In my late teens, I had an incredibly dramatic change of talent, one day, all of a sudden, unexpectedly.

And this was my first and last attempt at drawing faces, in my late teens before I gave up.

It was for an assignment, and I was mortified.

But then i had this magazine clipping that I was somehow absolutely attached to, but no idea what the heck to do with it.

So I decided just to draw it.

I stared at every detail, I ignored every negative thought, and I paid attention to what I loved about it.

And suddenly I had drawn something that wasn't mortifying.

This seemed like a complete fluke.

But I kept drawing.

That horrible feeling of dread, those thoughts in my head that said I couldn't do it lost a hell of a lot of power.

I tried another magazine clipping.

It came out better and way worse!

So I tried first doing and imprint trace of the outlines to know where things went.

Way better, but I felt very dishonest.

My Art teacher (who was not a nice person) insisted that after seeing the only 4 portraits I'd ever done in my life, drawing off of images was way to easy, and a waste of time. She didn't want to see anymore.

She demanded I draw from real life.

This Terrified me but I found a few classmates who did want me to draw them and I started trying.

Even when it started very uncomfortable rumors after having a super popular guy over to my house to sit in the worst awkward silence possible, for and eternity, while I sketched my terrified heart out.

My bored-in-class doodles turned into a repetitive obsession: always an eye, which then needed at partner... which evolved into a face.

On vacation I found my niece out on the balcony in the middle of the night, and blew my own mind that I was able to capture what I saw.

But I always went back to portraits.

I love to draw portraits the most.

There is something about the eyes.

the nose, mouth, face naturally follow.

Life moved on and my sketchbooks got packed away.

Until I discovered Reddit Gets Drawn during a few months of bedridden chronic illness.

I've always found it...

unbelieveable

how quickly I went from completely positive that I was not at all able to draw to suddenly drawing portraits that blew my own mind.

But ever since, I've understood that it's the mastery of the part of my brain that gets anxious, discouraged, and quits before I've managed to turn what I'm working on into something I'm proud of.

It wasn't a teacher, it wasn't something external, it was my own determination to create something beautiful out of something I loved.

I'll never stop learning, and I'll probably always be drawn to the human face...

But I do wish I had silimar talents for other things....

Like....

Could someone please teach me how to draw a damned cat?