"TALENT"

All to often I rankle the feathers of many of my co-industry nerds.
How?
Well, when I say that 'talent' for the most part.....is a myth.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Now how often will you hear that?? Not very often I'm guessing. Especially from any industry goof. Pick your art industry. But I'm here to tell you that its true.--again for the MOST part!
Now you'll have those freaks of nature like Mozart who came out of his momma playing his umbilical cord. But for the most part, Its all learned.
There isn't a damn thing that CANT be learned. I can't tell you how many times someone has seen something that I've done, be it a painting, be it animation, be it a storyboard, be it sculpture, be it character design, be it a drawing, and have said "Gosh oh golly, I wish I could draw." To which I ALWAYS reply;
"You CAN".
Now the reason this irks so many of my fellow 'artists', is because this obviously takes the mystery out of it. It takes the cosmic power out of it. And therefore plays to their insecurities and of course is a threat to their all too precious ego's.
"But Handel!! If that's the case, why doesn't EVERYONE draw or paint?"
Fair enough question. The answer is, not everyone is 1) disciplined enough to sit down and commit the HOURS and HOURS that it takes to DO a good drawing, painting, etc.
THAT is the thing that enables the 'skill'. Not this cosmic, sexy, meaningless term 'talent'.
I have been blessed with the ability and the passion to sit down and devote the hours that turned into the years and ultimately the decades to hone this ability. As with anyone with any task: cooking, speaking in public, reading, etc.
Now, there is the component of 'degree'. To what degree do I hone it?
Someone who says "Damn it, I want to draw and I want to draw well!"-- CAN become good at it. To WHAT DEGREE depends on his passion FOR it.

NOW, some people are good at several things. I am (for lack of sounding immodest) pretty good at several art forms. I heard someone coin the phrase "creative ADD". That's me. I just have several loves. Animation, comics, illustration, character design....You name it. I dig it.
So, I've delved into ALL of them. And I'm pretty good. The problem that types like me have, is that we get bored...quickly. We get into the idea and then mid way through, something else pops into our beanies and we want to attack that rather than finish what we're on!
I cant tell you how many unfinished pictures and sketches I have laying on my studio floor. Its actually embarrassing.
Another problem that this type has, is that while we may be pretty good at just about everything, many times we are master of nothing, because our attention is soo divided, between many different projects and different art forms.
This has a tendency to be a bit frustrating. BUT! I was fortunate enough to work with an art director who (unlike many art directors) was A DAMN GOOD PAINTER. A 'Master' painter. Believe me, You would know him if I told you who he was.
And while he was able to paint his tuckus off with realistic beautiful technique illustrations, when the time came to do a cartoony stylized design ( Ala disney-for disney ), He couldn't do it!
It just wouldn't klik for him. He is quite an egotistical jack ass and He saw what I was doing with the character and the reaction that it was getting, felt insecure and wanted to try and show me up. When he sat down and struggled with it--struggled HARD, yet couldn't do it. He got frustrated and left the room. I saw what he had done on his pad, and it was just awful.
NOW! To be fair to him, Its not what he spent his life honing in on. It was alien to him. His thing was realistic painting-That's where he devoted his focus on.
IF he devoted the time to it,(cartoon design) could he do it? Sure. IF he devoted the time and was passionate about it, and could get over his ego.

Which brings me back to this point. If you want to draw, just pick up the pencil and DO it.
Don't let anyone tell you that you "cant"...... ESPECIALLY you.
When someone speaks to you about 'talent', It is their way of saying that "you can't", and keeping you at some mysterious arms length. They speak of 'talent' out of vanity.
When YOU say that you "can't", You do so out of laziness.