Why am I bad at Drawing?
Are you constantly asking yourself this question? If yes, then you should know that everyone can draw. Drawing is not just a skill that you are born with. If you have enough passion for the craft and the patience to practice, you will eventually reach a point where you can be proud of yourself.
Unless you are an autistic savant, you do not simply pick up a pencil and draw stunning artwork. Even the greatest artists these days got to where they are after many years of hard work and practice. This means you should not get disheartened if your drawings are not up to snuff yet.
To help you figure out what you are doing wrong, here are some of the reasons why people cannot seem to progress their drawing skills.
Possible Reasons Why You are Bad at Drawing
If you need to ask yourself “why am I bad at drawing?”, then you are already on the right track. Since you are questioning yourself and not giving up on drawing entirely, you still have a good chance to improve. To help you improve quicker, the following are some of the most common reasons why people cannot seem to get good at drawing.
You Don’t Believe in Yourself
The biggest roadblock on your way to improvement is yourself. You are doubting your own skills and you are often not even aware that you are letting yourself down. To become a skilled artist, you need to have the right attitude and confidence in yourself.
Instead of thinking that you are not good at drawing, start believing that you are because it is true.
You Care Too Much About Other People’s Opinions
Do you often envy the skills of other artists? Do you wish that you had their talents and skills? You also hear other people say that they are not good at drawing, and hearing it enough times will make you believe that you are not good, too.
However, the truth is that no matter how hard you practice, there will always be someone out there who is “better” than you, and that is okay. All artists have their own styles. You just need to find what is yours. Stop caring about what other people think and just draw as much as you can.
You Do Not See the Subject
To become a true artist, you need to have a new perspective when looking at the world. Stop drawing what you think something looks like, and draw what shapes you are actually seeing. Stop labeling your subjects using words. What you should do, instead, is to see their basic shapes and compositions.
You are Not Practicing Enough
No one is good at drawing right from the get-go, so do not expect that you will be good at it immediately. You will need to practice every day. Bring a small sketchpad and a pencil with you wherever you go and actively search for things to draw.
It does not matter if you are just doodling things that come to mind, or drawing something that you see while waiting for the bus or train to work. Become addicted to sketching and strive to fill up your sketchbook with drawings.
You Take on Large Projects Too Soon
One of the reasons why a lot of people quit getting good at drawing is that they tried to tackle large projects too soon. You should not try doing a massive drawing for just a couple of days since you started drawing for fun.
Start by getting a small sketchbook and work your way up to the bigger ones as your skills improve. A small sketchbook will allow you to try different techniques and drawing scenes.
You do not even need to create an entire drawing. For instance, try sketching leaves and draw as many different kinds as you can. From there, draw flowers and other things.
You are Afraid to Make Mistakes
When you are sketching using a pencil, you might find yourself erasing and drawing over your lines too often. The truth is that there is no point to labor over every tiny detail of your drawing.
Erasing and redoing your lines only wastes time and energy. It also takes you out of “the zone”. Learn to draw with confidence and your lines will come out smoother and look better.
Be courageous and draw the essence of your subject – that is the true essence of drawing in the first place. The best way to make yourself into a braver artist is to ditch the pencil and use an ink pen to sketch. If you cannot erase your lines, you will force yourself to make smoother lines, thus giving you more confidence in your drawing skills.
Also, your drawing does not need to be perfect. Let go of the urge to make your drawings look good and just draw whatever it is you feel like.
You Tend to Overanalyze
You need to use your full concentration when you are drawing. You need to put yourself into the right mindset and avoid any distractions, including the ones that you make up in your head.
Be mindful when you are drawing. This means you should not think about anything else while you are putting a pencil or pen onto paper. This will put you into “the zone” where you lose track of time while you are drawing. Focus all your concentration on drawing.
You Don’t Use the Creative Side of Your Brain
Artists use the right side of their brains when they are creating because that is the creative side, while the left is the part that uses logic. When you use the left side of your brain, you will be drawing what you think the subject should look like, and not what it actually looks like.
A good way to force yourself to use the right side of your brain is to copy another artist’s sketch, but upside-down. This will force you to see just the lines and not the entire drawing. Draw it enough times and you will be engaging the right side of your brain automatically whenever you draw.
You Are Not Enjoying Yourself
Your primary reason for wanting to learn to draw should be that you enjoy doing it. You may get good enough that people would hire you to do commission work for them, but you should still enjoy drawing even though it is now your job.
Practice drawing because you enjoy doing it and do not force yourself to like it. It might seem tedious right now, but the more you get good at drawing, the more you will enjoy doing it.
Conclusion
There are many reasons why you keep asking yourself “why am I bad at drawing?”. Hopefully, you were able to figure out what you are doing wrong and correct it immediately. Just keep practicing and you will notice your drawing skills improving bit by bit.
The important thing that you need to keep in mind is to always have fun while you are practicing your drawing skills. Drawing should be enjoyable and this is one of the most important ways you can improve.