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When people tell me that they love my drawings and that they would love to draw - if only they had the talent!...

I like to tell them that talent is a cop-out people use when they are not determined enough to learn how to draw but don't have the guts to say it. I like to say I don't believe in natural talent. It is easy to say to people, "You could draw too, if you tried hard enough."

But how true is it? Are there not better ways to percieve an object - or life itself - that might make a person better at the visual arts? Why do some people learn to draw faster than others? Why do some people seem like "naturals", and other struggle for many years? Is this an innate or learned reaction?

I believe in talent, but I think that becoming awesome is a combination of talent and work.

I am naturally talented at certain types of thinking, I'm a great problem solver and stuff like that. That means that I have a really easy time programming, designing systems, etc.

However, I am not naturally gifted in music. I'm basically tone deaf and I have a hard time learning how to play things on my guitar. It doesn't mean that I couldn't become a good guitaristy, just that it would be a lot of work.

I don't think that talent is ever so extensive that it is the only factor, but I really do think that some people have to work a lot harder than others to achieve the same level of expertise.

i think talent exists but only as a result of the effort it takes to develope it.
although, from my own observations i wouldn't al together dismiss the idea of people being more suited in different areas of skill than others.

Who knows if einstein could have ever learned to draw like picasso, but the fact remains that one chose to devote their life to mathematics and the other to art.

I look at my Grandfather who, despite his brilliance and skills where techinical engineering are concerned, cannot even begin to fathom how i approach the task of making a few circles and squares convey ideas like boredom and panic for a simple art assignment.

I wouldn't call it 'talent' but natural ability. Of course to be good at something you have to practice, but obliviously if your a very visual person its going to be easier for you than someone who's not. This is part of a new type of 'IQ test' known as the Multiple Intelligence Test. The idea is people have skill and intelligence in every area (music, visual, logic etc) but some have more than others.

You can't train yourself to be more creative or inventive.

I haven't taken a lot of art classes, but I do remember this one general "Fine Arts" class in particular.

They taught you some basic stuff like making shapes and shading and composition, the color wheel. Everytime we made a major project there would be some kids who would have to stay after school to finish theirs. They'd work really really hard, but in the end they always ended up with the crippled looking figure drawing, or the paper mache hat that was too hideous to put on display in the glass case at the front office.

It's natural to get better with practice, but I don't believe art is something you can just pick up.

The ideas of talent and "natural ability" are painfully idiotic. They are about as reasonable as believing sore throats are caused by a frog in your esophagus. Of course, logic has never stopped anyone believing in these ideas.

The truth is that some artistic techniques are phenomenally superior to others. When you sit down to a piece of paper and try to draw, you are forced to try and pull some sort of technique out of your a**. Odds are you'll pick a crappy one. By chance, some people luck into a very powerful technique. These people are told they have "talent," and can create art beyond what others can create because they were born with a magical mystery sense in their brain. None of that's true. No one is resigned to use the technique they picked the first time for the rest of their life. No one is resigned to use the technique they picked the thousandth time for the rest of their life.

So long as someone puts forth the effort, puts forth the critical thought, has the bravery to try new things and the bravery to abandon old things, they'll become a great artist.

But when people believe that silly stupid tripe about natural born talent, they'll deem the endevor hopeless and give up. Which, in turn, reinforces all that talent bullshit. And round and round it goes.

Also pageboy, skill is the result of effort. That's the difference between talent and skill. That's why we have the two different words (though both are often misused.)

I don't think some people are innately "better" at some things than others so they start the skill-race ahead of the next guy. I think some people's brains are wired in ways that make it easier for them to grok certain ways of thinking.

Some people can transfer what they see in front of them into marks on a piece of paper practically without thinking about it. Some people can understand and manipulate numbers almost intuitively. Some people can look at an engine that doesn't work, take it apart and put it back together again and it works. Some people can pot the green ball with three bounces off the bumpers and make it look effortless.

I think everyone has certain things that their brains are wired better towards. If they're lucky enough to find out what this thing is, they find it relatively easy, that skill and thrill of understanding makes them happy, so they seek it out more and more. It's a positive feedback loop. They're good at it so they enjoy it, they enjoy it so they do it more, they do it more so they get better at doing it.

These are often the people who're labelled as having "talent". The ones who have a natural affinity to a certain skill, and the enthusiasm to pursue it and hone that skill. They start out at the same level as anyone else - a blank slate - but their learning is smoother and comes more naturally to them.

Anyone can learn to draw with enough practice and training, but for some people such a skill goes against the grain of how their brain is wired, so they find it very difficult as in attempting to learn this new skill they're effectively trying to rewire their brain and learn to think differently. Someone whose brain isn't wired for art but has extensively memorised formal rules of proportion, anatomy and perspective may be able to produce very technically proficient drawings, but they won't find it as easy as someone whose brain is wired for art and who understands these rules on an intuitive level.

So you are saying that nobody is born a lv. 5 artist, but some people get experience bonuses or penalties towards levelling up as an artist.