My Predicament

[Dragor]

Sorry, thought I'd blow off some steam about something I think about a lot, but never more so than now. Bear with me.

Since I've been young, I've loved art of all kinds. Statues, sculpting, paintings- you name it, I like it. I could probably talk at certain length about it. One of my major failings (probably my biggest next to my lack of maths skills) is that I cannot draw to save my life. I've tried since I was around... 4, and have never pulled off a decent picture.

You see, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. If I have done something which is good by my standards, I'll be proud of it for about five minutes. Then I'll notice something which I think is a mistake, rub it out, and try again. That just makes things worse. Then my frustration builds and I angrily screw up the paper and hurl it in the bin.

My Mum is a good artist, however. And I've always wanted to ask her, especially, if she could teach me how to draw people. It always wrenches my heart when I cannot find the words to describe my character, or do not want to seem high and mighty or simply down right strange with how much detail I will go to in an RPG. These characters, to me, are a part of my creativity, and I treasure them. However, my Mum already thinks I'm a bit strange (due in no small part to my quite large geekiness) and if I asked her to teach me how to draw for the benefit of D&D, I'd feel incredibly awkward.

I also have an outrageous temper when it comes to learning things. I don't know why, but it applies to Art more than anything. I guess my inner child is annoyed that I can't take the fast track to being able to draw. I was particuarly put off by my Art teacher when I was... 10, I think. I can't remember what we were doing, but she was going around the class checking everyones work. Pretty much everyone in the class was average or brilliant at Art, except me. Then she came to my desk, pulled down her glasses, and looked at my work.

"Thomas, you haven't even tried."

I'd tried my hardest, I really had. While I hadn't poured my heart and soul into it, by my standards it was a good piece of work.

I stammered out a reply that I'd tried my hardest.

Then she simply uttered, "No."

After that I think I strung together a series of rude words at her and got sent to the headteacher for misbehaving.

After coming back to this again, I'm coming to the conclusion that maybe I'm still scared of my lack of talent; drawing, more than anything, is a skill I'd love to have. Just to be able to put my imagination onto a piece of paper and be proud that that is my minds creation, my representation of a part of creativity. More than anything, it'd be useful to my fellow players to visualise my character.

So... there you have it. What can I do? Should I ask my Mum at risk of embarassing myself, or is there another way?

Thanks for listening,

Tom/Dragor

[Tragic_Comedian]

You don't have to tell her it's for D&D. Just tell her you'd like to learn to draw/ And no offense meant, but mothers really shouldn't think you are strange. I mean, we all have our little quirks, y'know?

[Thufir]

Disagree. Mothers should think you're strange because a) You are (So is everyone else though), and b) The older generation is meant to not understand the quirks of their successors.

But, yeah, just ask her without mentioning D&D if you're going to ask. Particularly since from what you've said, that's not the only reason you want to learn to draw better, just a reason.
Incidentally, I sympathise. I often wish I could draw better, because not only can I not get drawings to look like the image in my head, I can't even get them to look at all good. Partly because of being a perfectionist, similar to how you described. It's really annoying sometimes.
And your Art teacher sounds to me like she fully deserved a few rude words.

[Dragor]

You don't have to tell her it's for D&D. Just tell her you'd like to learn to draw/ And no offense meant, but mothers really shouldn't think you are strange. I mean, we all have our little quirks, y'know?

I was kinda worried that I'd not end up learning the little tweaks of adding that fantastical touch. Thinking about it, that could be okay- learning the fundamentals of drawing a humanoid figure and then just adding little details.

I'm also afraid that my bad temper will boil over if I get something wrong, and that I'll give a bad impression to my Mum- after all, it'll look like I'm whining and moaning about something I chose to do.

Also, my Mum probably doesn't think I'm strange, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration. I don't think she 'gets' the whole thing, though.

Thanks, Thufir. I can say she thoroughly did (although I felt bad afterwards.)

[happyturtle]

Your mum already knows you have a bad temper, and loves you anyway. Mums are good that way.

A good part of your insecurity about art is probably that experience with the horrible teacher. So you should totally tell her (in your head, or post it on here) that she may have been good at art, but she totally sucked at teaching, which was her actual job. And go back in your head and tell little Dragor that you know he was trying, and not to give up.

[Dragor]

Your mum already knows you have a bad temper, and loves you anyway. Mums are good that way.

A good part of your insecurity about art is probably that experience with the horrible teacher. So you should totally tell her (in your head, or post it on here) that she may have been good at art, but she totally sucked at teaching, which was her actual job. And go back in your head and tell little Dragor that you know he was trying, and not to give up.

Thanks, happyturtle. That made me smile.

Tell you what- I'll ask her if she's free tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. Here's hoping I don't bottle it? Fingers crossed.

--EDIT--

Well, I haven't asked her yet, because there's been a lot of arguing between her and my eldest brother. Erk. Also spent a lot of time packaging my PC to have it sent off to be repaired- it didn't help that our box was too small. We had to improvise a lot.

I'll ask her tomorrow, hopefully.