Drawing really is a skill you can learn

Being a beginner sucks! It's awful! And scary! I'm used to being good at things! I'm afraid to try new things in case I'm bad at them! But I'm obviously going to be bad at them at first!

I decided in late 2024 that I would finally test out that thing everyone who can draw says: that drawing is a skill you learn, not a talent you have. That anyone can learn.

During the last month of 2024 and the first months of 2025, I worked through a self-paced drawing class on Skillshare. It didn't really stick and I drew literally ONCE after finishing the class. I kind of liked it, but I wasn't proud of it and I didn't know where to go from there. So I went no where.

Then, in November, something clicked. I took a live, online class called Drawing Corvids with Dr. Heather Hinam through McNally Robinson. It was so far outside my comfort zone I almost cried a few times. But it also pushed me over that "I can't do this" beginner hump and I was so proud of what I created in that class and enjoyed it so much that I started drawing all the time!

(I highly recommend Heather's classes if you like drawing nature and are looking for an online class.)

In the six weeks since that class ended and the four weeks since I actually finished the raven drawing, I've been having the time of my life experimenting with any technique I can possibly manage with the supplies I have.

(Anything that looks like watercolor here is pigment drawn out of water-soluble Crayola markers with an acrylic paintbrush. 😅)

Not everything is good! Some things are still really bad! The above is a selection of the ones I'm proudest of.

But I'm having a lot of fun and I'm not scared to try anymore. There is a huge amount still to learn and I'm excited to learn it. I'm no longer afraid to be bad at it.

Next up: experimenting with the watercolors I got for my birthday! Hopefully I'll have something to share on that soon. 😊