The All American Drawing Book - How to Teach and Learn Drawing | How do you Learn to Draw | Drawing Lessons (The Secrets of Drawing 11)

Many are deterred from attempting the art of Drawing, from an idea that they lack capacity, or, what the world calls genius. But have they ever made the attempt ? Let them recall to mind their first steps in knowledge of every kind, and judge not unfairly of their capacity, until they have tried this also. Before they knew their A, B, C, they could tell a man from a dog, by the picture. The impressions of form are the first made on the infant mind; and were it taught, betimes, to trace these impressions on a slate, there would be few in the world incapable of speaking the language of Design. The untaught savage thus records the story of his battles; as the traditions of his fathers have come down to him from generation to generation. He directs the traveler on his way, by marks in the sand; tells him, by his rude outline, of mount runs and rivers to be passed ; and no one can mistake his meaning. Who is there, in civilized life, that may have been familiar with works of art from childhood, that cannot do this? If he can, he can do more. He possesses the germ within him, and needs only proper cultivation, to bring it forth.