The Emergence of Talent
Summary
TLDRIn this reflective video, Cassin explores the concept of talent, questioning its existence and impact on artistic development. Initially believing talent was innate, Cassin later attributes skill to hard work and practice. Through personal experiences and observations, Cassin suggests that 'talented' individuals often have a history of copying art from a young age, which instills a strong visual library and intuition. The video challenges viewers to understand their strengths, practice with purpose, and develop their own talents by copying and learning from others' work. Cassin emphasizes the importance of process over results, and the joy of working in areas where one excels naturally.
Takeaways
- 🤔 The concept of 'talent' is subjective and can change over time as one's abilities and perceptions evolve.
- 🎨 Early in life, the speaker believed they were talented because they were better than their peers, but later realized talent might be more about hard work.
- 🚀 Meeting others who were naturally better at drawing led to a reevaluation of the speaker's own talent and the importance of hard work.
- 🤷♂️ The idea that talent might not exist at all was considered, as the speaker noticed people who practiced more seemed to improve more.
- 👀 Encountering individuals who had an intuitive grasp of skills, like drawing, led to a renewed belief in talent, despite an analytical mindset.
- 🧠 The speaker suggests talent might be related to physical differences in the brain, like a photographic memory, which can't be controlled.
- 🖋️ Copying art from a young age was identified as a pattern among those who seemed talented, as it helps establish a standard for comparison.
- 📈 The importance of having a reference point for improvement was highlighted, as it provides a basis for comparison and a sense of what looks right.
- 🔄 The speaker's own lack of copying as a child was recognized as a reason for not developing an intuitive sense of drawing proportions.
- 💡 Tracing can be a useful tool for learning, as it teaches about lines, angles, and curves, and helps identify personal drawing tendencies.
- 🎯 The realization that talent might be a result of early copying and practice led to the advice of copying good artists to develop one's own skills.
- 🌟 Recognizing and utilizing one's natural predispositions and strengths is key to leveraging talent and finding success in one's chosen field.
Q & A
What did the speaker initially believe about talent when they were young?
-The speaker initially believed they were talented because they drew better than the kids around them.
How did the speaker's perception of their own talent change when they entered high school?
-The speaker's perception changed when they met people in high school who drew much better than them, leading them to believe they were not talented or that their talent had run out.
What was the turning point for the speaker in reconsidering the role of talent?
-The turning point was when the speaker started working harder and noticed improvement, leading them to think that maybe talent doesn't matter and it's more about hard work.
Why did the speaker become frustrated with some people who claimed to have talent?
-The speaker became frustrated because these people couldn't explain how they did certain things and would say they 'just felt it out', which didn't align with the speaker's analytical mindset.
What is one physical difference the speaker mentions that might contribute to talent?
-The speaker mentions a possible physical difference such as a photographic memory or changes in brain function due to an accident, like being hit in the head with a baseball or struck by lightning.
What pattern did the speaker notice among people who claimed to 'just feel it out' regarding their talent?
-The speaker noticed that people who claimed to 'just feel it out' often had a history of copying drawings of art they liked at a young age.
Why did the speaker believe copying was wrong when they were young?
-The speaker believed copying was wrong because they thought it was morally or ethically wrong, similar to cheating, although they later realized this belief was flawed.
What did the speaker learn from trying to trace drawings?
-The speaker learned about making lines, especially angles or curves they were not used to, and recognized their own tendencies in drawing, such as stopping an arm too short.
Why is having a standard important for artists according to the speaker?
-Having a standard is important for artists because it provides a point of comparison to measure improvement and to know whether their work looks correct or not.
What advice does the speaker give to people who didn't copy as a child and want to improve their art?
-The speaker advises that even if you didn't copy as a child, you can still start copying now to develop a sense of what looks right and to improve your art.
What does the speaker suggest as a method to improve specific aspects of art, like drawing eyes?
-The speaker suggests copying the same element, like eyes, multiple times from different works of an artist to improve that specific aspect.
Why does the speaker argue against the 'no pain, no gain' mentality?
-The speaker argues against the 'no pain, no gain' mentality because they believe that one should enjoy the process of creating art, and it should not feel like hard work if it's something they are interested in.
Outlines
🤔 The Concept of Talent
The speaker, Cassin, initiates a discussion on the existence and nature of talent. Reflecting on personal experiences, Cassin recounts being labeled as talented in youth due to drawing skills that surpassed peers. However, upon encountering peers in high school with superior abilities, Cassin questioned the existence of talent. The narrative continues with Cassin's realization that perhaps talent is not inherent but a product of hard work. This idea is further complicated by encounters with individuals who seemed to possess an inexplicable talent, challenging Cassin's analytical mindset. The speaker concludes this paragraph by contemplating three aspects of talent: physical differences, early copying of art, and the development of intuition through practice.
🎨 The Role of Copying in Artistic Development
Cassin explores the practice of copying as a means of artistic development, challenging initial misconceptions about the morality and efficacy of copying. The speaker highlights the benefits of copying, such as establishing a standard for comparison and improving line work. Cassin shares personal experiments with tracing and the insights gained from these exercises, like recognizing personal drawing tendencies. The narrative emphasizes the importance of copying as a foundational skill, often overlooked by those who wish to draw from imagination without a reference point. The speaker suggests that those who copy from a young age develop a sense of proportion and 'rightness' in their art, which they later attribute to intuition or talent.
🚀 Leveraging Talent Through Practice
In this section, Cassin discusses how individuals who did not copy as children can still develop a sense of 'talent' through deliberate practice. The speaker addresses the misconception that drawing from imagination is inherently superior to drawing from reference, suggesting that the ease of the latter is due to having a standard to compare against. Cassin encourages the practice of drawing from imagination to improve, drawing parallels to musical composition. The narrative also touches on the idea of being process-oriented rather than results-oriented, emphasizing the importance of enjoying the act of creation over solely focusing on the end product.
🎭 Embracing Personal Talents
Cassin delves into the idea of natural predispositions and how understanding one's strengths can enhance artistic expression. The speaker shares personal experiences of struggling with tasks that did not come easily, only to find more success and enjoyment in areas that felt more natural. Cassin challenges the notion that difficulty equates to improvement, advocating for the pursuit of interests and strengths as a pathway to mastery. The narrative encourages artists to identify and utilize their innate talents, such as a natural sense of design or an ease with perspective, to find fulfillment and success in their work.
🎨 The Joy of Creation Over 'No Pain, No Gain'
Cassin refutes the 'no pain, no gain' mentality, arguing that enjoyable and engaging work leads to better results. The speaker shares personal anecdotes of spending long hours on art that felt more like fun than labor, suggesting that when one is passionate about their work, it shows in the final product. Cassin emphasizes the importance of practice versus performance, advocating for a mindset where the creation process is enjoyable and the final execution is a reflection of that practice. The narrative concludes with a call to view art as a field that, like any other, is built on understanding and leveraging one's talents and interests.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Talent
💡Hard Work
💡Intuition
💡Copying
💡Reference
💡Improvement
💡Process Oriented
💡Results Oriented
💡Anatomy
💡Predispositions
💡No Pain, No Gain
Highlights
The concept of talent is questioned and its existence debated.
Early belief in talent was challenged by meeting others with superior skills.
The realization that hard work might be more important than talent.
Talent might not exist; instead, extensive practice could be the key to skill.
Some individuals have an innate ability to perform tasks exceptionally well.
Physical differences or unusual experiences might contribute to talent.
Copying art at a young age could be a significant factor in developing talent.
The importance of having a standard to compare one's work for improvement.
Tracing can be a valuable learning tool for understanding proportions and lines.
The idea that talent might be rooted in intuition developed through copying.
The advice to copy parts of artworks to learn specific skills.
The notion that talent could be a natural predisposition to certain tasks.
The importance of finding and utilizing one's own strengths and interests.
The misconception that difficulty in creating equates to quality.
The idea that practice should be process-oriented, not solely results-oriented.
The distinction between practicing and performing in art.
The belief that art should be viewed like any other skill-based field.
The encouragement to copy and develop a standard for self-improvement.
Transcripts
[Music]
hey everyone cassin here and today I
want to talk about
talent and is it real does it exist um
when I was young I was told that I was
talented uh and I believed it because I
drew things better than the kids around
me now that doesn't mean they were good
it just means they were better than the
kids around me but uh once I got into
high school I met people who drew much
better than me and so I decided that I
must not be that talented after all or
that my talent had run out at some point
and it wasn't until many years later
that I came across this idea that maybe
it's all about hard work and it wasn't
that I wasn't tellal ented it was just
that I work uh wasn't working hard
enough and
so
I started working harder and I started
improving more um it still took a long
time but eventually I I started to think
that hey maybe talent doesn't matter at
all maybe there is no such thing as
Talent maybe it just was that uh those
people who were better than me probably
just did a lot more drawing
and then later in life
I met people who sort of made me believe
in Talent again simply because they
would do things that I don't know it
didn't make sense to me how they were
able to do it cuz I would ask them to
explain it and they couldn't really say
what they were doing they would always
say things like oh you just feel it out
and this was so frustrating to me
because I'm someone who thinks pretty
analytically so I need to understand why
something is is happening and not just
uh feel it out that that didn't mean
anything to me um but I still thought
maybe they I don't know maybe there's
Talent is still not a big deal and the
hardest thing was meeting students who
uh some students were more the way I was
it it wasn't easy for them to learn
Concepts well for me it's easy to learn
Concepts but not to apply them but uh
yeah I would meet some students who were
very I want to say talented because they
just picked up on things really
quickly
and then I met Kim jungi who just you
know if you don't believe in Talent just
look at him and you'll believe in it and
so
what I decided is okay so Talent must
exist because I see it in front of
me
but so what you know is there a way I
can understand this and I really did
want to understand especially I wanted
to
understand why people would say you just
feel it out and what that meant and
where that's coming from and I figure
there's a probably
three uh things about Talent one is that
there are people who just have a
physical difference maybe it's a
photographic memory um with Kim jungi he
mentioned that he was hit in the head at
a young age with a baseball and after
that he just kept drawing and it's
something I kind of believe cuz I heard
a story of uh some guy who got hit by
lightning and then he started playing
piano all all the time and got really
good at it but he had never he was a
doctor before something like that anyway
so there's that and that's something
that I don't think you know I mean
unless in the future we have we can take
pills or do something that you know
enhances areas of our brain um that's
something you can't control so okay put
that off to the side okay
well then there's this other thing which
is the well people who just feel it and
then I I started noticing a pattern
whenever I talk to people who had this
thing where they just say oh I just I
just feel it out they they all mentioned
that they would copy drawings of art
they liked at a young age and started to
think wait does that have anything to do
with it and uh I talked to uh jet from
the Jetty jet show and he mentioned that
um he hadn't thought about it but yeah
he did copy uh stuff from a young age
and uh I I just started encountering
more and more of these so-called
talented artists who had the same story
that when they were young they copied
stuff and I remember back to when I was
young and I did not copy anything um I
had two flawed beliefs one is that I
thought copying was somehow I don't know
morally or ethically
wrong I don't know I I I thought no
that's I don't know if it was cheating
but it just felt wrong somehow and the
other thing is that I thought well I'm
not good at copying anyway and both of
those were wrong um there's nothing
ethically or morally wrong about copying
in fact there's nothing even wrong about
tracing and this is another another Hot
Topic but I I think the problem with
tracing is when you trace
stuff that you couldn't draw for the
purpose of something to show others as
if you did you know like hey here's my
work oh that's a cool face how'd you do
that and she traced it off a photo it's
like well that's not what I think is
helpful when you trace um and I don't
trace but I did it once just to try um
few months ago I did it and what I
realized is it teaches you a lot in
terms of how to make lines especially
angles or curves that you're not used to
making um you might see someone's
artwork and you think like
well okay I would draw like a certain
thing and if you do a copy a straight up
copy um you might make the mistake that
maybe you make an arm too short or
something when it's actually much longer
but you don't you don't actually see it
whereas when you trace it while you're
tracing it if you're thinking like well
how would I draw this and then you
imagine yourself drawing it while you're
tracing it then you you hit things where
it's like oh wow I would have stopped
the arm
a long time ago okay so he makes the
arms longer or uh I would have made this
uh angle more severe but it's actually a
very gentle angle things like that
little things that I think you can uh
learn from um just a little bit of
tracing I don't even think you need to
do too much you just need to do you know
a few pages
um
and probably figure out you know okay so
these are my Tendencies I tend to do
this like this
and that was important but more
important for me was that okay well I
didn't copy at a young age I understand
why this is helpful now because people
who copy from other people at a young
age what they're doing is first of all
they have a standard and this is so
important I've uh heard people who say
they aren't improving and what I think
it is is that they're not comparing to a
standard so um for instance if I wanted
to draw a hand and I have reference of a
hand and then I draw that reference then
I have a point of comparison I know is
my hand correct does it look like the
other hand or does it not um now if I
just draw it from imagination what's my
point of reference if you've got a good
visual Library that's your point of
reference but if you don't or and and
for me it wasn't even that I didn't it
just took me so many years of drawing to
develop one
um but yeah it's a case of uh
not having a point to compare it to uh
that's probably why you're not
improving and uh that's why also you
should do many drawings of the same
thing so that you draw it once it's like
okay that's my first step try again to
improve but again you need something to
compare it to so with these people they
were
drawing uh works by artists obviously at
that time better than them and often
they would draw the work of their
favorite artists and so they're drawing
pretty highlevel stuff or at least
getting used to moving their arm
creating those shapes and uh building up
a sense of basic proportion you know
this is kind of how things look and they
draw poses that maybe someone like me
who never copied I just couldn't think
of those poses and so what happens is
later
on they develop a sense of what looks
right and what doesn't look right so
when they draw and uh they're making a
drawing and and it sort of doesn't look
right they know okay well I I remember a
long time ago or even if they don't
consciously remember it they get a sense
of like yeah this should this line
should probably be here and that's what
they mean by I think I mean all this is
just me making stuff up from my brain
and uh so they get a sense of that's I
just feel it you know I don't need to
know uh or I don't need to analyze it
because I just feel where this goes and
then if someone asked them maybe they
would say well it's just intuition and
then someone from the outside might look
at that and say well they just feel
things out and they have intuition I
guess they have talent right
but understanding this
means there is a root cause of that
so-called talent and uh for someone
who's young you can take advantage of it
you can actually start practicing to
develop that simply by copying good
artists and doing it a lot so that's
what I would have told myself is when I
was young okay do that but but but but
what if you're in my situation and you
didn't copy when you're young now what
well the thing is you still can do the
same thing you still can copy now you
know um one of the things is that I
thought I couldn't copy or I wasn't good
at copying the thing is
that this is this is also the reason why
people say they can't draw from
imagination but they can draw from
reference the thing is that well when
you draw from reference of course you
have it's easier because you have
something to copy and uh you have a
standard of what you think looks right
and then when you draw from imagination
it does not meet that standard
and I used to try composing music I
still try sometimes but um I have no
formal training or pretty much any
training whatsoever so I don't know
anything but I just had fun composing
music so I would compose music uh but I
knew people who
were training to be concert pianists and
they didn't compose and it was weird to
me like wait why don't you compose you
are really good and the answer I kept
hearing was that well because my work
sounds horrible and it wasn't I it
wasn't that it sounded horrible it was
that they would Play Pieces by Beethoven
or Rak manov or deusi or pofv and it's
like okay so that is your standard and
then by
comparison their work that they do uh
from their own mind seems worse and so
they they think they're no good and
that's the same thing that happens when
you draw when you're good good at
drawing from reference and you try
imagination now what's the solution just
keep doing it just keep composing for
the composers or just keep drawing from
imagination because yeah of course of
course it's going to look worse it's
harder it's harder to do things from
imagination um it took me many years and
I still find that yeah if I draw
something and I have a
reference
um it will look better
than if I just draw things from my mind
and hopefully one day that'll turn
around but at this point it hasn't but
the reason I said I wasn't good at
copying is cuz when I would draw from
the reference and I'm just copying it
for the sake of copying I have the
reference to compare it to so I I look
at my copy and it's like well that
doesn't look as good as the
reference so I must suck at copying
instead of thinking this is my first
drawing from this reference
and this reference is from someone who's
been
drawing thousands or hundreds of
thousands of images so why would it why
would it be that good I just need to
keep copying more and more
so I think that's really important just
understanding the reality of things and
um like
why why would you expect expect
something you draw from imagination to
be as good as your things from reference
how does that make sense why would that
make sense why would that why would that
be the way it
is it isn't like it shouldn't be right
like it it's kind of obvious that no
yeah of course I should be trying more
like it's not going to look good and I
think the problem again and I brought
this up before is this idea of you have
an expectation a standard that or not a
standard you have an expectation of what
you want to produce so your goal
oriented your results oriented rather
than process oriented process oriented
means I know I'm going to improve by
doing stuff so I'm just doing it and
enjoying it and yeah it's it's not good
the next one's going to be better that's
okay you're just you're into the process
it's not the end result results oriented
is where I see the most problems and
this is how I was where I would sit down
and think I'm going to do a drawing of
whatever you know
um and then get disappointed when it did
not come out the way it was in my mind
and I don't see a problem with this I
think this is something you should do
but it's not what you judge your skill
on or your improvement on especially not
your
improvement cuz
that's not going to help you improve
fast because let's say I do one drawing
and I think I'm doing a scene in my mind
and it turns out a certain way and then
I do another drawing maybe a few days
later and it's like okay so that was two
drawing two drawings and that's not
enough to help you improve and also
you're drawing completely different
things completely different subject
matter um forget the subject matter it's
just like it's just different you're not
you don't have a reference to improve on
so what I started doing is just looking
at other artists more and copying their
Works more um but again uh advice that
jet gave me is that don't copy the whole
image for instance let's say you want to
learn how to draw or how a certain
artist draws eyes just go through all
their work and just copy the eye
and um and I would recommend to even
copy the same eyes a few times until you
get it right but let's say that's a
method you would do okay then what's
going to happen is you are going to
improve at drawing those eyes and then
you might think well okay now I'm good
at drawing these eyes but I suck at
drawing everything else well yeah so
then you tackle each issue one at a time
and that's also the way I think it
helped me to learn Anatomy because if
you if you look at an anatomy book and
and I heard people who or I heard of
people who would uh simply open up the
book and just copy every single image
from front to back and they said this
helped them learn Anatomy now I'm pretty
sure all of those people were the same
people who copied things from a young
age like they've already developed that
talent and if you find you're good at
drawing and things come easy to you
maybe you can actually write in the
comments if that is the case like cuz
I'm I'm open to being wrong I just have
this feeling that I think most people
who are uh you know really good at a
later age probably started copying from
things at a young age and and when I say
good I don't mean I mean kind of scary
good you know like cuz there's good and
I was as I as I said before I was I
thought I was talented people said I was
good but it's like yeah you're you're
better than the kids in your class but
are you like almost professional level
or you know like th those scary good
people where it's like wait
what M because there's there's there's a
lot of those people around and yeah I'm
curious to know if that's if that's
common okay so the last thing I want to
touch on with Talent is is let's say you
are copying and you're doing all that
and whatever results you're having or um
but I do think people have natural
predispositions to certain things
they're better at doing some things than
others and I think the best way of
utilizing Talent is to find out what you
like and what you do
well and using that so something that
happened with me and I know a couple of
my friends who are artists who have the
same problem
is they they think because they can do
something easily it must not be
good and when they do things that are
difficult they think well now I'm
improving and I had this a lot where I
would spend hours and hours and hours
and hours on something that was painful
and hard for me because I wasn't good at
it and I didn't like doing it but I
worked a lot and I would show people the
end result and it's like yeah it's okay
whereas I really wanted them to to say
wow you improved so much I noticed all
these things that you did that cuz I
felt I was improving it's like oh wow
I'm getting better at I don't know know
rendering or I didn't know how to do
this and now I can do that and instead
it was just like me and then I would do
like the simplest drawing that takes me
no effort and it's like an expression a
character or
something and people would be impressed
by it they'd be like wow that's cool and
I'd
think yeah but that took that was easy
that's that's not good though that's you
know as if easy meant not good and hard
meant good it doesn't and what's so
important is to realize that when you
look at people who are extremely
successful they just do what they like
to do they're using the well this comes
easy to me as an advantage um so it's
important to figure out who you are and
this takes time it took me many years to
to learn who I was but it probably would
have taken me less time had I been
focusing on that from the
start so what are my talents my talents
are I am good at analysis I can break
down
complex ideas into manageable
chunks okay uh I'm pretty good with eyes
I'm pretty good with faces I like faces
I like characters I like expression
emotion
and I like style
okay so then it's up to me to use that
like okay so those are your strengths
that's your
army um someone who might be the type
who uh learned by copying it's like well
okay I've I have a natural sense of what
looks right and so they have their
advantage and then it's about using that
if you're a person who maybe you've got
a good sense for design then it's like
okay well maybe you should incorporate
that more maybe you should do more
design work um if you are someone who
is you you just find things like
perspective really simple it's like okay
that's awesome maybe you could do
something with that like architecture uh
concept art is very perspective heavy
actually everything is perspective heavy
if you I mean Comics are perspective of
heavy so anything with that so I think
that's where it really shines is that
when you
stop um there's the expression you know
no pain no gain I I don't think this is
true honestly I don't think so because I
would look at people doing stuff and
they would do a ton of drawings so yeah
it seems like it's hard right they're
doing hundreds of drawings and
it's like wow that is hard work that
you're doing and no pain no gain right
well the thing is that if they were
drawing something they were interested
in that's not work I mean it is work but
it's not hard work it's not painful
because when I would draw things I'm
interested in it just was kind of fun
it's like oh okay but I know from
experience when I would do things I
don't want to do or I don't like doing
then it really does feel like work it's
like oh I have to
draw I have to practice drawing
buildings I hate drawing buildings and
when I did it it felt like a
chore but it shouldn't you know when
when when you know what you want it
becomes fun um or at least interesting
at least that much so it's not that hard
when I was doing value studies I I was
doing still life and things and I did a
lot of drawing I did like easily over 12
hours a day and it
was it wasn't hard it was just oh okay
it's I know I I had a purpose so um I
don't I don't agree with the no pay no
gain mentality I think instead it is you
have to do a lot of work and you're
going to do the best work if you're
interested in it and if it's something
you like that comes through no matter
people can tell and I've had enough
cases where um I show them work and I'm
not saying any I'm not saying like hey
this piece I enjoyed and it was easy for
me and that piece is hard but they
always pick the piece that was easier
for me as the that's the good one that's
the one I gravitate towards so um yeah
so if you are young copy a lot and have
a standard if you want to if you want to
improve have a standard do something
from something don't just say oh I'm
going to draw a picture sure and I'm
going to do a girl sitting at a desk
blah blah blah you have the story in
your mind um no no I have some cuz
there's two things there's practicing
and there's
performing they're completely different
things performing is one yeah you have
your story you want to execute you want
here's my picture that should be easy
it's a practicing that is hard it's a
practicing that's like oh I'm I'm
thinking I'm using my my energy to
figure your stuff out but the
uh the performance should be easy it
shouldn't you if you if you're doing a
drawing and it's really tough and it's
like you know maybe you're doing a
drawing for someone and it's really
difficult for you then that means you
are not doing the practicing well I mean
going back to uh piano it's just an easy
analogy for me to make it's like well if
if a Pianist went to the piano and they
were playing a new piece
during performance that would be
terrible you don't you don't do that you
do you practice the piece and you get
good at it and then you play it and then
it's and it should be easy when you play
it for other people that's and and and I
I think that's one of my goals is just
to get it so people view art the same
way they view other fields because it
it's no different and this idea of well
this person's talented and there's
talent and this stuff it's like no
there's a reason for this there's
there's always a reason for it and we
got to figure out the reason and once
you know the reason you can figure out
how to make it work for you so even if
you're older there's a way to make it
work for you so yep that's pretty much
it hope that helped and thanks for
watching
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