How long does it take to learn how to draw?

Question

This questions assumes a basic level of general proficiency, such as being able to reliably and consistently draw something recognizable without text or verbal assistance to describe it.

Answer 1

The first step is to simply do "blind contour" drawings, one single continuous line where you only look at the item you are drawing and never your page. Choose simple objects like a leaf, a stone, or a seashell. Now spend a moment just studying the object in detail. Then imagine the tip of your pencil is an ant crawling over the surface of the object, meanwhile your pencil moves with the slow crawling of the "ant". Slowly crawling your eye over every detail but all the while, your pencil moves with your eye. In the end, It will look like scribbles, but that is ok! Let your lines be shaky, intimate, and pure.

This strengthens your skill of focusing and seeing rather than worrying about anything else. Then from there, do a series of drawings where you allow yourself to glance at your paper intermittently for only a second every 30 seconds during a 3 min drawing. I encourage my students to keep their paper and drawing turned away from them!

Then do another where you allow yourself to glance more frequently at your paper, eventually giving 50% attention to both your subject and paper. Now, move on to a more complicated item like a pair of scissors. Keep at this daily in 20 min drawing sessions. Don't worry about perfect lines. In under a couple cumulative hours, you will have your recognizable drawings and begin down the path of drawing through seeing, then eventually from memory.

I teach a process of seeing and letting go of the part of the mind that interprets imagery in symbols and definitions and categorizes meanings into names rather than their visual elements and principles, i.e., their texture, color, shape, line, movement, etc. By looking at a leaf not as its definition but as its form composed of its inherent elements, you can begin to see the thing past the mind and definitions we create, and by doing so, you can truly start to see.

Answer 2

It's hard to truly give an answer as everyone learns at a different pace and has varying levels of spare time to learn a new skill. Largely, this is also dependent on how much practice you put into learning outside tutoring or a classroom environment. You'll inherently get better if you choose to practice more and allow more time to draw. From what I've seen, you can get to a pretty decent level over the course of even 6 months if you take the time to draw a few times a week (this is also highly dependent on how much time you draw in that those days as well). If you're short on time and have a busy schedule where you can only draw 1-2 days a week for short bursts, then it's expected to get better in about 1 year or slightly longer than that.

Answer 3

On average from what I have seen and personal experience, it generally takes between 1 or 2 years to reach a truly intermediate (acceptable in most positions) level, but possibly longer or shorter depending on the practice habits of the student.