Yes we can

I can't.
That is what people love to say.
I can't.
It's never true.

Whenever I talk about drawing with people, I tend to get some sort of self-deprecating statement. "I can't draw" people confess, and I just shake my head because that attitude is half the problem.

I've been thinking about this lately because of some of the illustration I've been seeing. Most of the hand-done stuff I've seen lately isn't particularly exquisite or refined technically, but what it is is expressive. Sure of itself. You can tell the artist went the extra mile to fill in the whole background, or choose those colors.


Rainbirds by Jill Calder, photo from flickr.


Illustration by Calef Brown, from this illustrated version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The thing is: everybody can draw. (Or paint, as the case is here). Everybody can pick up a pencil, or pen, or crayon, and make marks on a paper. And everybody can do this when moved to do so when they see something. Drawing in and of itself does not need to meet any standard, nor is it even required to look like anything. It's just drawing. Marks on paper. Quality does not beget the action. Crosshatches and scribbles is drawing.

And people are like this about dancing, and singing. Or acting (i.e., playing pretend.) (Although, I suppose one could argue people become VERY good at pretending, particularly in customer service.) Many natural urges of human expression get restrained because of this weird expectation of perfection. Which is strange because if there's ever a place where non-perfection is key, it would be in the arts.

Which is why, a few nights ago when I handed you the leftovers and a pen and asked, "Would you label those?" I was delighted to see this.



You never claim to be very good, or very bad; quality has nothing to do with it. You just draw, when the mood strikes you, and it's wonderful. I wish everyone did.

epigraph from "Das Energi".