3/25 Blog #1 Improving My Ability to Draw

    Hello, to the hopefully more than two people reading this! I hope you’re all enjoying life today. I am currently looking to improve my ability to draw. Why? Well, it’s admittedly horrendous. I’ve never had the foggiest idea of how to draw something well. (Except for maybe a tree, I can draw a really good tree for some unknown reason.) I’ve always felt hopeless when it comes to improving my drawing ability, considering just how lackluster is truly is. That being said, I have heard several success stories of people who have managed to improve their skill with drawing against all odds.

    The success story that resonates with me the most, on a personal level, is likely the story of Hajime Isayama. Isayama is a Japanese manga (for the uninformed, essentially Japanese comics drawn in the anime art style) artist. Isayama’s drawing skills when first attempting to publish his story, were…subpar. As a result, he was turned down at every publisher he visited. Flash forward to today aaaaaaand….wow. Isayama’s drawing skills have improved immensely, leading to what I consider to be one of the most beautiful art styles I have ever witnessed. In addition, his incredibly successful manga series, Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), has been adapted into a (shocker) incredibly successful anime series. The series is quite possibly the single greatest piece of fiction I have ever had the immense pleasure of indulging myself in. I watched the anime series up until its most recent episode, at which point I became too impatient to wait for more of the story. I desperately took to the internet and found myself breezing through the remaining story within the manga within a day or two. I found that seeing the art as it was originally drawn by Isayama gave me even more appreciation for this artistic talent. It is truly a blessing that he found a publisher for his story after improving his drawing skills, as it has allowed me, and many others, to experience the story of a lifetime.                                                                                                            

    So where was I going with that little rant? First off, it was a grandiose way of me leading to the suggestion that any person reading this seriously consider reading or watching (whichever medium you find more appealing) Attack on Titan. It is a wonderful story and I truly cannot give it enough praise for the sheer excitement, suspense, and heartbreak it has put me through. Second, (and actually relevant to this project) this success story of Isayama has allowed me to find inspiration to try to improve my own drawing. To consider that the same man who created the best story I have ever experienced, started his career with drawing skills on level with mine, is the little spark of hope I needed to think that I might find a way to improve.

    Improving my proficiency in a field in which I am very inexperienced is going to be a massive undertaking, so I need to set goals and understand how I will achieve those goals. Finding the proper guidance for improving will be very important for me. As a result, I will search for tutorials on YouTube that will perhaps provide advice that is easy to understand for absolute beginners. Once I find a channel that I think is best suited for how I want to learn to draw, I will probably surf through the videos on that channel to learn specific things such as basics or simple things that I can draw. The process of drawing itself requires very few resources. The real difficulty in this challenge I have set for myself will stem from finding a sufficient way to teach myself how to improve. My tangible goals include being able to draw simple things effectively such as an apple or a butterfly. I plan to spend a week beginning to understand the basics of drawing such as shapes that may come up often or how to go back on mistakes. Eventually, this will lead me to being able to draw simple things like those that I mentioned before. If I find that I reach a point at which I have mastered drawing these simple things, I'd like to set myself a grand challenge like drawing a human face or a complex animal like a dog. Hopefully these goals I have set for myself will allow me to improve at a reasonable pace. Best of luck to all of you reading this in your own projects. Enjoy the rest of your day.