Kelly Turnbull: The biggest turning point in you life as an artist is when you shift gears from thinking “I can draw these things but not those things” to thinking “I can draw anything! Quality not guaranteed, but I can draw it”

The biggest turning point in you life as an artist is when you shift gears from thinking “I can draw these things but not those things” to thinking “I can draw anything! Quality not guaranteed, but I can draw it”

Me, a costume and clothing fanatic and a horse girl from age 9, grimly looking up front view images of Honda dirtbikes for a run of six illustrations

Also part of this revelation is the moment when you realize you can use reference “Oh no, I can’t draw that, I don’t know what it looks like… wait… what if I just… LOOK IT UP??”

Me, with backgrounds. I can do it, but will they be quality? 50/50 😂

This is me as well. 🥲

😭 the struggle is real.. I forced myself to start trying them about a month ago and I've been puttering around ever since. gotta learn at some point!

I should probably make a better practice beyond vague space/sky/shoujo filler backgrounds. But it feels like eating vegetables you don't like y'know? But I know it is a good skill to have. 🫠

You're a true artist when you look at just about anything and figure "I bet could draw that! Not well, but I could!"

This is great! An analogous turning point also exists for computer programming, in my experience.

It really does! It probably exists for everything to be honest lol

Well, anything without catastrophic failure risks, at least

I do both, and this is true.

This is called “practice” :) Also sometimes “hold my beer” ;)

Me realizing that I can indeed draw buildings, just not at architect proficiency

The utter confusion on client faces when I tell them that very thing is priceless, too

I'm a big fan of the "Souls-like" method of art. "I will draw this over and over and over again until ot doesn't suck. I don't care how much material I waste on stuff that sucks, the one that comes out decent will be worth it all the more."

That applies to a lot of things. I remember tackling the teaching of courses I was not really well versed in, but I took them on and learned as I went. Sure, my first attempts were probably just a hair above mediocre, but I would say, "I can do this" and I did. I wound up being fairly good.

The moment I stopped giving a shit about my drawings being good I was up for drawing practically anything. As long as you're enjoying it, and you're improving (if you want to improve, that is.), that's all that matters.

Big ups for self compassion and the right mix of determination to learn, makes you unstoppable!

This...this is happening to me now.

Thank you for sharing this. I feel like you just unlocked something in my brain hehe

i think about that one comic that's like "i don't know how to draw this... guess it will just LOOK BAD!" like every day

This is especially liberating when it comes to comics!

I like this

Thats... thats very accurate!

I wish I could draw anything that I care about. Things I care about are what I take pics of. Would love to be able to sketch/draw them

That was literally me

📌

This is me when doing digital sculpting! I'm trying to practice with it so hopefully I can make something decent.

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