Rian wrote:So cool ... I wish I could draw ... *is jealous*
You wouldn't be if you saw how good I am.
I used to doodle when I was younger, but when I turned about 30, I decided to learn properly. I still have a fair way to go. However, there's something very important that I learned which, I think, goes over into other areas of life.
Anyone with basic motor skills can draw. Right now, you can draw. What you can't do is perceive.
To see what I mean, try this simple exercise. Get someone else to write a short phrase in their handwriting, and try to copy it. Then, do the same, only turning the sample upside-down first. (This is an old forger's trick, by the way.)
What you'll find is that the upside-down version is a much better copy than the right-way-up version. The reason is that when you're looking at a handwriting sample right-way-up, your brain is interpreting it as language, and you're copying the words. When you're looking at it upside-down, it's not comprehensible as language, so you're copying the specific shapes instead. (It also forces you to slow down and look at the sample more closely.)
There's also the famous example that when you look at a face straight-on, the eyes fall half-way between the top of the head and the chin. However, we always perceive them as taking up more space in the visual field. Eyes are very important to human communication, and their importance is perceived as size.
Cartoonists and some artists make the eyes higher and larger deliberately, but novice artists also do it by mistake while they are learning, making the subject look like they have a squashed cranium. To see this effect, compare this portrait of Michael Parkinson with this one. The first one has incorrect proportions, and the second one has correct proportions. In this case, it's probably deliberate; the first portrait is likely meant to be impressionistic. However, you can see that it doesn't really look like a person in the way that the second one does.
Anyway, the point is that the main barrier to drawing isn't putting pencil to paper, it's training yourself to observe what's right in front of your face.
If you're ever interested in taking up drawing as a hobby, I recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, which is partly influenced by recent research in cognitive science. Your local library may have a copy. It's worth borrowing it and just reading it, even if you never try the exercises; you'll never see your visual perception system the same way again.
At least try the vase/faces exercise.
Edit I just remembered that I've posted one of my watercolour sketches to deviantART, if you're curious. So far, it's the only one I've done that's good enough to show it in public.
