On Creativity & Perfectionism

I woke up today and decided I wanted to learn how to draw. I’m not truly sure if it’s yet another one of my fleeting ADHD interests/hobbies quite yet, or if it’s something that might genuinely stick, but it got me thinking. I have done a lot of crafting in my life, clay earring-making, embroidery, and punch needling are just a few of my recent endeavors. But along with this sudden desire to learn to draw came another realization: I have an inherent belief that because I don’t have an innate ability to draw, that I will never be able to become good at it.

This got me thinking— is it fruitless to try new things even if you might never be great at them? And this led me down an even bigger question— why do I feel like I have to be perfect at something to even think about trying it? I have always lived with this belief that since writing is the only thing that has come naturally to me, I’ll likely be middle-of-the-road at everything else I try. And this train of thought really got me to start quesitoning that.

So I did what I usually do, and started googling drawing techniques and tips on how to start learning to draw. And what I found gave me a whole new perspective, which might seem simple but felt groundbreaking to me: anybody can learn to draw, and it’s actually something that you can get really good at if you practice. It doesn’t require some innate skill that some people have and others don’t (I mean it certainly would help) but it’s not required in order to become good at drawing.

While this might seem like a no-brainer, to me this was really huge. If I could learn to draw, it would open doors for me. I could learn to get better at embroidery— learning the art of shading and sketching would only make my embroidery designs better. And beyond that, drawing could turn into a hobby that I could do in my spare time to relax in the evenings, or just as a lower-stakes creative outlet than writing and publishing something on my blog.

And better yet— it could lead me down new creative pathways that I’ve always been interested in. In particular, it could possibly allow me to start drawing tattoo designs, something that I felt like was limiting me to be able to break into the tattoing industry, which is an idea I’ve been flirting with casually for a while now. The idea that I could open this door for myself— by getting a few drawing tools and taking a class or two— was so exciting to me.

So I am going to embark on this new adventure of learning how to draw, and I’m going to jump in headfirst. But I’m going to keep something front of mind: it’s okay if I’m not very good at it at first. In fact, I expect that I’ll be bad at it— probably really bad for a while. But just like my failed adventure in trying to do gel manicures at home, it’s something I’ll have to put hours into in order to see results (side-note, I am getting much better at doing nails). But I want to approach learning to draw with this with a new lens. I might not be great at drawing, or even close to the best at it. But if other people can do it, why can’t I?

More on this experiment to come…. stay tuned!