This is the second post of the Drawing Less Wrong mini sequence, in which I discuss how to draw, how learning to draw *effectively* relates to rationality, and what the initial results were when I started running a drawing workshop, teaching people with essentially no experience.

Information here is a combination of lessons I've learned from numerous art teachers who all agree with each other, and some of my own observations that I'm pretty confident about. When I talk about "how the brain does things" I'm using a mix of folk psychology and guesses based on my limited knowledge of neuroscience, which may not be technically accurate but should be sufficient to make useful predictions.

The Nature of Talent:

"Am I talented enough to draw?"

This is a question people think about a lot. It's a wrong question.

Here are a few related, relevant "right" questions:

Do you have pre-existing skills that can be repurposed for drawing?
How quickly are you able to acquire skills relevant to drawing?
Do you naturally enjoy drawing?
If not, can you easily BECOME the sort of person who naturally enjoys drawing?
WHY and WHAT do you want to be able to draw?
How well do you want to be able to draw? How much do you value being able to draw that well?
How many hours of dedicated practice are you willing to put in to achieve this?

"Talent" is a real thing, but it doesn't mean what most people think it does. It's not a magical attribute you either have or don't. It's not an absolute cap on how good you're allowed to get. Talent is two different things:

How much you naturally enjoy doing something (This is most important, and fortunately I think this is fairly easy to re-wire, though it does take effort and requires some environmental factors)
How good you are at improving at something. Think of this as a "talent coefficient."

The Intrinsic Enjoyment/Improvement-Coefficient model of Talent is simplified, but like folk psychology, it's a useful way to make some predictions.[1] If you have a talent coefficient of 1 (average), and you put in 4 hours of practice, you'll get 4 hours of "effective practice." If your talent coefficient is 1.5, you'd get 6 effective hours. If your talent coefficient is .5, you'll get 2 effective hours.

And if you enjoy doing something, you will do ...