BTW: I can draw cartoons but not fine art. I could do it if it was "life or death" but it would come out looking like an eighth grade class project. I think it's because of a mental block. Cartoons don't have to be "perfect" but an artistic sketch does. I never drew anything more than cartoons so I never developed the skills beyond that.
There seems to be a cultural war on drawing. Just about everyone thinks that he/she can't draw. That attitude is, I believe, a result of training. There is this mythology about "talent" which is supposed to be a gift of your fairy godmother. Do you have a fairy godmother? I don't. If you can write your name, you can (and do) draw. And there is no difference between "cartooning" and "fine art". Drawing is drawing. Making marks.
In my history, I was energized as an aspiring artist as a freshman in college by a very charismatic but controversial professor. A calligrapher, he taught an art history class, in which he managed to slant just about any topic toward Zen Buddhism (he was also the mentor of the poets Gary Snyder and Phillip Whalen). He stimulated an amazing amount of enthusiasm in his students, and I was no exception.
In studying ancient Chinese paintings, I became captivated by the capacity of those works to bring form out of the void, where the raw silk with no paint at all contained what seemed to me, to be incredible power.
I spoke with him about what I felt was my need to practice art, and my frustration with my conviction that "I can't draw". He advised that I could practice art, but due to the fact that I would be in competition with others who had been practicing since infancy, while I had not, it might not be really wise to set my sights on making my living doing it. He suggested art history as a profession.
Incidentally, his observation was right on. My daughter, whose parents were both artists and who was herself a practicing artist from the moment she could hold anything in her hand and move it consciously, showed her portfolio to the recruiter for Cooper Union. They were very aggressive in convincing her to go there. It is a very hard school to get into for most people. Free art school in New York City?
Then, discovering photography, I recognized that maybe I could achieve my goals after all, and I learned with a camera, film, and darkroom provided by my stepfather. However, still feeling the need to overcome my "inability" to draw, etc., I went to art school, also.
My involvement with color began when I got a job as a color printer. I got to like color on my own, but it still has a taste of servility for me. I was chained to hot Chromegas for a long time, and it left its mark on me. But, with Black/white, I still am pursuing that same compelling vision that drew me so powerfully back in 1964. I have never felt the same about color; for me, it lacks the potential for realizing that vision, which really does seem to be in the province of black and white, whether it is pigment or silver. Whether it is hand produced or resultant of optics seems not to matter much.
ADD: I'm supposed to be extremely ADD myself, and I know a lot of artists - photographers and others, too - who are. It's one of those fields where in some ways, it may actually help! However, it sure doesn't help pay the rent. Anyone who can make a living as an artist does so by sustaining focus and directing a lot of attention to the business of selling, which is not a forte of the ADD person. I'm no good at it. I seem to repel money.
