I wrote a more updated view about talent later, click here to view it. :>
My personal thoughts about talent:- Talent is overrated
Before I am going to start talking about this controversial topic. Which is about how talent is overrated and all. I would like to state that I am not an expert in the matter, and I am not claiming that all what I am saying is %100 accurate. But it is the best I could came up with giving what I currently know. This is pretty much why the category of this post is “Drawing Thoughts” and not “Drawing Facts” :)
Also, I am not going to try to decide if talent actually exist. While I am personally against the concept of talent. if it exists. Talent is overrated at best. And usually the handwork and commitment part is pretty much underestimated too. And this is pretty much easy to see in media like Anime, which is pretty sad to be honest.
Different people have different abilities, use what you already have
People have different abilities and brains. Some people are much better at memorising, and some others are much better at grasping things, and so on. The key, in my opinion, is to use what you already have to achieve what you want. Which comes through hard work.
If talent existed, and someone did not work hard enough on it. That person is not going to achieve anything with that talent, and he or she won’t be able use it in their career or create a product or do anything meaningful
Examples from real-life
I for one, don’t like to focus that much on details. I feel like my head is not functioning well when it comes to very detailed drawings. But I could still create detailed drawing by zooming in and zooming out. I use my big-picture way of thinking to create the guidelines of a drawing. Then I keep zooming-in to add details here and there, and I often switch between different parts of the drawing so I won’t get bored. At the end, my perfectionism will allow me to finish and add all the details I want to(perfectionism and aversion from details did not seem to go well together here, ahaha~).’
Another good example in talent in how people tend to think that height is so important in basketball. And that short people has no chance to succeed at it. Short players may have disadvantage at the game that they may not hold a certain position I think. The interesting fact is, there are many good advantages to being a short football player, to list some of them here fairly quickly:-
- They can be faster, and notably faster than the taller players, which is good for both attacking and defending
- They tend to work harder, thus get more results
- They stand out more in the court than the other players
You may find the following list interesting:- List of shortest players in National Basketball Association history
You can get what you want if you worked hard on it
You can acquire skills if you want to. It is said that one takes 10,000 hours to master any skill they want. The Beetles for one, has performed multiple times the amount of any band has done before. I am not saying that you should put 10,000 hours into drawing or anything to get results, that what it takes to master the skill. But you are going to become pretty much good at it by spending a fraction of that time. I assure you.
It is all about motivation, commitment in the long-term that matter
Technical knowledge still matters. Look how many art students tent to know nothing by the time they attend art school. And how much great their skills are when they graduated. They surly have learned many many things during the times they were students. And their teachers surely had many good ways that helped them do that.
You can learn to distinguish between things if you looked at them long enough. for the things that seems so similar, like insects or plants. If you spent some time studying them and observed them long enough. You will learn there differences between each type of them and you will be able to tell them apart quite easily, the same goes into colours and perspective and anything that has to do with art and drawing.
You must be talented
I don’t believe I am talented, I sucked pretty much at drawing at my early days. And it has been only after I practiced regularly that I got to be much much better at that. I pretty much encourage you to read my two posts, My story with drawing, and my drawing schedule to know about that in details. Thought I take the sentence “You are talented” as a big praise, which I appreciate a lot. It is not really accurate.
Thinking of talent can be a hindrance
Talent is something that can stop you from obtaining what you want. And it can restrain you from taking action. If anything, talent is the passion toward doing certain things. Which in turn can lead you to work harder at what you want to do. Even if we assumed that talent existed in a way or another. Like I said before, without actually working on it, you won’t ever see results. Also, why did you assume that you don’t have one? Is it because you did not see instantaneous results? Believe me, nothing in life comes that easily.
Recommended reads about talent for those interested in more:-
- Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
- Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice by Syed. Matthew ( 2011 ) Paperback
- The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.
Very interesting article Monia. I agree with you on most points. In my opinion talent is something most people have, but do not exploit it. Like you said, most people who are said to have talent are simply people who have worked really hard to attain their current level. Sure, there is difference in how much one has to work, but each and every person has the possibility to be talented in something if they work hard enough. You are obviously one of those, as your talent at drawing cannot be refuted anymore. Your hard work payed off. So keep it up Monia!
Thank you for your reply dear natsu, I agree with you that most people don’t know their potentials, I have met tons of people online who told me that they can’t draw no matter how they try, I think these people are partially overwhelmed by the amount of people who are already good at it. :)
sure natsu, I plan to come up with many lovely drawings in the future, just give me some time to handle my internal affair and I will wow you with my sweet drawings ;)
I like your drawings and I like your opinions. However, and please don’t get offended by this, your writing is kinda hard to read due to how few fullstops you use.
Hey Aer0, it is nice to see you in my blog, welcome^^
Glad you like my opinions(in addition to my drawings). And don’t worry about me being offended, I am aware I am relatively new to writing in general, so I will need some time before I can pull it off the best way. I will be more careful about making long sentences from now on.
Thank you for the feedback^^