Drawabox is rigorous. It is composed of structured exercises, and it involves a lot of work. Some students gravitate towards this kind of course, seeing the structure as something that can hold their hand and tell them exactly what to do until one day, they're "ready" to draw the things they want.

I have seen countless students who shy away from drawing outside of the structure of a lesson plan, who feel that every moment spent drawing should be devoted to the improvement of their skills. They insist to themselves that they are not ready to draw those characters that interest them, to design those robots, or to paint those complicated scenes. They feel they have so much more to learn before they can even attempt it. Many of these students burn out on their own, but those who are able to push themselves all the way through find themselves at the end still feeling the same - like they are far from ready.

This mindset is common because we usually seek out a resource like this after attempting to draw something and having it come out badly. "I cannot draw," we tell ourselves. Some of us shrug and try something else instead. Others might face this failure however, and think, "I can find someone to teach me." While this latter mentality is certainly better, the overall focus on the result of our drawings is the biggest problem. As small children, this did not hold us back - we didn't focus on the end result, because we didn't know good from bad. We drew because it was fun. Somewhere along the line, we all forgot how to find it fun, especially when all we could show for it was that crappy drawing at the end.

Fortunately, we can learn to enjoy drawing again, but it's not an easy thing to do. It requires us to shift our focus from the result to the experience - to truly accept that when you say "I can't draw that," what you really mean is "I can't draw that well." There is absolutely nothing wrong with drawing badly. If you're afraid the thing you want to draw is out of your reach, draw it anyway. Even if - and ESPECIALLY if - you hate how it comes out.

The most important point I can make here is this: Doing something badly does not define who you are. It doesn't say anything about you as a person, and it is not the basis upon which you can reasonably be judged.

On the Drawabox Discord Chat, we actually have a channel devoted to all the times we've drawn something, and it's come out badly. #well-that-went-poorly is a channel devoted to celebrating the fact that we've drawn something, rather than staring paralyzed at a blank canvas. The channel itself deletes any messages so people can't give each other encouragement or feedback, because that's not the point. We know the drawing came out badly, but we're glad that we drew it anyway.