I’ve tried to teach myself visual art many times in my adult life, and every time after only a few weeks, I’ll abandon whatever new pen or sketchbook I thought would make the difference this time. I’ve always been partial to art styles used in American and Japanese comics, so in most of my previous attempts, I would find comic panels that I liked and try to replicate them. I’d get started, practice for a few days and then find myself frustrated with how my art looked nothing like the art in all of my favorite series. My current go at visual art, however, has gone a lot better because instead of trying to copy another artist’s style, I’m, quite simply, learning to use my goddamn eyes.
My consistent problem in visual art only became clear to me when I stumbled across the insight that many art teachers dislike comics and manga because they can inspire people to skip ahead on their artistic journeys. I wanted to make heavily stylized work, so I assumed I could start by imitating stylized work. But I failed to appreciate the ability that all my favorite artists had likely mastered to perceive and then interpret real-life.
The manga artist Keisuke Itagaki of the martial arts series Grappler Baki has a somewhat infamously whacky art style. He draws exaggerated musculature that can be arguably grotesque to look at. But it is also undeniable that he has a deep understanding of anatomy and gesture. He can achieve such a zany style because he intimately knows how real-life bodies function and can expertly replicate, interpret, and exaggerate.
I’m sure this all sounds obvious to anyone who has done visual art for a while. But even though I had learned similar lessons in writing, it didn’t click for me that I needed to first focus on my ability to use my eyes to take in information. Right alongside discussing how to hold a pen, the first lesson artist Taylor J. F. Payton teaches in his beginner drawing course is the importance of training your eye to see real-life objects for their most basic shapes. Don’t know how to draw a chair? Doesn’t matter. Look at the chair in front of you, break it down into basic shapes, and draw what is there in front of you. If you throw away the idea of how you are supposed to draw a chair, suddenly you can learn to draw what is actually there.
In the writing world, if you have ever heard the phrase “write what you know,” it refers to a similar concept. It means that the writer needs to imbue their genuine, real-life observations into their work. But what new writers often run into is similar to what I experienced in my prior attempts at learning visual art. Young writers may lift elements from their favorite stories and become frustrated that their version is not as good. That is because when you replicate words without imbuing your own insight, you get further and further away from real life.
If you have ever seen a movie and thought, “People don’t actually talk like that.” You are possibly witnessing the results of this disconnect from reality.
It’s like a long game of telephone. For example, Author Axolotl observes the natural world and writes a meaningful piece of dialogue with those observations imbued. Little Rat observes that dialogue and writes something inspired by it. Then you, Writer Big Frog, observe Little Rat’s dialogue, and by this point, you aren’t mirroring real life. You are mirroring a mirror of a mirror of real life. The result is often generic and void of meaning.
When you replicate words without imbuing your own insight, you get further and further away from real life.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being directly inspired by the lines of authors you love—it is a great thing and a massive part of the writing process. But the writer also needs to focus on developing how they process the world.
Listen to the way people talk. Listen to the way you talk. Transcribe precisely what you hear. Don’t worry about what writing is supposed to look like. Learn how your inner voice processes ideas and start getting comfortable with what stands out to you as note-worthy. If you’re looking for a writing exercise equivalent to drawing a chair in its basic form, sit somewhere where life is happening—a park or a coffee shop, and describe your senses and thoughts exactly as they come through your mind.
With care,
Jade
Subscribe for just $5 a month to double the newsletters you receive! Thank you for all of the support.
Thank you to ma, Ashen, and Chloe for edits and feedback on this letter!