Fuscia Black ©2009 Jacobson
The Question I’m most frequently asked… “Were you born with talent? I can’t draw a straight line. My sister has the talent, but I don’t have talent.”
My Answer… short and simple. “No I wasn’t born with the skill of drawing a straight line. I wasn’t born with any of the skills I have today.” So how did I get here if I wasn’t born with IT (talent). What is talent? Plain and simple, I call it the Big P: Perspiration.
What I did have was desire and passion. I loved color, crayons, watercolor tins, coloring books, and paint-by-numbers. Love leads you down your path if you’re awake and follow those clues. I went to art school for three years and learned the skills of drawing and painting, and everything you’d want to know about art materials. Then I just plain worked hard!
Keywords to anything we want to get good at: Discipline, Devotion, Routine, Structure, Habit
Make it regular–whether it’s the same time every day, the same number of hours each week, or on the same days of the week. Not a morning person? Then don’t say you’re going to get up early and go to the studio. Schedule your studio time when you are most creative and productive. Quote from ArtBizBlog by Alyson Stanfield
Read Talent is Overrated What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin. Colvin shows how two people with equal parts talent take very different paths when one of them commits to a deliberate practice.
There it is…Talent. Devote your time to your passion. By the way…I use a ruler to draw a straight line!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Mindy: OK I’ll give you that everyone is born with some kind of talent.
For me it is the willingness to do the hard work and continue through discouragement and failure, that describes what it takes to function as an artist. So I believe it is passion (not just talent) that people are born with and those with desire, focus and dedication keep that passion alive. They often appear to be born with everything (skill included).
What I’m really addressing is the fact that most people who don’t use their “talent” believe that a magic wand was waved at birth upon those who do. There definitely was no wand in my case, but I was born with passion. I just kept trying to find the medium to use so that I could express it.
I believe that everyone is born with some kind of talent. Our brains are programmed a certain way that is unique and different than everyone else. I can sing, draw and dance!…… but try to get me from point A to point B and I am the most directionally challenged human being I know. I can’t learn a foreign language to save my life and my brain hurts when I have to do anything mathematical. With that said….. Drawing is something that can be learned. It is a skill that can be mastered with lots of hard dedicated work. For some it comes easier, but it is doable for anyone that has the desire. My favorite quote comes from “Bazooka Joe”, ” Your success is only limited by your desire.” If you want to be an artist you gotta have the desire, focus and dedication to make it happen. Skill is gonna take you through the long haul and your talent will keep the creative juices flowing, keeping your art unique as you are.
Hi Jackie,
One thing I know for sure is….I can’t sing, play an instrument and I’m not a very good writer….but I can draw and always have been able to since I was a child. Over the years my desire to learn more, grow in a creative direction, push outside my comfort zone and strive via practice, practice, practice makes me a better artist than I was at six years old. I think there is something to be said for being born with some kind of ability and motivated by desire to do whatever it is you do.
Can singing and writing be taught? Sure. But drawing and art came naturally for me.