How important do you think talent is?
I asked on my Instagram stories recently if you had any questions about my job, and this question came up.
I think it's a really interesting question, particularly as it relates to art, and illustrating a picture book, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
Firstly, I don't think anyone is born with the ability to be exceptional at something - no one knows how to illustrate a picture book until they do it.
However, we all have natural interests (and sometimes physical attributes that lead us in specific directions, but more on that soon), we grow up in environments that encourage certain paths and discourage others, and we're all given opportunities along the way that shape the course of our lives.
To really drive this point home, I know someone who is an incredible drummer. Long story short, she grew up not knowing anything about her dad who, as it happens, was an incredible drummer. As a young person, when my friend felt drawn to the drums and decided to take them up, her mother must have, understandably, put it down to some innate genetic desire, or even a hidden talent.
While I think that we don’t fully understand what is passed down genetically, and there are many studies that show this is entirely possible, in an “experiment” as complicated as life, there are millions of other factors outside of our control.
As someone who worked as a research scientist for the better part of seven years, my mind goes to questioning; did my friend’s father introduce her mother to music with exceptional drum tracks? And was this music the backdrop to many happy childhood memories for my friend? Did her mother display positive emotional responses to drummers, or music in general? Did she pause a little longer than usual to watch a drummer playing on TV or take my friend to a concert when she was young?
Kids pick up on the smallest things and those small events can have massive “butterfly effects” on our lives.
Back to that comment on physical attributes (and you may have to bear with me for a second), I’m 5'5'' so I was probably never going to be a pro basketball player. It's not like there haven't been pro basketball players around the same height as me, but that's never something I was encouraged to pursue and my physical attributes, as well as the culture I grew up in, have contributed to my complete uselessness with a basketball.
If I pushed aside all of the self-talk about not being any good at basketball, I could spend a few hours every day practising and in a few years, if I stuck to it, I'd likely find that I'd be pretty good at it!
You may have gathered that I know next to nothing about basketball or playing the drums, but I know a thing or two about art.
If you don’t know much about art, or how to illustrate a picture book, you might look at my work and assume I’m very talented and this all came naturally to me.
Side note: If you haven't read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and you're interested in how people find success in their field, I highly recommend it. One thing the book covers that I still think about, is how it takes around 10,000 hours of practicing your craft to become an expert.
Here’s what I know about my own journey; I grew up in a household where art was prized, so I got started on my 10,000 hours very early.
My mum ran an office supplies store from our garage, she always had paints out for me and my sister and we always had access to whatever paper, pencils, tape, etc. we needed to make our imaginings a reality. Our art was hung on walls, our best pieces were framed, and shown to friends and family. My dad would take us to art galleries on the weekends, we were enrolled in an “arty” school, and I took watercolour painting lessons after school for years.
So, by the time I got to high school, it might have looked like I’d had a “natural talent” for art, but in reality, I had a head start to my artistic career that not everyone does.
I remember the exact moment I decided I wanted to write a picture book, and that came when I was talking to a friend in school. Comparatively, don’t remember ever “discovering” my love of art and I think that’s probably because I grew up in a family that loved art before I came into the world, and so I loved it too, before my memory formed, not because I was born with a talent for it.
So, in short, to answer the question, I think talent is a myth! If you want to illustrate a picture book, you should do it!
And if you'd rather work together with someone who loves illustrating picture books and has done it a dozen times already, you should reach out to me - I'd love to chat.
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