Dan Kim

It is inescapably true that our physical nature sets hard constraints. If you're 70 years old and five feet tall, no amount of training will make you an NBA star. If you have perfect pitch, you'll have an advantage where pitch matters, all other things being equal.

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That said, I honestly think that saying "this guy has talent" or "this guy doesn't have talent" isn't that useful when it comes to Capital-A-Art. It's not picking out some quality that resides in the person, it's only a prophecy about the eventual evolution of a relationship between a person, some arena of action, and a particular set of criteria of judgement. Even if the person's abilities have hard constraints, inevitable changes in the arena of action or relevant criteria will ensure that all judgements can only be made tentatively and retrospectively.

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To make that more concrete -- there's no such thing as generic 'talent', only a retrospective legacy of success or failure at certain activities, under certain specific descriptions. You have perfect perspective and can draw photo realistically ... did you have 'talent'? Yes, at drawing perfect perspective and drawing realistically, but maybe we'd complain that we can't capture people's imaginations, make money, tell a story with the image, escape our own perceived limits, break new ground, or maybe 'real talent' would be abandoning drawing entirely to create some amazing and yet unimagined art form -- etc. We can always complain that the going criteria aren't the relevant ones for OUR activity. We can always come up with new criteria (perhaps using words or concepts that are yet to be imagined) that will make us look like talentless hacks or geniuses ahead of our time.

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Now, in other arenas, this might just be shifting the goalposts ("sure, this toaster bursts in the flames, but that's what I wanted! It's not a bug, it's a feature!" though sometimes there is genuine innovation "Look, you can use a hammer the 'wrong' way to do THIS! WOW!"), but frankly I think the art most worth doing and worth talking about is the kind that is undirected toward any end and so available for any end -- useless, and so endlessly open.

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In short, 'talent' only matters if you're worried about doing something very specific, and even then -- if you didn't have any -- what would you do? Give it up? You have your rock and your arms and your whole life to push it. That should be world and task enough for anyone. Don't look elsewhere, you fool! What could be better in life? Practice, work, push!

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As long as it takes.

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Getting good at drawing is like getting good at piano or running or anything else. Lean the proper theory, then grind it relentlessly into your brain and bones. This takes time. Your brain has physical limits when it comes to learning and forming unconscious habits, and the variation in results and rate of progress is the same as you'll find anywhere else physical limits apply. Be patient, consistent, dedicated, and have fun.

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By the way, if you're looking to start a project, don't wait you think you're 'good enough'. Projects are great training grounds and can give lots of side benefits that compliment drawing. If you're really not confident that you'll be able to take the project on, though, do what I do: start a project that'll build up to the project you really want to do. Every comic I've done starts out this way!

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