I Can’t Draw

People often tell me they can't be creative because they can't draw but I call bullshit! Just because you can't draw, doesn't mean you are not creative. Just because you can't draw, doesn't mean you can't design. Just because you can't draw, doesn't mean you can't learn it.

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We can be creative in many ways. This might manifest itself in cooking, baking, decorating your house or any other task that requires coming up with a concept and goes as far as drawing, illustrating, designing or animating.

Misconceptions

People often think you need to have talent to be a brilliant artist. Similar to how they think you need to be able to draw to be creative.

Opinions differ on this theory, even within the creative community but I believe that creativity and design thinking can be learned. Just like you get better at a sport by continuing to play it, you can become what many perceive as talented, by continuing to work on your craft.

Gray circle with offset dark blue ring holding one light blue and multiple dark blue dot inside — _{Scene from Cyber Security Video with Andy}
_{Design by Sonja Geracsek
Illustration by unDraw}

Inherent talent might assist you in perfecting your craft faster than someone who needs to start from scratch but I strongly believe that talent only gives you a time advantage. Anyone can become a proficient artist, if in the realm of illustration, design or otherwise. It’s about how much time and effort you put into it.

Gray circle with offset dark blue ring holding one light blue and multiple dark blue dot inside, title "collection", folder in centre, files moving into folder — _{Scene from Cyber Security Video with Andy}
_{Design by Sonja Geracsek
Illustration by unDraw}

Imposter Syndrome

For the longest time, I haven’t thought of myself as an illustrator. Because many motion designers illustrate their own animations, I always felt inadequate, since I only animated my work.

I even went so far as to call myself a motion animator at times, since I didn’t fit the mold of a motion designer, nor that of an animator.

Sure, I could produce rough storyboards or create an acceptable sketch in a live drawing class but that didn’t make me an artist or give me the right to say I could draw, right? Wrong! I may not have been able to draw well or as good as someone at a more advanced level but the mere fact that I was learning the craft and practicing it meant I could do it and, more importantly, become better at it.

The Turning Point

I especially exprienced the power of learning by doing through the collaboration series with Andy, where I help him design, illustrate and animate his cyber security explainer video. There I was, designing a whole storyboard for an eight minute long animation. I finally started gaining confidence in calling myself an illustrator.

Gray circle with offset dark blue ring holding one light blue and multiple dark blue dot inside, target on one of outer dots, — _{Scene from Cyber Security Video with Andy}
_{Design by Sonja Geracsek
Illustration by unDraw}

So remember, just because you can’t do a thing now, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to do it, if you tried. Practice makes perfect and any craft can be learned.

What is something you thought you could never do and learned to be good at?

Speak soon,

– Sonja

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Great explained tips that every motion designer should know. Thank you :)

Great teaching style; very clear and thorough. Some very high level best practice advice in here too. Looking forward to the other two lessons in this series and the other classes by Sonja.

Great tips which can shorten the path for beginners to become faster animators.

Learned loads of helpful tips and tricks to make my workflow much more efficient - thank you!

This teacher is one of the reasons to use Skillshare!

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Great contents and value in your channel ! ;) I have to recover the old streams on the motion side !

Love your stuff! I would love to see some short-form video content from you in the vein of tutorials or showcasing your workflow.

I love what you do.

Really enjoying these live streams!

Really cool to be learning new things watching you Sonja. Keep it up!

Thanks for sharing! It's so great to see other people's workflows, and that tip about the multiple passes to get the hand-drawn effect is really helpful!

Thanks for the Stream. Good work, as always. It is a lot of work just for the setup of the animation.

That was a nice process to watch! Thanks for sharing.

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