essay on art talent

Essays About Art: Top 5 Examples and 9 Prompts

Essays about art inspire beauty and creativity; see our top essay picks and prompts to aid you.

Art is an umbrella term for various activities that use human imagination and talents.

The products from these activities incite powerful feelings as artists convey their ideas, expertise, and experience through art. Examples of art include painting, sculpture, photography, literature, installations, dance, and music.

Art is also a significant part of human history. We learn a lot from the arts regarding what living in a period is like, what events influenced the elements in the artwork, and what led to art’s progress to today.

To help you create an excellent essay about art, we prepared five examples that you can look at:

1. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin

2. what is art by writer faith, 3. my art taught me… by christine nishiyama, 4. animals and art by ron padgett, 5. the value of art by anonymous on arthistoryproject.com, 1. art that i won’t forget, 2. unconventional arts, 3. art: past and present, 4. my life as an artist, 5. art histories of different cultures, 6. comparing two art pieces, 7. create a reflection essay on a work of art, 8. conduct a visual analysis of an artwork, 9. art period or artist history.

“But in actuality, as we all know, things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class, and above all, male. The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education–education understood to include everything that happens to us from the moment we enter this world…”

Nochlin goes in-depth to point out women’s part in art history. She focuses on unjust opportunities presented to women compared to their male peers, labeling it the “Woman Problem.” This problem demands a reinterpretation of the situation’s nature and the need for radical change. She persuades women to see themselves as equal subjects deserving of comparable achievements men receive.

Throughout her essay, she delves into the institutional barriers that prevented women from reaching the heights of famous male art icons.

“Art is the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects that can be shared with others. It involves the arranging of elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions and acts as a means of communication with the viewer as it represents the thoughts of the artist.”

The author defines art as a medium to connect with others and an action. She focuses on Jamaican art and the feelings it invokes. She introduces Osmond Watson, whose philosophy includes uplifting the masses and making people aware of their beauty – he explains one of his works, “Peace and Love.”

“But I’ve felt this way before, especially with my art. And my experience with artmaking has taught me how to get through periods of struggle. My art has taught me to accept where I am today… My art has taught me that whatever marks I make on the page are good enough… My art has taught me that the way through struggle is to acknowledge, accept and share my struggle.”

Nishiyama starts her essay by describing how writing makes her feel. She feels pressured to create something “great” after her maternity leave, causing her to struggle. She says she pens essays to process her experiences as an artist and human, learning alongside the reader. She ends her piece by acknowledging her feelings and using her art to accept them.

“I was saying that sometimes I feel sorry for wild animals, out there in the dark, looking for something to eat while in fear of being eaten. And they have no ballet companies or art museums. Animals of course are not aware of their lack of cultural activities, and therefore do not regret their absence.”

Padgett recounts telling his wife how he thinks it’s unfortunate for animals not to have cultural activities, therefore, can’t appreciate art. He shares the genetic mapping of humans being 99% chimpanzees and is curious about the 1% that makes him human and lets him treasure art. His essay piques readers’ minds, making them interested in how art elevates human life through summoning admiration from lines and colors.

“One of the first questions raised when talking about art is simple — why should we care? Art, especially in the contemporary era, is easy to dismiss as a selfish pastime for people who have too much time on their hands. Creating art doesn’t cure disease, build roads, or feed the poor.”

Because art can easily be dismissed as a pastime, the author lists why it’s precious. It includes exercising creativity, materials used, historical connection, and religious value.

Check out our best essay checkers to ensure you have a top-notch essay.

9 Prompts on Essays About Art

After knowing more about art, below are easy prompts you can use for your art essay:

Essays About Art: Art that I won't forget

Is there an art piece that caught your attention because of its origin? First, talk about it and briefly summarize its backstory in your essay. Then, explain why it’s something that made an impact on you. For example, you can write about the Mona Lisa and her mysterious smile – or is she smiling? You can also put theories on what could have happened while Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.

Rather than focusing on mainstream arts like ballet and painting, focus your essay on unconventional art or something that defies usual pieces, such as avant-garde art. Then, share what you think of this type of art and measure it against other mediums.

How did art change over the centuries? Explain the differences between ancient and modern art and include the factors that resulted in these changes.

Are you an artist? Share your creative process and objectives if you draw, sing, dance, etc. How do you plan to be better at your craft? What is your ultimate goal?

To do this prompt, pick two countries or cultures with contrasting art styles. A great example is Chinese versus European arts. Center your essay on a category, such as landscape paintings. Tell your readers the different elements these cultures consider. What is the basis of their art? What influences their art during that specific period?

Like the previous prompt, write an essay about similar pieces, such as books, folktales, or paintings. You can also compare original and remake versions of movies, broadway musicals, etc.

Pick a piece you want to know more about, then share what you learned through your essay. What did the art make you feel? If you followed creating art, like pottery, write about the step-by-step process, from clay to glazing.

Visual analysis is a way to understand art centered around what the eyes can process. It includes elements like texture, color, line, and scale. For this prompt, find a painting or statue and describe what you see in your essay.

Since art is a broad topic, you can narrow your research by choosing only the most significant moments in art history. For instance, if you pick English art, you can divide each art period by century or by a king’s ruling time. You can also select an artist and discuss their pieces, their art’s backstory, and how it relates to their life at the time.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Is Art a Skill Or Talent? Breaking the Art Myth.

by Carrie Brummer | Build Your Skill , Develop Your Unique Artist Voice | 96 comments

Art is a skill, not just a talent. This is a topic I’ve been passionate about for years, and the idea that art is solely about talent drives me up the wall.

In schools parents use the art as talent justification to argue their kids deserve higher grades if they “try” at the course, even if they have no skill. (I’d love to see someone posit that argument for a math class).

Adults I know use it to justify their lack of skill and their discomfort talking about and practicing art. A regular argument I hear is when art is equated with sports and people’s performance in sports (people can practice but that doesn’t mean they will be an Olympic athlete). (Funny, I still feel like I could argue that for math or any other subject).

Hey there! 👋 I’m Carrie. Here on Artist Strong I help self-taught artists who have a home studio, feeling stuck with their art, move from wondering what’s next to confidently expressing themselves through unique, original art. To date, thousands have joined the community.

👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽 If you feel like gaps in your learning hold you back from making your best art, sign up and watch my workshop, called How to Create Art from Your Imagination. It’s completely free for you to watch and the link is in the description below.

Today let’s discuss this myth about talent that holds people back and creates unnecessary barriers. Let’s unpack this misconception and look at why it persists and how we can challenge it.

The Skill Behind Art

First, let’s talk about skill. Drawing, painting, sculpting—these are skills that can be learned and developed, just like playing a musical instrument or learning a sport. If you’ve ever taken an art class, you know that it’s not all about inspiration and creativity. It’s about understanding techniques, practicing regularly, and refining your craft over time.

Consider my experience with students from South Korea. Many came to the school I taught at in Dubai with an impressive ability to draw photorealistically. This isn’t because of some innate talent; it’s because they are taught drawing skills from a young age. The key here is education, not some mystical gift. If you invest the time and effort, you will see progress. It’s as simple as that.

Betty Edwards’ book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” (This is an affiliate link that supports Artist Strong at no additional cost to you – thank you for valuing this space) offers a compelling demonstration of this idea. It shows before-and-after drawings from adults who practiced the techniques she teaches, proving that art can be a learned skill. So, if you’re feeling stuck in your studio, wondering if you’ve reached the limits of your ability, remember that skill is something you can build. The key is consistency, perseverance, and a willingness to learn.

The Talent Argument

Talent is a tricky concept. While it’s true that some people may have a predisposition toward certain skills, talent alone won’t take you far if you don’t put in the work. Talent can give you a head start, but it’s your mindset, dedication, and practice that will determine how far you go.

Think about athletes. Some are naturally gifted, but even the most talented athletes train relentlessly to reach the top of their game. In art there’s no specific build or genetic makeup required to be good at drawing or painting. It’s about learning the techniques, experimenting with different styles, and finding your unique voice.

Art is about creativity, and creativity is a skill that can be developed. It’s not just about mastering techniques but also about exploring new ideas, taking risks, and giving yourself permission to create without judgment. When you embrace this mindset, real growth happens.

👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽I’d love to know, what beliefs have you been taught or do you still hold around art and talent? Let’s begin to unpack and understand them in the comments below.

Finding Your Unique Style

If you’re feeling stuck in your studio, ready to move beyond “paint-like-me” classes and YouTube tutorials, it’s time to focus on finding your unique style. This is where art becomes more than just a skill—it’s about expressing your individuality and creating something that reflects your perspective.

Right now I’m working with a student who has a real love of wildlife. Hi Rick! If you’re watching 🙂 He is determined to bring a level of vitality and movement to his work. Rick has spent years studying and learning the art of wood carving, and wants to incorporate drawn work into his portfolio.

Just this week he told me,

“ I am learning so much from the live check-ins and the course, that it is really amazing to me. It is having a huge impact on my woodcarving and my colored pencil art. I am also doing something I would never have imagined–doodling landscapes and seascapes. Thank you so much for Self-Taught to Self-Confident ! I am looking forward to being an active member of this group for a long time!!!!!”

Working on his skill development is not only helping him see things about his art he never noticed before, it’s giving him the confidence to explore different themes and topics in his work.

This is how we find or discover our unique style. While I sincerely believe it’s a voice simmering inside of you, waiting to be shared with the world, we must explore our interests and experiment with different subjects, colors, and techniques. Through taking the time to focus on art theory and foundations, training our artist eyes to “see,” we will start to develop an awareness of our artistic choices and how they communicate the ideas pictured in our mind.

If you’re at a similar crossroads, my advice is to embrace the process. Don’t worry about being the best of the best. Focus on being the best version of yourself as an artist. Allow yourself to take risks and explore new ideas. Your unique voice is what will set you apart from others, and that’s where the magic happens.

Today’s video is brought to you by my premium program Self-Taught to Self-Confident . If you are tired of spinning tires spending money on classes that teach you how to paint like someone else and are ready to make art that reflects your unique voice and style, this program is for you. Self-Taught to Self-Confident walks you through building strong foundations to draw and paint whatever you want so you can confidently build a practice to show up regularly for your art and begin to explore what you want to say. You will create a series of artworks that reflect your unique style that you can share (and maybe even sell). Hop on a call with me to see if you’re a good fit and walk away with a clear plan for your art today .

What’s Next?

As you take your art more seriously, consider what steps you can take to grow. This might mean experimenting with new materials, taking advanced classes, or finding a mentor who can guide you. It could also mean setting up a dedicated studio space, so you have the freedom to create without interruption.

If you’re thinking about exhibiting or selling your art, don’t wait until you feel “good enough.” Start putting your work out there, even if it’s just on social media or local art events. The more you share your art, the more feedback you’ll get, and the more you’ll grow.

👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽What’s ONE thing you can start applying to your artist practice this week? I’m all about taking action here and helping you get results so I want to hear how today’s conversation can help you make better art. Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

Ultimately, art is a journey, and there’s no right or wrong way to approach it. Skill and talent both play a role, but the most important thing is your passion and commitment. Keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Your art is unique, and the world is waiting to see what you create.

If you enjoyed today’s video please like and subscribe and as always remember…

proudly call yourself an artist. Together we are Artist Strong!

96 Comments

I absolutely agree that artistic ability is a combination of both talent and practice. As you say, with practice just about anyone could become fairly proficient with one medium or another. But a truly great artist (think Bouguereau, Raphael, Velazquez) can never be the product of mediocre talent and intense practice. To be at that level takes something that some have more than others; to say otherwise is to say that the truly great were no different from anyone else…they simply practiced more.

thanks for the thought-provoking post!

Thanks Matthew. I wonder about the notion of “mediocre talent and intense practice.” I generally agree with the statement, but I then I think about someone like Ben Franklin who went through hundreds if not thousands of ideas that failed until he reached one like the lightbulb. Can’t intense practice bring us to another level? What about Malcolm Gladwell’s argument that reaching success is about 10,000 hours of practice? Do we elevate people to statuses we feel the “everyday” person can’t reach because we are intimidated by those that do or because we can’t truly match their success and talent? Thanks for your reflection and insight!

Hi, I am a very mature lady who having an mental illness discovered the joy of art. I try and find out about skill, but it is hard for me as young people now have art taught well in school. I enjoy producing pieces, but I think I have n’t a talent for drawing. Especially when looking at others brilliant work. I think yes it is important for skill, but when people mention skill and talent they forget about the therapy of art. I’ve seen wonderful pieces produced by special needs people who haven’t been taught skill but just through patience and thorough enjoyment produce good pieces. I feel that just the joy of doing art is often overlooked.

Hello A, I totally agree people forget about the joy of doing art. It depends on people’s goals for their art, buy my hope is everyone is creating from a place of joy. For those who wish to develop their skill there are strategies to do so. It takes committed practice to become increasingly skillful. Thank you for sharing! 🙂

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The work is impressive, thank you for sharing!

I actually believe that talent exists in my life. When I was six years old, I had started drawing and did a lot of things. After a while, I putbit down, and years later, I returned to where I left it. It was just waiting for me to come back, and I didn’t lose it. Today, I am always drawing.

Thanks for sharing John. Skills are something once we learn that don’t go away. Once we learn how to ride a bike, we never forget really.

I’m a woodcarver . I carve with hand tools . Collect my own materials , even make my own tools when needed , I never use a pattern , a cutout . I never repete a piece specific ” tho themes continue as my muse is nature ” mostly , I do not even know what I’ll be creating till I begin the process.

I’ve been carving for a long time , started at age of 14 , I’m into my early 50,s , had some issues with ptsd and such , art is medicine.

The best , my practice as an artist , is the life of being an artist . Not just the process of art . But living intuitively, as the same I create .

I’ve met many well meaning ” ish ?” Sorts in my life . I’ll never forget in one particular demonstration at a show , while my father ” who taught me the start of the craft ” was sitting with me .

A woman walked up to watch , and insisted that the work I was creating , wasn’t just a gift of god , but that I hadn’t really much to do with it .

Dad laughed and said , quick Son ! Drop the knife and watch

We sat there staring at the still piece of wood and knife, held firm by gravity .. woman walked away very put out . As we two laughed out loud .

Point being , ” skill ” or ” talent ” doesn’t cut it without years of practice . However, each individual has their own approach, and differing strengths .

There are many who search for years , for the right fit for their interests or passions. There are many more who are unjustly miseducated that you have to be ” gifted ” To be skilled .

Time is essential , so is patience, perhaps that is one of the key elements missing in our education .

Intelegence is subjective . When paitent , even if one struggles, one may learn . If one gives up before even getting started . They will never know .

A great saying to share . Try 100 times , fail 99 . Great Sucess !

Many do not learn from their experiences, some only survive them .

Ultimately, sometimes it’s more luck than skill .

I’ve seen more hacks go father as professionals , than those who have given their lives to a passion or cause.

Talented , skill . Is just achieving well practiced action into form , or function . Whichever form of attention the skill is referenced towards .

Even those who are inexplicably capable at an aspect of life .

Its basically a fine tuned attention, call it focus or mindfulness of you will . Some minds are more focused that way .

Understandably ,its frustrating when one has tried so hard at something , to see another dance through it like a breeze .

I guess then humility is essential for some . And compassion more for others right?

What were we talking about ?

Art , or life ?

Love the story about you and your dad. Thanks so much for sharing Ryan!

Art is every in the world without art everything is useless

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I started drawing when I was a 8 years old, and before that, I had refused to draw or colour at all, mostly because I’ve always been a perfectionist. I would not do something unless I could do it well. However, as you grow up you tend to learn that you never get good at something if you don’t work on it. Getting good at anything takes work. I have often heard people refer to art skills as talent. I don’t like this term because I think this term creates misconceptions, making people think art skills are something that is only achievable for certain people. It also undermines the artist themselves because those all art pieces that you admire so much took a lot of work and time. They didn’t just happen. Skill and talent are developed by three key things, interest, mistakes and practice. And also a lot of patience. You can be taught by someone else, or you can be self-taught. I was self-taught but my skills didn’t and do not just happen to me. I wasn’t born with it. In the same way, I wasn’t born with the ability to be able to walk or talk. These skills had to be developed. I’ve never actually heard of anyone who was really ever born with artistic skills. No matter how young the artist is, there is no artist who has immediate skills the first time they try. What you are seeing is skills that have developed over time. The more intensity and focus they put into it, the sooner they develop these skills. The more you do something the more you build those neuro pathways. And it is certainly a lot easier for someone who enjoys the process and is intensely focused on it, than for someone who is not. You’ve got to be willing to make mistakes and then critique yourself frequently. I am a perfectionist so this comes easily for me. It also helps to observe and learn from other artists. You don’t need to be in a classroom to do that. You can watch what other artists do online. Another suggestion is to look at as many artworks as possible because they will have likely have developed a technique you hadn’t thought of, and it is amazing what you pick up by just looking at a piece of art. And then you need the patience to keep improving your technique. And it’s not just technique but also the way you observe. Rather than looking at the image as a whole, artists tend to break down the image to observe smaller details. These small details are extremely important.

Sam thank you for sharing your thoughts. My heart grieves for all the creatives who feel they will never be good enough and that they can’t do anything about it. I hope the conversations here give us all greater agency to show up for this thing we care about called art.

This is such a great explanation. After over 40 years of learning art, I have found it really boils down to desire. This applies to learning an instrument, getting in shape, etc… Most don’t want to do so as much as they think they do. Also, “talent” is only used for the “arts”, why are there no “Talented Architects”, Talented Plumbers”, “Talented Window Washers”, “Talented Lawyers”, etc…

Artist learned their skill for FREE, so it seems amazing. But if you offered someone $10M to learn to draw decently in one year, all of a sudden, one would make the time to practice. This shows they could have learned all along, but just didn’t have the right incentive.

If you can learn to read, write and do math, you can learn to draw. The difference is we are FORCED to learn those skills in school for 13 years. You can quit everything else if you don’t like it. If everyone was forced to learn to draw and graded on it, all would leave school being able to do so as well as they can Read, Write or do Math (very proficiently).

Thank you so much for sharing!

Sir I am a 18 years old student.. my drawing told me I have a drawing talent in landscape… but I don’t express my talent in gesture,figure drawing…??????

Shuvam, being naturally good at something doesn’t mean you are skillful at all aspects of the discipline. It means you find some parts of the discipline easier than others. This means it takes work, and dedicated effort, for you to develop other areas of skill, which for you includes gesture and figure drawing.

There are eight or nine basic genres in art: 1) Landscape, 2) Still Life; Biblical themes, 3) Mythology 4) Genre painting (everyday life) 5) History 6) Portraiture 7) Allegory 8) The Nude. I think I left one out but you cant excel in all these themes overnight. Artists specialize and it is your studies that will guide you in the direction you must go. Most beginners are humbled when confronted with the complexities of the human form. So, they resort to a doable style, called Anime.

I agree. There is something intangible about talent. I believe talent is the unique ingredient, maybe something that come from our sub-conscious that expresses itself when we are “in the zone” as they say. It is not teachable as a skill is. However practicing your artistic skills and knowing more about art and other artists is key I believe to providing us with inspiration and ideas that our talent can them turn into truly unique works of art.

Thank you Debra! So well said 🙂

I do believe that everybody is born with a talent. Everybody has something that they’re naturally good at, they just know how to do it without thinking too much or studying too much, because it’s their passion. However, anybody that wants to try something new, such as painting/drawing, has to put work and determination into it and they WILL 100% get better because like you said it becomes a skill, and learning new skills is amazing! 🙂 People need to connect with their inner self and find their talent, sometimes it is very hard to do so, but once you find it you will feel fulfilled and happy because you would’ve found your passion 🙂

You mention passion, which I think is very important. But I don’t believe passion is something we are born with either, it is something we grow to understand about ourselves over time. Without passion or interest or investment in any skill, follow through is WAY harder, especially when challenging moments happen (as they always do when we are learning!) Thanks so much for sharing Marian.

I have wondered about this and truly believe that some things definitely come easier for some than others. It seems that some naturally have “attributes” that contribute to a skill being acquired more easily, as opposed the their simply being “naturally good at” something they have never done before.

Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that no one is good at something first try. But if one already possesses or developed a certain attribute, it may “appear” they are naturally good, when really it’s carryover from attributes they already possess.

Any example is how a person with better coordination is going to be a better athlete or musician. Someone who is naturally more patience or has perseverance, will progress better because they don’t give up easily.

Even these things can be improved upon, but someone that has them already will have a head-start at improving a skill. It definitely seems that some people “catch on” easier due to preexisting attributes as opposed to already knowing how to do said thing well.

You often see a huge disparity with kids. A coordinated kid looks like a “prodigy”.

I love how you stated people have to put work and determination into learning a skill. If we consider that Expert Level is a 10, it seems people with natural attributes start with at a 2 or 3 , whereas those lacking that start a zero. We can see have as the skill is developed some will be ahead in skillset sooner.

Everyone can improve at everything, but not everyone can get to 10 Expert Level! lol

You are so right about having to have PASSION!!!

Look into been doodling my whole life. No electronicshe just imagination. As a kid when I said I was bored my parents said I had cars legos or piece of paper. Sitting in doctors offices, waiting for extended periods of time needed to do something. No Gameboy cell phones so I sat there and drew what ever was in front of me. Doodles until I got older.. now I can use all of that to start drawing very detailed pictures. Trial and error. But you have to have patience..but I started very early. Now it’s a game. Can I top the last drawing with this one. Like they say when you hear an artist say, “I am my own worst critic “that’s something out learn with time is to know when to walk away. Also the ability to break objects or anything is with numbers portions fractions. The ability to see things through all the details and focus on proportions. It’s hard to explain.. giving lines a number objects numbers and being able to decider all those things just to make that one square the size you need it.. without using numbers or giving something a value it’s very hard to put that on paper.

Thank you for sharing your story Ed!

How do you explain how at the age of two i could draw my favourite cartoon characters from memory on my bedroom wall and new what colour I would get if a mixed than together before I actually mixed them ??

Hi Valerie,

I would argue you were exposed to information and tools, maybe related but without you knowing that helped train your vision and understanding of color. I suggest you read the book Peak by Anders Ericsson. He’s done 30 years of research on this and has been able to explain the reasoning behind even the perceived “innate” talents of idiot savants. The only thing God may have given us is the interest and predisposition to certain skills: it’s up to us an individuals to make use of them and bring beauty/value to the world, or not. I find that very empowering. We can all grow and learn, no matter where we are in life. Thanks for reading!

I agree Valerie. I was also able to draw from an early age without instruction. How can that be explained? Just as in dance and theatre, “presence” cannot be taught, it just is there within someone. I do believe my talent can be mastered using instruction and proper techniques. And many hours of studio time.

As children we have teachers and parents encourage certain behaviors in us. Having people encourage hand-eye coordination and observational skills will immediately predispose someone to drawing and help them be stronger the first time they try. Foundational skills that are encouraged in us (and that we have interest in pursuing) help create that “predisposition” for a subject. IF you are enjoying this conversation I highly recommend reading the book Peak by Anders Ericsson. His research pretty much has a counter-argument for every argument I’ve heard about placing a lot of weight on talent.

Oh Carrie, thank you for standing on your soapbox, and for your perspective on a topic of great interest to me. I’m in line with your thinking, as someone who appreciates art as a craft. I wrote about this a few months ago — http://artistsroad.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/are-creatives-born-or-made/ — and you made a great contribution to the conversation with your insights based on the class you taught on the Theory of Knowledge. Thank you again for that.

One thing I’ll share: I go out of my way never to refer to an artist I admire as “talented,” and I take offense (quietly) when I am called talented. It seems dismissive to me, tossing aside the hard work the person has done to produce whatever it is that is triggering the compliment. I use the word “skilled.”

Patrick, Thanks for your support as always. We work so hard towards something I do worry this labeling of talent takes away from that. I’m going to remember that distinction myself and keep to the word skilled as well because that does better encompass my feelings on the matter. Some people may feel I’m parsing words, but I feel the words we do use reflect our education and understanding of the arts as a discipline and reflects our cultural values.

While I didn’t take formal art education in high school, my mother had always encouraged any type of creativity even when I was a very young child, and I think that encouragement and constant exposure to different types of creativity, developed my ‘eye’ so that I could draw and paint far beyond anything my peers could do in the early school years. I believe that having an ‘eye’ is the result of observation and taking a keen interest so that patterns, methods and how they work together becomes part of how you look at life so that it becomes habit, although it’s so much a part of you that it can feel innate. In my life, while I haven’t been an artist per se, everything I’ve done has been informed by my interest and observation of the world around me. My involvement and enjoyment of music, singing, and design of all descriptions have been endeavours that have built upon each other. The work I’ve done in each area has required continual practise in order to increase my skills.

Harriet I think you’ve nailed it. There are ways to encourage a child to be observant and essentially train them to notice details that would then support them as an artist, for example. (And I’d argue if you’ve made art, you’ve always been an artist). 🙂

I so agree with you. I heard many times people tell me you’re so talented, your lucky. Totally dismissed the idea of hard work that put into it to be skillful. Last time, a guy asked me what do I do to produced my work, said, “do you take classes? Draw everyday? Or naturally talented? I responded by saying I draw and practice everyday.

Exactly! Thank you for sharing Eledel.

Hi Carrie dedication and practice is key thing in my own creative expressions… i remember looking at a beautiful painting one day and heard a voice inside saying; ‘you know, you can do that’. my first and immediate thought at the time was you’ve got to be kidding….but something kept urging me in that and i’ve finally embraced the idea and with hard work and practice and some classes that help in the process i am finding myself enjoying painting more and more while my skills become more fine tuned with each practice session….i think there are super remarkable individuals in every field that stand out as geniuses of sorts… borne with a special star shining brightly …perhaps reincarnation wise they are reaping the fruit of culmination of many many hours already spent and the fruit just fell so easily in its ripeness…perhaps that is another subject…perhaps not…but dedication and work it is for me…think its true for all learning and art is no exception.

Hi Bonnie! It’s so wonderful to hear that you are ignoring that inner critic and honoring that first voice you heard that expresses your interests and passion for the arts. You are right, practice really helps us to refine, improve and grow. And yet, there will always be people better than us, and there will always be people who do seem to have that special something. I’m quite confident, however, that almost all of those with that special something had to work their butts off to get there. I know many people more talented than me who haven’t put their work out there so I’m the one with a list of gallery exhibitions tied to my name… Thanks so much for reading and for your thoughts!

Skill is half of it at best, you an be skilled and everything but it wont make your work a masterpiece, look at Basquiat, his stuff was chicken scratch but also a masterpiece since it was a raw look into people, place, time, and the artists mind. That is what adds up to a masterpiece… no skill is more important than one that you are either born with or not, creativity!

We are ALL inherently creative. Thanks for sharing and reading Chris! 🙂

I completely agree with ArtistThink!

As some one who is visually and verbally talented (innate and worked on), I envy those who have innate musical talents. I fall into the hypocritical trap of claiming I can’t be taught to play or sing even as others tell me about stick figures being their limit. Truly, most all skills can be taught (for some more easily learned than others) even if you are not born with an aptitude for it. Though I believe the skill Chris mentions, creativity, can’t be taught it is a skill EVERYONE is born with. There is not one subject in which creativity is not required. Math, history and science for example actually can be as creatively worked with, learned and developed as art.

If something needs solving one of the best ways to come to a finished product (whether it be a drug via chemical equations or a history book with famous quotes as chapter openings) is creative thinking! Leonardo da Vinci one of the greatest Renaissance men of all time was not only a brilliant artist but a scientist and inventor to boot! Newton and Curie are just two examples of great scientists who utilized creativity and applied it to solving problems.

Scientists, can also be artists to. They may think outside the box and with microscopes come up with beautiful photos of the organisms they study. Or use their skills to design anatomical and geographical maps of deep complexity and breathtaking handwork.

Teaching art to young children has shown me that from the least to most artistically skilled, every student displayed creative skills! As adults that creativity is still there. Now what form it ultimately takes for whatever purpose is a different matter all together. While creating, studying and looking at art is my true passion, having studied and worked in the medical field has shown me better than anyone could, that the potential and necessity for creativity is EVERYWHERE.

So well said to say all subjects areas demand creativity. Creative thinking is an important skill for most walks of life. So glad to have you on board. Welcome to Artist Think Aaron!

Talent is a predisposition toward a certain medium of self-expression–painting, writing, photography, etc. Art is a powerful emotion with which you use your talent to express universal truths that resonate with audiences in a unique fashion. Skill is something you acquire through repetitive practice and learning from mistakes, to best fashion your art into the clearest and simplest expression possible.

I’ve never thought about art = emotion. I’ve considered the emotive nature of some art, but never considered art emotion. Thank you for sharing! Great perspective.

I saw this post on Pinterest and feel I need to reply. Skill vs Talent…such a charged topic!

I am an artist and an art teacher. I listen to my students lament about how they can’t draw. My reply…” of course not I haven’t taught you yet!” I hear from them (and others) you are so “talented” BUT I have a secret…

I hated to draw and was not very good at it…terrible really. I loved all other aspects of art though…just don’t ask me to draw.

I decided to go to art school but how to get around drawing? PHOTOGRAPHY! Yup you don’t have to draw with that…I had my solution.

Alas…it wasn’t so. I still had to take drawing classes. In that time I had professors who took the time to TEACH me. Showed me how to look at an object or scene…even a human body, and translate that onto paper. I developed a SKILL in being able to draw (and do it well).

So when people tell me I am so “talented” I ask…

is it TALENT or is it SKILL?

Candace, AMEN fellow art teacher 🙂 If you enjoy this topic I highly encourage you to read the book Peak by Anders Ericsson. He has pretty solid evidence that shows this is no longer a debate, but an area of ignorance in which we all need more education!

Thank you for the book recommendation, I will find it and use the information as “education”. ☺

Need a help. I have pencil drawings that I would like to get prints and sell.. where do I go I’m stuck. Any help would be great.. thanks

Hi Edmund. It’s not as simple as finding a place to sell your art: it’s about finding and serving the people who want to buy your art. What kind of art do you make? Who would enjoy your work? Where do they spend time? You need to build visibility and trust with your potential collectors to do this and it takes consistent time and effort.

In terms of making prints, I recommend Redbubble.com, especially if you aren’t concerned about limited edition prints and don’t want to outlay costs yourself.

Good luck to you.

hello,this is a nice post and i really enjoyed reading it . my english might not be that great but i am really curious about how you would respond to my argument.if by drawing ,you mean drawing from reference then please ingnore my comment.well if it isn’t ,then here you go.The difference between drawing and swimming is that you can express all your feelings towards swimming through drawing but you cannot express your feelings towards drawing through swimming.your love towards any genre can be expressed through drawing which makes drawing unique .you need to know a lot about swimming inorder to draw a swimmer swimming from your head but you dont have to know anything about drawing inorder to be a good swimmer .Coming to drawing being a talent or not,i find anechdotes of artists or people very unrelaible even tho they are masters at drawing or teachers. The reason why is that i believe they are no more resposible for the natural raw talent or wiring in their head than they are responsible for their height.talent being 1% or 99% , that’s a claim on biology that only neuroscientists have the right to make.I personally believe it can be anywhere on the spectrum.my opinion on drawing is that what you draw or want to draw is more important, than drawing itself.Most people dont like rape and might have moral issues seeing it as dynamic , same with war. no matter how much they practice drawing ,they might not be good at drawing these topics from their head.evolution might also have a huge impact on this,most girls arent into weapons or war stuff ,it is highly unlikly that they will ever be or will be able to draw them from imagaintion . My point is that the genre you want to draw or the thing is also of greater importance.But avoiding all these and simple saying drawing is 5% or whatever percent is talent and the rest is hardwork seems absurd to me .let me know what you think 🙂

Hi Sharan, thank you for your thoughts. I suggest you look for the book Peak by Anders Ericsson. It quite clearly outlines academic research that shows drawing ability (whether drawing from photo reference, or a desire to draw from the imagination) comes from deliberate practice. ANYONE can learn this, should they want to commit time and practice the right way. The problem is: most people don’t know how to practice to achieve the growth in skill they wish to achieve.

This isn’t a question anymore – this is fact. And he has over 30 years of research that proves this for any discipline. He looked at experts in many different disciplines.

I highly encourage you to seek out the book if you have interest in the topic. Thank you again for reading and sharing your thoughts.

All I can say is at the age of 2 my mother used to draw picture of babies for me a because I constantly asked her too! I was hooked and every time I got the chance of getting hold of watever medium I could I would draw paint or sketch on whatever space I could find walls paper anything I could I could draw complex pictures before school age and I was left handed but didn’t hold a pen or pencil back hand like left handed people normally do! I made my mums life very trying because I was a perfectionist with everything and it really made me feel that nobody understood me and it made me unapproachable until I may my art teacher in high school and at a parents meeting told my mum that she after at least two years as her pupil she didn’t know me any better from the first day entering her class than when I left with my art higher and art prize from the school I attended but she told my mum that I was externally tallented and that I taught her a thing or two!!

What a wonderful story and experience Val! What a difference it makes when you have family that does all they can to encourage the things we are drawn to explore. It sounds like your parents and teachers have offered you some wonderful support. <3 Thank you for sharing your experience.

Thank you for this! I have had many parents feel compelled to prepare me for their child’s artistic inabilities because of their own insecurities and I get so infuriated! If you can write your name, I can teach you to draw. Your “c” in high school doesn’t quantify your ability to create art if you willing and interested. Yes,I’m grading a skill, but there are many ways to create art and maybe someone who is “no good at art” will introduce the rest of us to a new way a making art because they were able to let go of the inhibitions of making art. It’s so true, I could be much better at many other disciplines like math, writing, economics, etc…if I practiced and studied them but if I am not interested, motivated or inspired, I will probably not be very successful.

YES!!! YES! and more YES! Thanks for sharing your own experience. And feel free to send those parents my way 😉

What if you were drawing good from the start? I mean,that,if you didn’t need to learn HOW to draw.You were already good.Is that considered talent?

Hi Rafiya, I’d say something in our lives prepared us to draw then: a job that required a lot of detailed observation, for example. As a child, it could have been parents pointing out all kinds of observational details that get us seeing the world around us with artist eyes.

Great question! Thanks for asking, and reading.

Carrie,there is such a thing as talent!Just because you dont have it, doesn’t mean you should considering art as a skill and not a talent, try to learn how to sing like Whitney Houston and see what you got! I’ve practiced singing and never will be as good as a great singer. Now when it comes to art painting and drawing my dear, I dont remember seeing another HR Giger, Michelangelo, Raphael and many more again . Sure lot of unknown art painter didn’t get to fame path and sure lot of people are learning, practicing and get good at it, but iam sorry, you are absolutely wrong, they are talented artists they just maybe dont like the word talent or something, talented people are born with a gift, often basic, and a great imagination, imagination is the key and those ones dear, are becoming very great at art. In my days back when I was a teen, I knew how to draw while my best friend and many more students in my class were desperately trying to draw and couldn’t do it. I stopped drawing for years and made my very first painting last week without practicing and I did a fantastic job. You can learn but often its in you. If art was just a skill,everyone would be an artist today. I dont mean to brag about myself, I was born with a talent which I need skill for it get it? ambition, time, inspiration, compassion skills? yes but talent first. talent is something you possessed, skills is something you learn……

I know this is a paradigm that is hard to shift our understanding about and I totally recognize what you are saying: I once thought this way. I highly encourage you to read Peak by Anders Ericsson or The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. The idea of talent is seriously overrated and because of that, many people stop trying because they assume they don’t have the talent if they don’t get it straight away. At minimum, listen to this podcast episode where they share the story of someone who couldn’t sing who now can and has an award winning record http://freakonomics.com/podcast/peak/

A lot of people are threatened because the notion of talent makes us feel special, and it also gives us permission to stop trying at things because well, if we don’t have the talent then why try? A more concerning thought to me: how many people have potential to share with the world but haven’t and gave up trying because someone told them they didn’t have the talent?

Thank you for sharing your perspective with me and I hope you will consider reviewing some of the resources I shared.

Both views are correct! There are geniuses & great people who are just born that way, and they are either going to be waisted or used. Upbringing, experiences, emotional stability, life choices, etc…determine those individuals level of achievements.

There are people with little or no talent, and/skill, but develope them through hard work and persiverence. Again, upbring, life choices, so on and so forth, will determine those individuals outcomes.

Talent without hard work is not enough to make someone great, but if an individual works at something hard enough, they will be great it. The genious is sometimes in ones ability to never give up. If you have a passion for something do it, and it will lead to joy.

With all that said, no matter how much most people try they will never be great. To be intelectually dishonest with them is wrong. No one is born a Master at anything, and most people don’t have what it takes to learn the amount of knowledge, skill, creativity, emotion, originality, and intelligence.

Lately I’ve been binge reading art blogs, trying to work through an existential “why bother” kind of artist crisis of my own, and I have to say your outlook is intriguing to me. Mostly because my best friend constantly tells me I’m wasting my “talent” (I work a 9-5, instead of, I don’t know, trying to hock paintings of Flour De Lis to tourists in the French Quarter?) – and there is something that has always irked me about that word in reference to myself. You know, beyond just the normal bouts of self doubt and criticisms.

I realize this was posted a number of years ago, but I see you’re still replying to comments through pretty recent, and so I thought I’d throw some thoughts out there, and pose a couple questions.

I apologize for the novel.

I think that talent is not so much a natural “god given” ability to magically create perfect expressions of emotion or inspiration, but a predisposition to passion, or a desire to create, coupled with an affinity for perhaps recognizing a process without formal instruction. Like, I think a passion or drive in a person is manifested at a young age, and the obsession to improve is what begins in childhood. Skill is everything that comes of nurturing that passion?

As a child, it started simply with loving characters in a cartoon, and wanting to put that character on paper for myself, and tell a story that wasn’t the one on TV. But I knew what was on the paper was not exactly what I saw in my head. But I wanted it to be, and so I never stopped drawing. I would study, very closely, what I thought made a cartoon look like a cartoon, and I would try to imitate that. When kids accused me of tracing, I guessed that I was getting better (even though I was offended, because tracing was cheating, and how boring was just copying what someone else drew exactly?).

As a teenager, I was obsessed with finding and expanding my own style of story telling through picture. And so I borrowed and mixed elements of various periods, classical and modern, East and West. When I developed a style I considered unique, I decided I didn’t want to have only one way I could draw, and so I researched and experimented to be as malleable as possible, and change my entire process depending on what exactly I would like to convey… The point of all this is, my flexibility is skill developed over years and years, not talent that sprouted from nowhere.

The only thing I feel came naturally, was the never-ending want to be better, to be more skilled than I was, or am. What is responsible for drive, and if everyone has the ability to create, and it’s not just natural wiring of the brain, then does every being on earth have that *drive* to create deep inside of them? Using my aforementioned friend as an example… she constantly says “Oh, I wish I could draw” or “If I could draw like you”. I think, yes if you learned how to draw, then you *could* draw. But, I doubt she has the discipline. Wishing isn’t enough – and I can’t say that most people I know could take that wishing to “be as good” as someone else or to draw a picture in their head, then turn that into a dedication to devote a lifetime to learning how to do it; living in and breathing for years the brand of misery that is perfecting a craft. Would my friend draw until she forgot to eat, through the night until the sun was coming up for the next morning, until her eyes were bleeding from staring at the same piece for days just trying to get it *right*? And without this sickness of soul, this obsession, isn’t there a limit to potential skill level?

Also, do you consider an artist’s ability to self-teach (or rather, I should say independently study and learn lessons on their own, as opposed being told what lessons to learn by an “authority”) a skill in of itself? I ask, because you put a lot of emphasis on “art education”, and seem to see it as a prerequisite for posing any valid discussion about the topic of Skill vs Talent. I apologize if I misread your outlook here, but that is the tone I got from the article. Because I have a very dour opinion of institutionalized learning. Art schools, in particular. So I suppose my question is, what to you consider an art education, really? Is it merely the accumulation of knowledge gained over a lifetime of a person’s creative development, and the experience therein… or do you mean education in a more socially normalized sense?

What is the defining line between a student of passion and life experience, and a student-student? I don’t actually think much of my work when pitted against some of the local, poor street artists I’ve encountered just *this year*… and yet, shake a stick at any random recent AI graduate and I’m arguably “better”.

Perhaps it’s just envy convincing me in self preservation, but I don’t think I’d be a more proficient, rounded artist if I’d gone the way of school to mold my growth. In fact, I know I wouldn’t, allowing other powers to dictate my focus and put a grade value on my evolution. Having no formal education makes me feel less employable, but not less skilled. I don’t see “marketable art” as being synonymous with “good art”. It CAN be, but it can also be flaccid, unimaginative and regurgitated.

As strongly as I agree that talent is not the word to use, I also think the notion that “practice, practice, practice” being all it takes to get to “good” is understating what it really takes by an almost offensive degree, because there’s no real quantifiable formula that makes a good artist. A lot is the interpretive, suggestive and ill-defined nature of creativity. You can scrutinize and build technique, but how do you teach vision or original thought? Can you practice, practice, practice never running out of ideas?

Your thoughtful comments and reflection tell me YOU should be teaching others too! 🙂

I love this: “I think that talent is not so much a natural “god given” ability to magically create perfect expressions of emotion or inspiration, but a predisposition to passion, or a desire to create, coupled with an affinity for perhaps recognizing a process without formal instruction.” YES YES YES. We have to have passion in order to improve our skill. I have a problem when people suggest talent is innate because it takes all onus away from us as individuals to DO something about it.

School is irrelevant to the word artist for me. It is absolutely a skill to develop our own ability and make conscious choices to do so. Art education is everything we do as individuals, with or without institutions, to consciously develop as artists. I will always consider myself a student, but that doesn’t mean I’m not also a professional artist. And in today’s day and age, artists have more ability to decide what their future should look like than artists have had in the past. You don’t have to be employable unless you want to be. So many artists are finding multiple sources of income to create the life THEY want. And that’s my hope and aim: to serve artists so that we each individually reflect on what we want and how to get there.

It’s not just practice, either. We can practice the wrong way and see little to no strides in our work. I talk about this in another post here: https://wp.me/p6Xq2T-2nS . I have done A LOT of research on this and the research shows “deliberate practice” is the formula we can use to build our skill. To become expert and to be better at something are also two different things.

I also recommend the book GRIT by Angela Duckworth who also researches these topics. She’d tell you can develop vision and original thought. And if we can develop it as individuals, we can find ways to teach it.

Thank you for the great conversation!

Having read all these amazing opinions the word that keeps coming to mind is ‘desire’. If you have the desire and then gradually passion arises, then I think any skill can be mastered or honed.

Absolutely!

Thank you so much for sending me this article. It gives me much hope, and will serve as a deterrent to the discouragement that often comes. I’m so passionate about art and it gives me great joy. I’m not afraid of hard work and it is refreshing to know that I CAN get better!

YES you can. It’s not easy, but the process is simple. And the more we show up and use deliberate practice as a tool to help our skill, the more we can spread this knowledge to be more widely known! Imagine a world where everyone feels empowered to improve their skill in their discipline of choice? 🙂

I reached this article from a google search. It’s really nice and logical and I agree. I’ve spent my life (I’m still 26) thinking I don’t have the artistic talent! My brother had it since a young age! He could simply draw beautifully! I couldn’t! I still remember the frustration in our art class at primary school, when we had a class and it began with the teacher saying: “get your colored pencils out and a white paper, and start drawing a beautiful scene” I was always puzzled about drawing the big sky! it took a long time to fill it all with blue! and the class was only 45 minutes! so I used to fill it in a careless way! My only wish if they had took more care about it, and just followed more closely, maybe if they allowed us to finish the drawing in 4 to 5 classes or gave us instructions and feedback! I focused on science and I’m now a CS graduate and my “hobby” is physics! During my study in CS I was always afraid of making any UI I always thought it was “Art” and I could never understand art! So I stuck to the command line programming, and never tried to draw any UI. Now came the time at my career when I’m asked to implement UIs as a web developer, and I started learning that they are all UX principles, best practices, and research! No magical talent only continues learning and hard work! So now I proudly say it: I’d love to learn art, and I think I simply can it’s only a matter of time and priority! Sorry for the long comment, I’ve had this trapped inside for a long time! I will probably turn this to a blog post. Best wishes!

Thank you Baha for sharing your story I really appreciate it. I’m glad you see that you can learn now should you have the desire and commitment! Best wishes to you.

Thanks Carrie!

Hello everyone, Everyone can draw or learn the skills of drawing (or any other art field), but not everyone can become an artist. People with talent can be great artists if they spent an effort on themselves and acquire skills. Finally, talent can discovered on youth and if not, their talent is going to decrease. Khalel, R. A., PhD Helwan University, faculty of arts education.

Dear Abdelrahman,

I appreciate your understanding and perspective. Our worldwide perception of talent being so very valuable is a paradigm we all need to change. And our perceptions as teachers can often determine and discourage students from engaging in the arts for the very argument you describe. I ask you: what’s the point? If people want to become artists, why should we tell them they can’t try?

I’d also love to see the science-based research that backs up your claims. I’ve read and researched many things on this topic. I heavily encourage you to review the research by Anders Ericsson where he spent 30+ years studying what are the underlying traits and mechanisms used by experts in their respective fields. He concludes ANYONE can make these changes and become talented if they use this formula and put in the time.

As for age – this is completely false. Famous successful artists have started their art ranged in ages from childhood to their 70s and have thriving art careers.

I also have a masters in education from a very prestigious university, but that doesn’t mean I know more than everyone else. It just means I’ve been in the education system longer, which can sometimes mean I’m less open to new ideas because I’ve been in the system so long. I hope you can use these resources I share and it might help you see the world with fresh eyes.

Warm Regards,

Hello, I want to know the date of publishing this article for research purposes. I’m preparing a research about this topic. I’d like to thank you about the resources; it was useful. I am an proponent to this stance in present. Best regards,

Original date of publication is Feb 16, 2013. Good luck with your research!

ART is a skill not a talent,depending on how you take it, can be a talent to you or a skill

Holly I’m not sure I understand, tell me more? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I think talent is different, a talented artist can create something special that a skill artist cant.

I wish i had more talent.

Hi Alan, I totally respect that you feel that way. Society has been telling us that for ages, not to mention this gives us a bit of an excuse for why haven’t improved our skill or make the art we may be scared to make. At least I know I can feel that way!! You can grow talent – you can make special art. It takes showing up and making a lot of art to find that special voice. Best wishes to you. Carrie

hi! how could you explain my situation? (i really need answers) the drawings that i made when i was in elementary were always bullied, i was always bullied about it, then after a few years i had realized that my drawings were really bad. Then i stopped for 4 years, but when I tried to draw an entry for art club, my drawings,as my mom said, had improved greatly (not to brag) i haven’t practice coloring and shading techniques but my art teacher was very impressed on my work.

Hi Gwyneth! Thanks for asking.

First off: bullying offers no useful information. Bullying is about exerting power over another person, so, that tells me people were threatened or uncomfortable with the art you made (perhaps because you showed enthusiasm or skill).

I’m sad to hear you stopped. But I’m glad to know you are returning to your art. Art isn’t something you are “just” good at or bad at, it’s something you have to practice to build your skill. No one is good to start. That’s just how it works!

As for taking a break and coming back to art, I find when I take a break and return to my art making my skill is always improved. Just because we aren’t drawing or painting doesn’t mean we aren’t observing the world around us and learning things that will help us make better art!

I’m so pleased you are finding reward in your art again. But please understand to make art means to make a lot and I mean A LOT of bad art. That’s the path to the good stuff. So: keep making “bad” art! <3

I’m not an artist. In fact, my stick figures usually look like they need to see the chiropractor. What I am though, is a musician. I sing and play nine instruments. Some I picked up easily and others I know only the basics of playing even after years of practice. I have an in born skill to hear music and reproduce it, but I spend hours a day working to hone it. Like you, I don’t like the word talent because I worked very hard to get where I am. If I had not worked to hone that inborn talent, I would not be able to play and sing the way I do now. It takes a lot of practice and work to get really good, just like anything else

For any discipline, some people find things easier or harder than others. It still comes down to our desire to persist and practice in the right way to develop those skills. Thank you for sharing some of your experience!

I believe you are born with a talent and that talent can be honed by practice. I also believe you can have little to no talent but acquire the skills to become competent, even talented at using those learned skills. People with natural talent will, unsurprisingly, grow their talent more easily and have more potential to become exceptional. I know that from a very young age I drew compulsively and could easily capture a likeness or scene and knew instinctively about proportion, perspective, values, even colour mixing. What sets a born artist apart is their compulsion to create. It would kill me to not be creating artwork on a daily basis apart from when I need to step away to recharge my imagination. I actually prefer the term painter to artist but that!s another discussion altogether.

Thanks for sharing Carol! I’m concerned when people use talent as an excuse to NOT pursue their interests, because either they have “it,” or they don’t. That’s patently false. As you say, people who are not naturally interested in a topic can build skill and become really good at it. It’s that magic of desire, persistence and being willing to fail repeatedly that helps us really take our art to the next level.

Carrie, I really respect your optimism and hope that anyone can do it. The truth is that yeah anybody can do it, but not anybody can do it with greatness. That takes a natural born talent. I have not been brainwashed into thinking this way, it is the simple truth. Years ago I was really into starting a band and I bought a brand new bass and started taking lessons. I did this for years and I did get better but it only went so far. My sense of rhythm just was never very great and my bass lines were mediocre. That being said all of my life I have been a great painter and drawer. I am pretty much self taught. I have shown my work in numerous galleries and I have even done a little teaching. I do agree that anybody can learn art and become somewhat good to great at it, but the ones that do become great at it are always and I mean always the ones that have had a talent for it at an early age. I consider myself a very good artist who in my lifetime has…not joking…put about 30,000 hours into practice. I am still going to create art till the day I die, but no matter how many more hours I put into it, I will never paint with the genius and talent of a Picasso or a Van Gogh. I can’t say I put more hours and practice than Picasso but I have been creating longer than Van Gogh ever did. He was a more talented artist than me, it really is that simple and I am ok with that. I think a big part of the problem is that too many people want to be the good guy rather than the honest guy. However I will leave it on one more thought… I do believe we are all good at something or that we were meant for something, whether we find it or not.

Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for your contribution to this conversation. People can be super skillful and talented and still not “succeed” by today’s measures. You mention van Gogh and he’s a perfect example. He was a failure during his lifetime. Today we acknowledge his work. That isn’t about skill or talent, that’s about societal standards and definitions about what’s “worth” our time and investment. That’s about cultural norms.

HOW we practice to develop our skill is important and is more important than any perceived talents we have. Talent, as I mention in the article, is that pre-disposal to be committed, interested, and stckl with something to keep developing our skill. And maybe it’s the will to keep going, as van Gogh did, because we are called to do it.

Carrie, although I do not agree with everything you said, the fact that you believe in people is a greater gift than being a great artist (as cheesy as that sounds)…which is why you would make for a great teacher. You are by the way, a great artist. I saw your artist page to see some of your work…very well done. I also like the fact that you’re bringing a spotlight to women who truly meant something yet sometimes are forgotten simply because of the era they lived in or the fact that they were women. I never had to worry about this problem. It is a sad thought knowing you might never be appreciated or considered great simply because of your gender. That is ridiculous. This is changing of course for the better. It is a male run world no doubt about it, maybe that is why it needs so much improvement.

Hello Carrie,

What do you think of someone who start from 0 ground at the age of 38 in arts. Currently i’m learning sketching, trying my very best to squeeze time to practice daily. I often feel bit down and intimidated whenever i see other work of arts and can’t stop wonder if i can get up to that level.

Suedev you absolutely can improve in your skill and make great art. What happens is when we are adults and have our lives put together, we often don’t give ourselves the leeway to fail and learn from those failures, which is an IMPORTANT part of the learning process. It’s how we learn techniques and develop our skill. You can get to the level you seek. Strategic practice is integral to making that happen. You CAN do it.

Obviously, I can’t speak for others out there about my opinion on talent or if it exists, but in my experience I believe talent has nothing to do with being good at art.

In my case, I have no “talent”. But, what I do have is a disposition to create artworks. I could stare at a work for hours scrutinizing it and taking mental notes of what’s good and bad, but I could not tell you why I do that. However, by unconsciously examining the artworks of artists over many years, I’ve “naturally” been able to draw decently from imagination. I have an understanding of proportion, composition and what looks aesthetically pleasing. I am very good at criticizing my work, which increases my rate of improvement. So, does being able to analyze and have an interest in art make you talented?

On the flip side, while hard-work or constant practice is important, it doesn’t always mean you will create great art either. I take huge breaks of a few months to half a year. Not to mention I hate doodling or sketching because it’s laborious without any purpose for me. But, every-time I sit down and draw after months of not-practicing, my art advances to another level. Why? Some may say it’s talent.But, in reality it’s because I have accumulated artistic knowledge that can never be gotten rid of due years of observing and acquiring other bits of knowledge from online.

Sometimes when I look at artists that I admire, I have a feeling that I could almost duplicate their artworks. If I am able to duplicate their works, that means I have the technical prowess to create such cool artwork. But, the reason I cannot create such amazing artwork alone is because I don’t have the knowledge these artists have accumulated. Yes, practice helps acquire knowledge. But, If I go straight for finding artistic knowledge via youtube, then I can avoid mindless hours of sketching or being hit with “inspiration”. So, the difference between me and amazing professionals is not something as vague as “talent”. Instead, knowledge key, whether that is intentionally learned or subconsciously absorbed.

Knowledge in art, makes you understand how to draw a face, how to render an environment, how to composition etc. I’ve even found information about how to boost creativity and ways to make more visually interesting pieces, or approaches to visual development. Overall, Creativity and making art expressive are what people would typically associate with talent. But, once again, these can be learned!!! I learned them!!!

The reason you don’t have emotion in your work is because you don’t have knowledge to what makes an artwork look more emotional. So you have to learn it, digest it, then gain it. “Talent” and “practice” is a means but not an end. Talent and Practice doesn’t guarantee you will create good art, IF YOU DON”T HAVE KNOWLEDGE. Skills are powered by knowledge. So in my opinion being artistic, creative, and technical is a skill of having mass knowledge.

Yes! Personal experience, interpretation, curiosity, desires, interests… all of this feeds into art. Love what you have to say. thanks for sharing!

Nice article. Although there are people who have more raw talent than others, the truth is that talent and creativity are acquired over time. As an example, when I was younger I loved playing guitar and writing songs. Initially, I wasn’t very good, but, I kept learning new songs from other bands and the more I learned, the more I was able to formulate my own style, playing and writing better music. When I stared taking classes in graphic design, I sucked! Why? Because of the lack of knowledge I had. But over time as I learned more from other people I became better.

So, nobody is just born with absolute knowledge and talent, it all takes discipline and the acquisition of knowledge. Practice makes perfect!

Thanks Alan for taking the time to share such a thoughtful comment. It’s all about the practice!

LOL! Weighing in as the person who sketched the picture accompanying this article, I totally believe in skill and have beef with talent. There’s often a mystique presented by skill sets an individual does not posses.

ha awesome Whitney! Thanks for chiming in here 🙂 I totally agree re: mystique people feel about skills we don’t understand or possess.

I want to do art for the money hoping my skills will develop. I know this sounds funny. I do not think this is the way any goal should begin, however, one should start somewhere with something in mind. I believe my reasoning has nothing to do with talent or skill or wanting to produce wonderful work. In fact, I know nothing about creating art. I don’t think the art world works that way. My Veteran brother dabbled in art. He sold to judges, and lawyers, and was commissioned by certain clubs for his work but he never thought he was talented. He did attend college for about two years concentrating in art. I think his lack of total commitment led him to believe he was not talented.

Here too I think we can conflate the words talented and successful. Both words can mean very different things to different people. Thanks for sharing Lanette.

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Unleash Your Inner Artist

Essay on Art

500 words essay on art.

Each morning we see the sunshine outside and relax while some draw it to feel relaxed. Thus, you see that art is everywhere and anywhere if we look closely. In other words, everything in life is artwork. The essay on art will help us go through the importance of art and its meaning for a better understanding.

What is Art?

For as long as humanity has existed, art has been part of our lives. For many years, people have been creating and enjoying art. It expresses emotions or expression of life. It is one such creation that enables interpretation of any kind.

It is a skill that applies to music, painting, poetry, dance and more. Moreover, nature is no less than art. For instance, if nature creates something unique, it is also art. Artists use their artwork for passing along their feelings.

Thus, art and artists bring value to society and have been doing so throughout history. Art gives us an innovative way to view the world or society around us. Most important thing is that it lets us interpret it on our own individual experiences and associations.

Art is similar to live which has many definitions and examples. What is constant is that art is not perfect or does not revolve around perfection. It is something that continues growing and developing to express emotions, thoughts and human capacities.

Importance of Art

Art comes in many different forms which include audios, visuals and more. Audios comprise songs, music, poems and more whereas visuals include painting, photography, movies and more.

You will notice that we consume a lot of audio art in the form of music, songs and more. It is because they help us to relax our mind. Moreover, it also has the ability to change our mood and brighten it up.

After that, it also motivates us and strengthens our emotions. Poetries are audio arts that help the author express their feelings in writings. We also have music that requires musical instruments to create a piece of art.

Other than that, visual arts help artists communicate with the viewer. It also allows the viewer to interpret the art in their own way. Thus, it invokes a variety of emotions among us. Thus, you see how essential art is for humankind.

Without art, the world would be a dull place. Take the recent pandemic, for example, it was not the sports or news which kept us entertained but the artists. Their work of arts in the form of shows, songs, music and more added meaning to our boring lives.

Therefore, art adds happiness and colours to our lives and save us from the boring monotony of daily life.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Art

All in all, art is universal and can be found everywhere. It is not only for people who exercise work art but for those who consume it. If there were no art, we wouldn’t have been able to see the beauty in things. In other words, art helps us feel relaxed and forget about our problems.

FAQ of Essay on Art

Question 1: How can art help us?

Answer 1: Art can help us in a lot of ways. It can stimulate the release of dopamine in your bodies. This will in turn lower the feelings of depression and increase the feeling of confidence. Moreover, it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Question 2: What is the importance of art?

Answer 2: Art is essential as it covers all the developmental domains in child development. Moreover, it helps in physical development and enhancing gross and motor skills. For example, playing with dough can fine-tune your muscle control in your fingers.

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My passion for art minjeong seo, describe when and how you discovered that you were interested in art, design, writing, architecture, or the particular major to which you are applying. describe how this interest has manifested itself in your daily life..

As a young child, I always experienced awe and inspiration through art. Even twenty minutes of finger painting or dabbing emerald green petals with soap paint in the bathtub or doodling with chalk on the sidewalk reflected my passion as a young artist. Art is not only a passion for me, however, but also a talent that has molded my aesthetic character ever since my earliest childhood memories.

My mother first introduced me to the world of art. I began learning the piano at the age of six, and after the long tedious hours of practice and lessons, I am fortunate to have it as a hobby that can surround me with sonorous peace or fill the room with vivid enthusiasm. I also began taking ballet lessons during that time, along with my favorite childhood memory: splashing acrylic paint and watercolors at an art studio in Chicago. Later, I learned my second instrument, the flute, and joined the school band when I was in seventh grade. As a senior in high school, I am proud to still be part of the band. All of these artistic pursuits have allowed me to express my inner identity.

When I was in seventh grade, I began to take journalism classes and even created my own fashion magazine with a group of friends. Ann Curry was my favorite news...

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Andy Warhol: Artistic Talent Essay

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Andrew Warhol born in 1928, known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement knows as pop art. At an early age, he showed an artistic talent and studied at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology. In 1949, he moved from Pennsylvania to New York City and began a career in magazine illustration and advertising. In the sass, he gained his fame, but during the sass’s was Venn his first pop exhibits hit the galleries. Andy Whorl’s first New York solo pop exhibit was held at Eleanor Ward’s Stable Gallery in 1362.

The show included the works, Marilyn Diptych, 100 Coke Bottles, 100 Dollar Bills, and 100 soup cans. During this time period, Warhol began to create paintings of iconic American Products as well as paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor. Warhol painted a variety of paintings of the actress Marilyn Monroe after she committed suicide in 1362. He made it his goal to mass-produce his art by producing prints using the silkscreen method. He used a photograph by Gene Kormas and painted Marilyn Monomer’s paintings with one color: green, blue, yellow, and turquoise. He then silk-screened her face on top.

In this way, he created different styles and depicted many different colors. For this piece of art he expressed his attestation of morbid concepts, except for this piece, the results were astonishingly beautiful, Andy Warhol had a struggle before he became successful. In the early ass’s Warhol tried to exhibit some of his artwork, but only to be turned down, In time, he became a very successful career as a commercial illustrator, but after he became famous working as painter, filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure. He has also been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films.

As well as painting, Warhol worked in the areas of photography, drawing, and sculpture, but also a highly prolific filmmaker. Between the years 1963 and 1968, he had produced more than sixty films. Today, his work has shown in many galleries and museums like the Museum Of Modern Art. There is also a museum dedicated to him, called The Andy Warhol Museum. One would feel that Andy Warhol changed the way people looked at art. He took pieces of art and manipulated them into something so different but magnificent. Depending on one’s point of view.

Andy Warhol can e considered the greatest American artist of the second half of the 20th century. He can also be a cultural transformer. Even though he was the last of his kind to reach the galleries, he soon became better known than the artists before him. Personally, like his sense of style. It seems as if he grasped new, interesting, and different techniques. It’s unique in a way that it stands out from the rest of the other artists. He draws people?s attention by creating multiple portraits of movie stars or basing some to his art on eye-catching images. For example, gruesome car crashes and electric chairs.

His work can make people think and analyze his work in a way that completely different because of his focus on such dramatic events. That’s some of what people find interesting. Warhol doesn’t stay in the comfort zone of what the viewers are used to. Andy Warhol died in 1987 _ Soon, the Andy Warhol Foundation released its 20th Anniversary Annual Report. The Foundation still remains one of the largest grant-giving organizations for the visual arts in the US. Throughout the decades, it has become more and more clear that there had been a profound change in the culture of the art world, and that Andy Warhol was at the center Of that shift.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Beliefs — My Journey In The World of Art: Narrative

My Journey in The World of Art: Narrative

Categories: Personal Beliefs Personal Experience

About this sample

Words: 907 |

Published: Mar 18, 2021

Words: 907 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Harper Perennial.
Dissanayake, E. (2007). Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why. University of Washington Press.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. Basic Books.
Guilford, J. P. (1950). Creativity. American Psychologist, 5(9), 444-454.
Howett, C., & Pegler, M. (2015). The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising. AVA Publishing.
Lindauer, M. S. (Ed.). (2007). Aesthetics and the Art of Musical Composition in the German Enlightenment: Selected Writings of Johann Georg Sulzer and Heinrich Christoph Koch. Cambridge University Press.
Richards, R. (2007). Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Perspectives. American Psychological Association.
Sawyer, R. K. (2006). Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation. Oxford University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized. Cambridge University Press.
Winner, E. (2000). The origins and ends of giftedness. American Psychologist, 55(1), 159-169.

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A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot’s ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’

A reading of Eliot’s classic essay by Dr Oliver Tearle

‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ was first published in 1919 in the literary magazine The Egoist . It was published in two parts, in the September and December issues. The essay was written by a young American poet named T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), who had been living in London for the last few years, and who had published his first volume of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations , in 1917. You can read ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ here .

‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ (1919) sees Eliot defending the role of tradition in helping new writers to be modern. This is one of the central paradoxes of Eliot’s writing – indeed, of much modernism – that in order to move forward it often looks to the past, even more directly and more pointedly than previous poets had.

This theory of tradition also highlights Eliot’s anti-Romanticism. Unlike the Romantics’ idea of original creation and inspiration, Eliot’s concept of tradition foregrounds how important older writers are to contemporary writers: Homer and Dante are Eliot’s contemporaries because they inform his work as much as those alive in the twentieth century do.

James Joyce looked back to ancient Greek myth (the story of Odysseus) for his novel set in modern Dublin, Ulysses (1922). Ezra Pound often looked back to the troubadours and poets of the Middle Ages. H. D.’s Imagist poetry was steeped in Greek references and ideas. As Eliot puts it, ‘Some one said: “The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.” Precisely, and they are that which we know.’

In short, knowledge of writers of the past makes contemporary writers both part of that tradition and part of the contemporary scene. Eliot’s own poetry, for instance, is simultaneously in the tradition of Homer and Dante and the work of a modern poet, and it is because of his debt to Homer and Dante that he is both modern and traditional.

If this sounds like a paradox, consider how Shakespeare is often considered both a ‘timeless’ poet (‘Not of an age, but for all time’, as his friend Ben Jonson said) whose work is constantly being reinvented, but is also understood in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean social and political attitudes.

Similarly, in using Dante in his own poetry, Eliot at once makes Dante ‘modern’ and contemporary, and himself – by association – part of the wider poetic tradition.

Eliot’s essay goes on to champion impersonality over personality. That is, the poet’s personality does not matter, as it’s the poetry that s/he produces that is important. Famously, he observes: ‘Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.’

This is more or less a direct riposte to William Wordsworth’s statement (in the ‘Preface’ to Lyrical Ballads in 1800) that ‘ poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings ’. Once again, Eliot sets himself apart from such a Romantic notion of poetry. This is in keeping with his earlier argument about the importance of tradition: the poet’s personality does not matter, only how their work responds to, and fits into, the poetic tradition.

‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ is a major work in Eliot’s prose writings, and perhaps his most famous essay. The argument he puts forward (summarised above) is perhaps surprising given modernism’s association with radical departures from artistic norms and traditions. As a modernist, Eliot might be expected to reject the great ‘canon’ or tradition of poetry that had gone before him.

But no: poetry, including Eliot’s own and that of his fellow modernists, derives its distinctiveness – and even its newness – from engaging with what earlier poets have done. Indeed, it is by drawing on the work of earlier writers and, as it were, standing on the shoulders of literary giants that a new poet asserts their own voice among the crowd.

And this is why Eliot’s other key argument in ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ is relevant. The poet should not seek to be ‘original’ by disregarding tradition altogether, but by looking for minimal ways in which they can alter what has gone before and create something slightly different and fresh. And the poet should forget about expressing an individual ‘personality’ for the same reason: a poet should be plugged into the common shared tradition of poetry rather than thinking they are working alone.

Eliot’s example of Homer is pertinent here: we know nothing of the poet who wrote The Odyssey for certain, but we don’t need to. The Odyssey itself is what matters, not the man (or men – or woman!) who wrote it. Poetry should be timeless and universal, transcending the circumstances out of which it grew, and transcending the poet’s own generation and lifetime. (Eliot’s argument raises an interesting question: can self-evidently personal poetry – e.g. by confessional poets like Sylvia Plath, or Romantics like Wordsworth – not also be timeless and universal? Evidently it can, as these poets’ works have outlived the poets who wrote them.)

For Eliot, the more mature the poet, the more his mind is able to synthesise various influences and emotions to produce something varied and complex. These influences and emotions are worked into great poetry by the self: it is inaccurate to view Eliot’s essay as a critical rejection of ‘self’ altogether. If anything, he is arguing that great poetry is forged in the deeper self, rather than the surface ‘personality’ of the poet.

We might also bear in mind that Eliot knew that great poets often incorporated part of themselves into their work – he would do it himself, so that, although it would be naive to read The Waste Land as being ‘about’ Eliot’s failed marriage to his first wife, we can nevertheless see aspects of his marriage informing the poem.

And in ‘Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca’, Eliot would acknowledge that the poet of poets, Shakespeare, must have done such a thing: the Bard ‘was occupied with the struggle – which alone constitutes life for a poet – to transmute his personal and private agonies into something rich and strange, something universal and impersonal’.

For Eliot, great poets turn personal experience into impersonal poetry, but this nevertheless means that their poetry often stems from the personal. It is the poet’s task to transmute personal feelings into something more universal. Eliot is rather vague about how a poet is to do this – leaving others to ponder it at length.

Lyndall Gordon observes a curious paradox regarding Eliot in this regard, in her biography of Eliot, The Imperfect Life of T. S. Eliot . She points out that although Eliot claimed that drama was less personal than poetry, the cover of drama actually gave Eliot the freedom to expose his private crises. We might extend such an idea to the earlier work, too, and see a character like J. Alfred Prufrock, not as a stand-in for young Eliot per se , but as a Laforgue -inspired mask which Eliot could adopt in order to transmute private attitudes or emotions into something more universal. In other words, Eliot knew that the best way he could plumb the depths of his own emotions and experiences was by speaking as someone else. As Oscar Wilde said, ‘Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth.’

About T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) is regarded as one of the most important and influential poets of the twentieth century, with poems like ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (1915), The Waste Land (1922), and ‘The Hollow Men’ (1925) assuring him a place in the ‘canon’ of modernist poetry.

Modernist poets often embraced free verse, but Eliot had a more guarded view, believing that all good poetry had the ‘ghost’ of a metre behind the lines. Even in his most famous poems we can often detect the rhythms of iambic pentameter – that quintessentially English verse line – and in other respects, such as his respect for the literary tradition, Eliot is a more ‘conservative’ poet than a radical.

Nevertheless, his poetry changed the landscape of Anglophone poetry for good. Born in St Louis, Missouri in 1888, Eliot studied at Harvard and Oxford before abandoning his postgraduate studies at Oxford because he preferred the exciting literary society of London. He met a fellow American expatriate, Ezra Pound, who had already published several volumes of poetry, and Pound helped to get Eliot’s work into print. Although his first collection, Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), sold modestly (its print run of 500 copies would take five years to sell out), the publication of The Waste Land in 1922, with its picture of a post-war Europe in spiritual crisis, established him as one of the most important literary figures of his day.

He never returned to America (except to visit as a lecturer), but became an official British citizen in 1927, the same year he was confirmed into the Church of England. His last major achievement as a poet was Four Quartets (1935-42), which reflect his turn to Anglicanism. In his later years he attempted to reform English verse drama with plays like Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He died in London in 1965.

Continue to explore Eliot’s work with our short summary of Eliot’s life , our introduction to his poem The Waste Land , our exploration of what makes his poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ so ground-breaking , and our pick of the best biographies and critical studies of Eliot . If you’re studying poetry, we recommend these five helpful guides for the poetry student .

Below is a short video written and presented by Tearle, which introduces a few of the key themes of Eliot’s most famous poem, The Waste Land . It explores how Eliot’s poem puts his theory of ‘tradition’ into action through using lines from Shakespeare and classical antiquity.

Image: T. S. Eliot (picture credit: Ellie Koczela), Wikimedia Commons .

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5 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot’s ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’”

Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA .

A very interesting piece analyzing Elliot’s thoughts about poetry. Thank you.

Pingback: A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’ | Interesting Literature

Please give the bangla translation of this essay

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Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Talent Is Drawing in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

My love for drawing.

I love to draw. It is my special talent. Drawing lets me create pictures from my mind onto paper. It’s like magic, turning a blank page into a story.

Tools I Use

I use pencils, crayons, and markers to draw. Each one adds different lines and colors to my pictures. They are like my magic wands, making my ideas real.

What I Draw

I draw everything I see or imagine. Animals, trees, superheroes, and even my dreams. Each drawing tells its own tale.

Sharing My Art

I show my drawings to friends and family. Their smiles make me happy. Sharing my art is sharing a piece of me.

Drawing Makes Me Happy

When I draw, I forget all my worries. It’s just me and my imagination, dancing together on paper. It’s the best feeling ever.

250 Words Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

Drawing is my special talent. It’s like a superpower that lets me create new worlds on paper. From the moment I hold a pencil, I feel like a magician. With just a few strokes, I can draw anything from a giant dragon to a tiny ant.

Starting to Draw

I began drawing when I was very young. At first, it was just scribbles and random shapes. But soon, those shapes started to look like real things. My family and friends would smile and tell me how good my pictures were. That made me happy and encouraged me to keep going.

Practice Makes Perfect

To get better at drawing, I draw every day. It’s like playing a sport or learning an instrument; the more you do it, the better you get. I try to draw different things to improve. Sometimes I draw from real life, and other times from my imagination.

Sharing my drawings with others is the best part. When people see my art and it makes them happy or curious, it feels amazing. I love when they ask me about what I’ve drawn. It’s like sharing a piece of my mind with them.

Why Drawing Matters

Drawing is important because it is a way to express feelings without words. If I’m sad, happy, or excited, I can show it in my drawings. It’s a language that everyone can understand, no matter where they come from.

In conclusion, drawing is not just a hobby for me; it’s a way of life. It helps me see the world in a special way and share that vision with others. My talent in drawing is something I cherish and will always continue to nurture.

500 Words Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

Discovering my talent for drawing.

When I was very young, I found out that I had a special skill. This skill was not running fast or solving math problems quickly. It was drawing. I could make pictures with pencils and colors that looked like the things around me. My friends and family noticed that I could draw well. They would ask me to make pictures for them, which made me very happy.

What I Love About Drawing

Drawing is my favorite thing to do because it allows me to create my own world on paper. I can draw animals, people, trees, and even places I dream about visiting. When I draw, I feel like I am telling a story without using words. I can be sad, happy, or even angry, and my drawings will show those feelings. It’s like magic how a few lines and shades can show so much emotion.

Practicing My Talent

To get better at drawing, I practice a lot. Every day after school, I take out my sketchbook and draw something new. Sometimes I look at a picture and try to draw it exactly as it is. Other times, I use my imagination to make something completely new. I have learned that making mistakes is okay because each mistake helps me improve.

Sharing My Drawings

Sharing my drawings with others is something I really enjoy. I give my drawings to friends and family as gifts, and I love seeing their smiles when they look at my art. At school, my teachers use my drawings in the classroom, and my classmates ask me for tips on how to draw. It feels good to help others learn to draw, too.

My Dreams for the Future

I have big dreams for my drawing talent. One day, I want to be an artist or a book illustrator. I want to make books for children with my drawings, or maybe even create cartoons that people can watch on TV. I know that I have to work hard and keep practicing to make these dreams come true.

The Joy of Drawing

Drawing is not just a talent; it’s a part of who I am. It brings me joy and helps me express my feelings. Even when I am older, I know that I will still love to draw. It’s a talent that I will always be thankful for, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me in the future.

To sum it up, drawing is a special talent that I have. It lets me show my feelings, create beautiful things, and share my art with the world. By practicing every day, I am getting better and moving closer to my dreams. Drawing is not just what I do; it’s a big part of me, and I love it.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, greatest talent or skill essay examples.

Hey all! I'm working on a college essay that asks about my greatest talent or skill, but I'm struggling to figure out how to write about it without sounding too braggy. Do any of you have examples or ideas on how to approach this topic?

Hi there! It's important to strike a balance between showing off your talent or skill and maintaining a humble tone. My suggestion is to focus on telling a story or two about how you discovered your talent or skill, how you've developed it, and how it has impacted your life or the lives of others in a positive way.

By doing this, you'll give the admissions committee an inside look into your personal growth and demonstrate the significance of your talent without coming off as too braggy, as you'll be focusing on your talent's broader significance rather than just your achievements (which, remember, admissions officers will already know about from your activities list).

Here's a general framework you can follow while writing your essay:

1. Introduction - Briefly introduce your talent or skill by telling a compelling story or anecdote related to it.

2. Discovery - Describe how you discovered your talent or skill. Was it through a specific event, a class, or a hobby? Explain your personal connection to it and what motivated you to pursue it further.

3. Development - Explain how you've nurtured your talent or skill over time. Have you taken any courses or attended workshops to improve? What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them? Your resilience and hard work must be evident here.

4. Impact - Describe how your talent or skill has made a positive impact on your life or the lives of others. Have you used it to help others in some way? Have you participated in competitions, organized events, or collaborated on projects? Have you learned important things about yourself because of this talent? Mention specific examples, and detail the emotions you felt through these experiences.

5. Conclusion - Reflect on the overall importance of your talent or skill in your life and how it has shaped you as a person. Talk about your aspirations for the future and how you plan to continue developing your talent or skill in college and beyond.

Remember that a good essay is more than just a list of accomplishments - it should engage the reader and give them insight into who you are as a person. By following this framework and keeping the focus on your growth and impact, you'll be able to write a powerful essay without sounding braggy.

If you're still not sure if your approach is working, consider checking out CollegeVine's free peer essay review service, or getting a paid review by an expert college admissions advisor on CollegeVine's marketplace. Sometimes, a second set of eyes from someone who doesn't already know you is just the thing that helps you iron out the finer details of your essay.

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Band 7+: Some think that quality art can be made by anyone while others think that it requires special talent and ability. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Some believe that art ought to be left to talented professionals while others believe anyone can make worthwhile pieces. In my opinion, talent is a complex concept but its lack of clarity does not make it any less crucial.

Talent, particularly in a subjective field such as art, is indefinable. It is impossible to determine the interplay between talent and genetic predisposition, upbringing, personal qualities like perseverance, motivation, luck, and practice. Research into sports has shown the importance of genetics but that is largely because of the athletic requirements. Good hand eye coordination, superior spatial sense, and linguistic prowess may give one a talent advantage in the arts but many technically skilled artists produce lifeless, unoriginal art. There are simply too many unknowns as to what informs talent and how this translates to subjective works to make a definitive appraisal of its value.

However, let us make no mistake: talent is important for all human endeavours and art is no exception. The term itself may be hazy but there is no doubt in practice that certain individuals can create stirring masterpieces and others cannot, regardless of how much hard work they put in. A good example of this would be in music. Some bands and artists toil away for years without making much of an impression while others, like the Beatles and Mozart, were successful from a very young age. John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s lyrical gifts and understanding of melody were present for them in their early 20s and few other individuals, professional or amateur, in their entire lifetime have had the talent to reach their heights.

In conclusion, though it is difficult to define, good art requires talent. There is therapeutic value for amateurs but great art with universal appeal is the prerogative of the gifted.

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Generate a band-9 sample with your idea, overall band score, task response, coherence & cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range & accuracy, other topics:, in britain, when someone gets old they often go to live in a home with other old people where there are nurses to look after them. sometimes the government has to pay for this care. who do you think should pay for this care, the government or the family give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience..

In abroad countries, when someone gets old they like go to live in a home with old individuals where there are look after by nurses. Sometimes the authority has to remuneration for this care. I believe that family should pay for this care. Because old people earning money for their children and family. One hand, […]

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Some people think young people should be required to have full time education until they are at least 18 years old. To what extent do you agree or disagree? You should write at least 250 words.

I think that sentece or statement I have partilly agree; because I think the education is very important for the construction of the human being; but only specific subjects such as math, history, science, geography and other ones, only constrcution the humn with specif knowledge but no a human with others habilities. The fomal education […]

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It is said that, nowadays, some individuals consider that shopping is not about purchasing that is essential, similiarly, this is kind of entertainment. In this essay, I am going to delve into the pros and cons of this issue and give my own opinion. I believe that it has more positive impacts compared to negative […]

Some people think that money is the best gift to give to young people while others think other types of gifts are better for young people. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

It can be a struggle to select an appropriate gift for a young relative or the child of a friend. While some believe that money is the best type of gift, I agree with those who suggest other gifts are more suitable. Many people believe that money makes an excellent present. Proponents of this view […]

Children who are brought up in families that do not have large amounts of money are better with prepared to deal with the problems of adult life than children brought up by wealthy parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree this opinion?

It is true that, in this contemporary world, throughout this century, the role of family circumstances affects to the kids’ future life. In this essay I completely agree with this statement, whether, family condition playing the important role in children’s future lives. On the one hand, if the kids grow up in a poor family, […]

Some people believe that the aim of university education is to help graduates get better jobs. Others believe there are much wider benefits of university education for both individuals and society. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

It cannot be denied that education is a significant topic that shapes the personality of someone and determines his future which means that has a profound impact on life. University education is a continuous issue that sparks debate. Some argue that the only purpose of a university education is to improve job prospects, others believe […]

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With a rising number of artists vying for a limited number of galleries and grants, arts professionals are pivoting to careers as coaches. But can they help people profit from their talents?

A whimsical illustration shows an artist in a striped shirt and beret painting at an easel while an excited crowd seated nearby showers her with money.

By Travis Diehl

From 2005 to 2017, Paddy Johnson ran a respected art-world blog, Art F City . “Fiercely Independent,” began its tagline. But art criticism is a precarious business. She tried teaching as an adjunct, but that wasn’t much better.

Gradually, Johnson shifted to providing career counseling to artists, and helping them workshop their statements of purpose and grant applications. She realized it could be a business. In February 2021, she invited her mailing list to a webinar on the value — or not — of a fine arts degree, titled “ Is It Time to Kill the M.F.A.? ” A follow-up email included a link to “Book a free consult with our coaches.”

In May of that year, Johnson founded Netvvrk, an app-based resource for artists, with message boards, how-to guides and frequent Zoom seminars. It now has more than 900 members, most of whom pay between $49 and $87 a month.

Welcome to the vast, thorny wilderness of online artist mentoring.

With ever more artists vying for limited galleries and grants, there has been a recent flush of subscription-based, web-powered coaching and marketing programs offering advice, encouragement and feedback to creative types. This is partly a symptom of Covid, which encouraged people to embrace video calls and group chats at the same time it intensified isolation. It also reflects the growing number of midcareer artists looking for peers beyond art schools, and yearning to profit from their talents.

These groups aim to pick up where traditional art education leaves off: Artists want to know not just how to make paintings, but how to sustain a long and satisfying career.

Many of these groups’ founders were frustrated in their own careers. “I felt like a failure as a teacher and a failure as a critic,” Johnson told me. Now, rather than hustle for teaching gigs, coaches like Johnson rely on apps like Teachable and Mighty Networks to reach followers and collect dues.

The self-help genre has a reputation for selling unrealistic promises — as they say, if you want to get rich quick, write a get-rich-quick book. But, as a critic with an M.F.A., I’m a convert to one classic: Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way,” a workbook for unblocking creativity that has sold five million copies since 1992. Which left me wondering: Do the members of mentoring groups benefit as much as their gurus?

So, I signed up to mailing lists. I started a fresh Instagram account and followed every artist coach I could find, which attracted targeted ads from still more. I sat through sales pitches — like a free workshop on avoiding online art scams from a program called Milan Art that ended with an overview of their membership costs. I even signed up for two: Johnson’s Netvvrk and the Praxis Center for Aesthetic Studies , for a peek behind the paywall. And I asked more than a dozen of these groups’ members about their experiences.

These career support services range widely, from sales-focused to philosophical to pedagogical. Instagram teems with figures like Lloyd Coenen , a painter with a self-described “7-figure art career,” and Miriam Schulman , who calls herself “your curator of inspiration.” They post teasing tips on social media and sell marketing advice to aspiring Frida Kahlos and KAWSes. I passed up the Making Art Making Money School of Business, which sent potential students an excoriating email saying, “You’re not getting any younger.” Another service I sampled, Art Storefronts , described on its website as “An Exclusive Community of Growth-Minded Artists and Savvy Mentors,” will build you an online shop and help you self-promote.

Those who want a holistic approach to art can join artist-led groups dedicated to mutual support and demystifying the art world. On Netvvrk’s message boards, members experienced with galleries and graduate degrees share advice and cheer one another on. Emails from Brainard Carey and the Praxis Center address you with subject lines such as “ How Are You Nurturing Your Career In Bleak Mid-Winter? ” and “ Is Your Life Real? ”

And if you’re looking for something more personal, reminiscent of attending art school remotely, the consulting startup NewCrits promotes “a community of artists for the present” via hourlong virtual studio visits. West Street Coaching , a smaller outfit, also offers one-on-one meetings. The NYC Crit Club and its sister Canopy Program provide a mix of virtual classes, online critiques and in-person sessions at their Chelsea loft.

These groups aim to pick up where traditional art education leaves off: Artists want to know not just how to make paintings, but how to sustain a long and satisfying career. The coaches and advisers wrestle with the problem of success as an artist: What does it look like? How do you know when you have it? And can any amount of coaching, self-promotion or community get you there?

And all of them, to some degree, appeal to your vanity. They stoke that glowing kernel of a dream that says: You’re special. You’re an artist. You have something to offer — something that other people want to buy.

Hang Your Shingle

My introduction to Art Storefronts was an Instagram ad, styled like an urgent iPhone notification: “Reminder: Artists who join this week get free website setup and management for life!” A few clicks later, I was on Zoom getting a tour of one of the company’s tailored e-commerce sites.

The idea is simple: Artists upload high-resolution images of their work. A fulfillment center prints and ships editions direct to consumers, at different sizes, on materials that range from wall-mounted canvas and acrylic panels to yoga mats and tank tops. A.I.-powered statistical analysis tracks your potential buyers; a marketing calendar maps your social media strategy. The bespectacled sales representative showed me a summary of one artist’s yearly take: over $80,000. If I signed up in the next few hours, he said — at $1,699 upfront for the basic Bronze membership tier, plus $50 a month for the web store — they’d build my site for me. And I’d begin, supposedly, collecting cash.

Art Storefronts debuted in 2013. It now has 14,000 members. Nick Friend , the company’s chief executive and founder, graduated from U.S.C.’s Marshall School of Business. He developed the idea for Art Storefronts after starting a company that manufactures fine art papers and canvas.

As the Art Storefronts website puts it, “Selling art? Marketing is all that matters. ”

From the moment I surrendered my contact information, I sustained their hard sell: emails and text messages dangling one of a few dwindling slots in their latest limited promotion. Other emails promised further walk-throughs with satisfied Art Storefronts customers.

“I’ve noticed now so many ads, these videos, you know: Artists, I can help you make $500,000 and blah, blah, blah. And that’s always the promise,” said Karen Hutton, an accomplished landscape and travel photographer. She sells multiples through an Art Storefronts website, but that’s just one piece of a successful career. “I have a vision for what I want my business to be,” she told me. “Their business education doesn’t align with that. And that’s fine because it aligns with other people.”

Ideally, says one testosterone-laced Art Storefronts podcast episode from 2017 (removed from their website in the last several weeks), prospective members are encouraged to pass what they call the “Does My Art Suck?” test by selling their art, offline, to a stranger.

Friend told me that 20 percent of new members haven’t sold art before. Art Storefronts seemed ready to take my money, too — one marketing email said that my art had “randomly caught” a rep’s eye. But I hadn’t shown anyone any.

Telling Artists Everything

While Art Storefronts encourages artists to act like small-business owners, and think of art as “product”— one member, for example, describes scoring a coveted licensing deal with the University of Kansas — Brainard Carey, an artist and director of the online Praxis Center for Aesthetic Studies, argues that “artists aren’t entrepreneurs.”

“If they were entrepreneurs, then as soon as something didn’t work, they’d move to something else,” Carey told me. Instead, they make art for “the weirdest reason in the world”: because they want to see it.

Carey founded the Praxis Center in 2016. Today, the online group claims 1,800 members and charges between $33 and $59 a month. With his warm voice and shaved head, and seven how-to books to his name, he’s the picture of a guru. When I took the Praxis plunge, asking for help getting grants, I got a personalized welcome video within a few hours.

The Praxis Center grew from a collective comprising Carey and his wife, Delia Bajo, also an artist. His sales pitch hinges on the duo’s participation in the Whitney Biennial of 2002 (a performance that involved washing visitors’ feet and giving them bandages and hugs). People started asking them how they got in. “Unlike what we encountered,” Carey said, “which is, you know, people holding their cards close to their chest in terms of how they made their way in the art world, we began telling them everything.”

The promotional emails come thick and fast, suggesting that you’ll ‘get the shows, residencies, and grants of your dreams.’ Does that bring the awkward tang of false promises?

Their basic method: Ask. Ask for meetings, then shows. Heck, ask for money. Go to the donor wall of a museum, Carey advises in one members-only video, and take names. In his 2011 book “Making It in the Art World,” Carey describes how he mailed cryptic packages of work samples to four Whitney Biennial organizers, which scored Praxis an interview.

If you want to set up an online store or get a Guggenheim grant, says Carey, he can help. Another draw is the weekly series of invited curators, whose emails are added to a growing list.

Karin Campbell, a curator of contemporary art at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Neb., was a recent guest. A few Praxis artists have emailed her. That said, Campbell told me, conversations don’t necessarily lead to shows. For both artists and curators, “sometimes it’s just about communing.”

Pivoting to Community

Brad Troemel found success in the early 2000s as a Post-Internet artist and conceptual sculptor; now he keeps a safe distance from the art world, writing video essays critiquing culture that are delivered to his paying subscribers on Patreon, an online publishing platform.

In a 2022 video with nearly 8,000 views on YouTube, Troemel breaks down hustle culture , embodied in rise-and-grind memes about working hard. The ultimate goal, in his analysis, is “to get you to proudly embrace your own exploitation.” During the pandemic, he says, the nature of the hustle shifted from a kind of motivational sloganeering to online groups sold as “communities.” Troemel points to NFTs and meme stocks as examples. Art coaching groups often promote fellowship, too.

Even the fanciest M.F.A. program can finesse the fact that surviving the mental, spiritual and financial doldrums of a long career requires devoted friends. Netvvrk, with Paddy Johnson as its red-haired figurehead, emphasizes — well, networking.

“The art industry is messed up,” reads the Netvvrk homepage, using an expletive. “Let’s beat the system together.”

Jonathan Herbert, an artist who says he went tagging with Basquiat and now resides in Sarasota, Fla., is active in Netvvrk and Praxis Center, and speaks fondly of both. “I remember the day of finding a great grant and not wanting to tell anybody, because God knows one more person applying would really screw my chances up,” Herbert said. But Netvvrk users freely share open calls in the Opportunities section.

Herbert recalled needing a recommendation letter on short notice. Another Netvvrk member, B. Quinn, wrote him one. (When I interviewed Quinn, she shared the same story, unprompted.)

Yet even with Netvvrk, the promotional emails come thick and fast, suggesting that you’ll “get the shows, residencies, and grants of your dreams.” Does that bring the awkward tang of false promises?

“What we are trying to do is to make things easier for artists and also to set expectations appropriately,” Johnson said. Sure, members start out wanting to know how to get more shows and find galleries, she continued, but “those questions get answered naturally” as you focus on meeting people and making art.

Johnson has several part-time employees, including William Powhida , a New York artist known for critiquing art’s power structures in his drawings and writing. In his view, the group can help people “understand what the field looks like and how rare it is to achieve the kind of art world success that they might be seeing or reading about.”

Blame the Game, Not the Coach

Some of the coaching groups I explored meet a clear need for many of their members and founders — while seemingly reproducing some of the hierarchical business models (namely art schools) they’re trying to escape.

Amy Beecher, a former Netvvrk member with a Yale M.F.A., sees the uptick in artist coaches and career-development groups as a reflection of an increasingly professional approach to the creative life. There’s a “cringe factor” to this, she says.

“Are these programs inevitable at this moment in time,” she asked, “given the amount of people who’ve been through M.F.A. programs that sort of optimistically promise the myth of a career?”

NewCrits was founded in 2023 by another unsatisfied teacher, artist and Whitney Biennial alum, Ajay Kurian. The group is his alternative to teaching at Yale and Columbia (which he still does). “The first art school in America recently closed,” Kurian told me, referring to the San Francisco Art Institute. “I think there are many schools that are not far behind.”

NewCrits says it provides “time and attention to be fully seen.” It offers one-on-one online career counseling or virtual studio visits with “the world’s most visionary artists,” including Ser Serpas and EJ Hill (they were in the 2024 and 2022 Whitney Biennials, respectively), for $180 to $300 an hour. That’s a fraction of the price of an M.F.A., but also a fraction of the experience — studio time, campus life, group critiques. Kurian says he plans to roll out group options this fall.

Traditional art educators also cite the importance of community to a life in the arts. “Nothing takes the place of a real interaction with other working artists or your peers,” said David A. Ross, a former director of the Whitney Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and currently chair of the hybrid Art Practice M.F.A. program at the School of Visual Arts. The degree, begun 14 years ago, caters to artists with an average age of 35, many of whom have jobs and families.

He told me enrollment has been steady. “I cannot teach somebody how to make good art,” Ross said. “That has to come from inside. But you sure can help them manage a lifelong commitment to a very complicated career.”

On April 14, Johnson emailed her Netvvrk members after a “bittersweet week.” One of their own, Antonietta Grassi, had won a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. Sadly, she continued, the grant is competitive — many more members were among the 94 percent of applicants who didn’t win. “And what that means, is that you should apply again this year,” Johnson wrote. “Something will break for you. I promise!”

Art and Museums in New York City

A guide to the shows, exhibitions and artists shaping the city’s cultural landscape..

At the Museum of Modern Art, the documentary photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier honors those who turn their energies to a social good .

Jenny Holzer signboards predated by a decade the news “crawl.” At the Guggenheim she is still bending the curve: Just read the art, is the message .

The artist-turned-film director Steve McQueen finds new depths in “Bass,” an immersive environment of light and sound in Dia Beacon keyed to Black history and “where we can go from here.”

A powerful and overdue exhibition at El Museo del Barrio links Amalia Mesa-Bains’s genre-defying installations for the first time.

Looking for more art in the city? Here are the gallery shows not to miss in June .

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Essays About Art: Top 5 Examples and 9 Prompts

1. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin

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Is Art a Skill Or Talent? Breaking the Art Myth.

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Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

100 Words Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

Tools I Use

What I Draw

Sharing My Art

Drawing Makes Me Happy

250 Words Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

Starting to Draw

Practice Makes Perfect

Why Drawing Matters

500 Words Essay on My Talent Is Drawing

What I Love About Drawing

Practicing My Talent

Sharing My Drawings

My Dreams for the Future

The Joy of Drawing

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Band 7+: Some think that quality art can be made by anyone while others think that it requires special talent and ability. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Check Your Own Essay On This Topic?

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Some people think young people should be required to have full time education until they are at least 18 years old. To what extent do you agree or disagree? You should write at least 250 words.

For some people, shopping is not just about buying what is necessary, but is a form of entertainment. Do you think it is a positive or negative development?

Some people think that money is the best gift to give to young people while others think other types of gifts are better for young people. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Children who are brought up in families that do not have large amounts of money are better with prepared to deal with the problems of adult life than children brought up by wealthy parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree this opinion?

Some people believe that the aim of university education is to help graduates get better jobs. Others believe there are much wider benefits of university education for both individuals and society. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Plans & Pricing

Want to Succeed as an Artist? Click Here.

These groups aim to pick up where traditional art education leaves off: Artists want to know not just how to make paintings, but how to sustain a long and satisfying career.

Hang Your Shingle

Telling Artists Everything

The promotional emails come thick and fast, suggesting that you’ll ‘get the shows, residencies, and grants of your dreams.’ Does that bring the awkward tang of false promises?

Pivoting to Community

Blame the Game, Not the Coach

Art and Museums in New York City

My Talents and Skills

In Conclusion

Related Essays