simply because they have more experience and now instinctively know how such things work.

In short: Keep working at your artistry! If you like, you can get some professional advice in your learning from drawing classes and similar educational sources, but giving up (or thinking that you’ve “screwed yourself out of it”) is ridiculous.

Yeah doing things at childhood will make development in that subject considerably easier, but that does not mean that you cannot learn new things in adulthood.

Perserverance and determination.

Such like, I didn’t used to do cartoons much when I was little, but a few years back I started drawing silly pictures and eventually getting into it. Now I draw solitary cartoon character pictures for fun, and it has developed into doing MS Paint edits, which is very fun (If you play RuneScape, beware).

My examples, original picture first. :3
i4.photobucket.com/albums/y112/L … person.png
i4.photobucket.com/albums/y112/L … eNinja.png
i4.photobucket.com/albums/y112/L … Pirate.png

As I’m sure you are aware that it is much easier for a child to learn than an adult as the brain is still developing and learning skills. So had you learnt to draw and done it regularly, you’d find it much easier now.

But that isn’t to say you can’t learn, languages are better learned when young but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick up tapes/programs or take classes to learn. Time and patience, it will come to you eventually.

Yeah, like Mohegan said. It’s easier to learn something when you start as a child. But you can still learn as an adult!

Take me for instance, I suck at remembering things. Well, dates and such. You know, History. I was terrible at History. One thing I’ve found is that if you don’t like it, you’re not going to get better fast. I had to make myself interested in what I was learning. I had to like it.
What I’m saying is, if you want to improve faster, you have to not get frustrated. You have to like what you’re doing. Note improvements and such. Also, if it’s art you want to learn, dig around deviantart. Tons of inspirational stuff there. (Unless you’re the type that gets discouraged when you see someone way better than yourself.) They also have a ton of tutorials.
So, 3 pieces of advice. Find a starting point and note improvements, LIKE it, and don’t ever get discouraged. :smile:

Wyvern, do you check your PMs, or do you just get a lot of them?

on topic: Yes, I am the type that gets discouraged by seeing pictures better than mine. I tried looking around deviantart, and that’s what happened. I tried looking up a few tutorials, but they didn’t really help.

But I was wondering about this because, as said, it’s easier to learn a foreign language when you’re younger, but I’m also learning two other languages at a decent pace, yet my art gets pretty much nowhere.

And for those curious, those languages are spanish and japanese.

I love deviantART, but I personally think that getting help off of devART is the best thing if you feel you’re struggling with your art. Most of the people who do the best things on dev are professionals - you shouldn’t try to compare themselves to them (I personally find many of their tutorials out of my league, to be honest).

Comparing languages to art is apples to oranges. :razz:

You’re just like me! :happy: When I was a kid, I hated drawing… I would only do it if I absolutely had to, and even then I’d just try to finish it as soon as possible. On the other hand, I started playing video games when I was just a few years old, and I still play them a lot today.

I still can’t draw at all, but then I’ve never tried to learn either. Most people can learn to draw pretty well I would think, if they practice enough. If you stick to it, you’re bound to see some improvement sooner or later :content:

Reading the topic title again, I realize it may not sound like what I wanted it to. oh well.

I looked at a few tutorials, and some just show some stuff, give a brief little sentence, and expect you to know how they got to it. So confusing, some of them…

I thank you for tips people.

I’d like to add something to all of the said above.

You might learn how to draw best by beginnig from stuff you like - your friends, your house, even videogames if you feel like it. Also, notice that there is no magic here. You don’t just draw a couple of lines and become rembredant. You start from simple stuff, no colors, straight lines. Then, you get a little higher: You add more curves, more detail…

One last thing: If you are using a pen or a pencil, make sure they look good and are of high quality. Sounds stupid, but it works (Just like any new object causes you to want and use it)

I think people learn at different rates based on how they react to what they are doing. If you love what you are doing, you put every ounce of your attention into it reflexively. Just deciding one day to learn to draw didn’t have the same effect for me. I believe people that like drawing, are good at drawing because they put a huge amount of time and thought into it without even realising it. I don’t necessarily mean time spent drawing either.

I’m not a good artist, but much of drawing seemed to be about how you approached the world around you mentally. I believe that by mentally taking apart things you see in reality, or taking note of forms. Without even tracing a line on a sheet of paper, you can improve your drawing. Perhaps to those that appear gifted at drawing, that comes naturally. Maybe they have acquired that behaviour through another source. It doesn’t mean we can’t learn it though, I’m certainly trying to. :tongue:

I kind of see it that drawing essentially creates a flat 2D line drawing, but to create that we need to be able to understand the 3D form. I know I understand very little of how things are built, that is what I believe makes my drawings poor. It seems to be about the details, the few breakthroughs I had in my art, both 2d and 3d seemed to be because I had realised some small detail and put it into use when creating the image.

I also think the supposed deterioration in adult learning ability could be caused by many things, not least all the worrying about bills and work and many other things. I’m 19 now, heading towards 20… the end of being a teenager. As I went from school to work, I felt there was a lot of things I had to sort out and work on. I noticed the time I have to do creative things is reduced by the ‘more important things’ I spend less time thinking about my characters in my novel and more time thinking about the characters at work. Drawing starts to seem like time wasted… especially if the results come slowly. This means I do it with a feeling that I’m not making best use of my time. I.E Half-heartedly.

But as for if age itself will prevent me learning something new, I doubt it. I don’t believe our brains get any less adaptable. (I don’t want to believe our brains get any less adaptable…) I believe it’s our perspective on life that changes, and essentially we can change that. :razz:

its never too late

whatever you love over time manifests itself as ever increasing perfection.

Not sure if I personally agree that if you do something as a child, you will become good at it. I’ve never been able to draw or play any kind of sports, despite repeated efforts at a young age. However I am good at writing essays, and never did that as a child! I did do a lot of music-based activities at a young age and can now play an instrument and write/analyse music pretty well, but I believe this is simply because I have a natural facility for this which was encouraged, not caused, by the teaching I got as a child. Perhaps you are in a similar situation?

Don’t hate yourself for "screwing yourself out of " anything - I don’t think it’s your fault that you don’t have every talent there is, and seemingly being in a similar situation myself, I don’t think I’ve done that. Without wanting to seem pessimistic in saying that it’s too late, my advice would be to stick to the things you’re good at (which seems to be quite a lot from looking at your post) - nobody’s good at everything!

Except for those annoying few who are…

A month is a short period of time and there are many styles of drawing and painting. I think you should concentrate on the enjoyment angle and just see how your ability develops. :thumbs:

NOT SO! Its never too late. The best example I can think of is writing VS drawing. My sister’s the writer, I’m the artist. We tag-teamed all the time; helped each other out constantly. As we’ve grown, I’ve found my knack for writing as she has found hers for art. It just happened.
Along the same lines however, my best friend was a much more gifted artist than I was. After moving and leaving her behind I stopped. I couldn’t draw much- there was some kind of mental block there that just wouldn’t let me do it. I moved again and began to “heal” in many levels, found ld4all in the process and found myself doodling on my notebook all over again. I didn’t even notice it at first, but was thrilled when I realized I had it back. I can’t even begin to describe the the feeling!

Try and think about what would be stopping you, and even if the ability doesn’t come right away don’t think it isn’t there or that its “too late.” Just look inside yourself. Its there, I’m sure.

I agree that there are probably biologically optimal times to learn something new (brain function), but that couldn’t possibly be everything. If you ask me, the whole idea of children being better learners is probably perpetuated by either lazy or busy adults, who don’t want to bother, who don’t want to change the way they think. It’s all the mind set.

Personally I think I’m quite good at both drawing and writing, and I learned both skills AFTER I turned 12. Granted, I’m not past the 21-year mark…

There’s always the placebo effect: just make yourself believe you can learn and you will! (pokes signature)

I never drew when I was small, in fact I hated it. I’ve picked up drawing again about 2 years ago and now my drawings look much better :content:. So it’s never too late to try to learn a new thing :smile:

It always really really infuriates me when somebody says; “No you can’t do it, you’ve left it too late.”

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE!!!
ARGH!!
:wallhit:

For example, I want to learn the violin and I’m 15, quite a few people say I shouldn’t as it would take too long for it to sound good.

SO?!?!?!?

I don’t want to be a violin genius, I just want to be able to play what I want on it, (even if its simplified) and be content, I don’t care how long it takes because its something I really really want to do.

And if drawing is something YOU really really want to do, then I’m saying GO FOR IT! Ignore those who say you can’t because THEY ARE NOT YOU!
You draw to your hearts content and you enjoy what you do!!

humphs

There!

:content: