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Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would one day publish my drawing. But here it is. (Sorry, drawing not up-loaded yet.)
One of the drawings on this page is a sketch by Picasso of the composer, Igor Stravinksy. The other is my copy of it. Do I need to tell you which is the original and which is my copy? If I may humbly say so, I did quite a good job of it.
Most people, when they see this sketch, would say that I have a talent for drawing.
Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that everyone of us has the talent. All of us can draw. But no, I never knew until recently that I had this "talent".
I used to cry during art class when I was a child in school. I hated drawing because "I could not draw".
When I grew up, I even gave myself a reason why I could not draw: I had poor hand-eye coordination (for example, I have difficulty catching a ball) because I grew up with poor health.
That was nonsense. It was a lousy excuse. The fact that previously I could not draw has nothing to do with hand-eye coordination. It has nothing to do with my health.
The real reason was that I believed that I could not draw. For more than 41 years, I had been telling myself that I could not draw. So naturally, I could not.
When I changed my belief, however, I discovered that I could draw after all. You, too, can also draw once you believe that you can.
This is not just about drawing, but about anything and everything else that you might want to do. Want to run a marathon? Write a book? Become a good cook? Learn many languages? Become a millionaire?
Whatever it is that you want, you will be able to achieve. You want to recover from cancer even when you have reached the "advanced stage"?
Miracles
If you really, really want to, you can. You will. You can achieve the impossible, you can have "miracles" happen. You need only to meet two conditions:
That was how I learnt to draw. I started by wanting to draw.
While on holiday in Bali, I did a reflection on things that I would like to do in my life. I had quite a long list and most of the things I am already doing, which means I am quite satisfied with my life as it is.
There was one thing I hadn't done, however. I wanted to be able to draw.
I don't think it was even a very strong desire. It was not that I would be unhappy and miserable if I did not learn to draw. But the desire was there. And it was more than just wishfully thinking, "I wish I could draw." It was a real desire.
Once that desire was clarified, things started to happen. Uncanny coincidences occured and everything fell into place.
By chance, I could not even remember how it happened, I was talking to my friend Chong Hak about this. Or was it by chance, Chong Hak faxed me a drawing that he did. I cannot remember exactly.
The important thing was this: Chong Hak told me that he recently started learning how to draw, and in two weeks he could do life-like facial drawings. He faxed me the proof.
Right Brain
This was crucial. He convinced me that it was possible. That enabled me to change my mental programing. After 41 years, I stopped telling myself that I cannot draw. Instead, I told myself that if Chong Hak could, so could I.
Chong Hak learnt it from a book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, which he bought long ago. In fact, he bought it from my shop, Brown Rice Paradise.
In fact, I was the one who ordered the book and sold it at my organic and natural foods shop. This suggests that, even back then, I already wanted to learn how to draw. Only I did not express this desire until recently.
To cut a long story short, I borrowed the book from Chong Hak and started to learn how to draw. Or rather, as the book puts it, I learnt how to see.
I had time to do the exercises in the book when I accompanied my wife to an Asean meeting in Northeast Thailand, since there was nothing much else to do there.
That was it. The drawing published here was just the second exercise in the book. In just two lessons, I could copy a Piccaso sketch quite accurately.
The point of writing about this is not to boast that I can draw. I still cannot do realistic drawings of human faces because I have not gone further than lesson three or four of the book. When I want to, I will. Meanwhile, Chong Hak has.
Being able to draw is nothing to boast about because everyone can do it. You can do it if you discover the right techniques. And you will discover the right techniques if you truly want to learn.
When you are ready, your teacher will appear.
I am sharing this with you partly because I felt such a great thrill when I discovered that I could draw.
Also, I wish to add that I learnt a lot more than just drawing. I learnt much about the workings of the brain, about left-brain and right-brain functions, about how and why we lose track of time when we are engrossed with something that we really enjoy… And I had fun.
As I mentioned earlier, the more important lesson from this episode is not about drawing. It is about being able to do the things that you really, really want to do.
Anything. Just name it.