Have you ever taught yourself to draw, paint or play a musical instrument?

I have kinda taught myself to draw…If I have long period of time I can draw really well, if not I can barely draw a stick figure…lol

I also tried to teach myself to play guitar….epic Fail.

Drawing and painting….and now I am learning harmonica.Plug your ears,Jude :)

I taught myself screenwriting.

I taught myself to play guitar. Really. No lessons.

Since I was little I practiced drawing by looking at pictures in children’s books and doing what I would call “freehand copying”. It wasn’t tracing, but trying to duplicate the forms and shading as closely as possible by observing and putting them onto the paper and using my eraser quite a bit in the process!! I was always drawn to human subjects and I was very content just to use a simple graphite pencil on a good sketch paper. I would shade it in a very detailed way using either my finger or an eraser to smudge and blend. I would fill my notebooks with these drawings. Some were pretty good, others needed a lot of help to put it kindly! I just kept trying to improve. I also like pen and ink. I have always struggled with applying color. Sometimes I got frustrated that I would spend a long time on the drawing and then ruin it when I went to color it in. So I have had a great deal of frustration. I did take art lessons in high school and college but I felt like I learned very little from the classes and that credit for my improvement comes mostly from practicing a lot and observing the work of other artists that I admire. I love realistic artists like Ingres, Bougereau, and Singer-Sargent. The most exciting thing as far as doing my work in color has been learning to paint in Adobe Photoshop. For my field it is a must. I have gotten very comfortable with it and I aim to just keep reading books, practicing and improving my skills. Who can argue with millions of colors and limitless ability to UNDO!!!

I taught myself to draw pretty much the same way Earthgirl did.

All three. I love goofing around with musical instruments until I can pound out a tune. Teaching myself to draw was an unexpected bonus. Teaching myself to paint was a natural continuation of drawing.

No I taught myself to be a geek—including Adobe software which addresses the art aspect,

Although when little I did the same thing earthgirl did—I drew “Eloise of the Plaza” very well [the Kay Thompson, Hillary Knight children’s series]. And sent them off to the “Draw Me
” ads at the back of comic books forcing my parents to fend off sellers of mail order art classes marketing to a 7-year-old.

I taught myself how to knit, crochet, do needlepoint, make rugs, sew, refinish furniture, stencil, and make quilts.

I taught myself to draw cartoons when I was about ten. Around the same time, I taught myself piano. I self taught myself how to play a drumset, although I played snare drum in band.

Like @anartist, I taught myself to be a geek. HTML, CSS, Javascript, Adobe.

Teaching myself skills is a way of life. I’ve learned how to cut my own hair, bind books, knit on a loom, and use the manual settings on my camera. I consider writing to a be self-taught skill as well, even if I do have a degree in it.

@hobbitsubculture wins. :)

All of the above. I have always painted or drawn to some degree and picked it up by watching my dad and sister who are pretty good at drawing and painting. I bought a $50.00 flea market guitar at 14, never put it down and taught myself to play and I am damn good at it dammit!! ;)

I tried, but I’m not very good at any of those. I taught myself to knit and do needlepoint and crossstitch and a few other things.

Additionally, I learned how to garden, do some landscape design, cut everyone’s hair in the family for years, analyze poetry, write a coherent short essay, stand up in front of crowds of people and speak, and read the body language of a cat.

Well, yea, I’ve taught myself to do tons of things. Some are drawing, repair car, ect… but I’m just mostly proud of my guitar skills.

All of the above.

I’ve taught myself to draw and paint. I also tried to teach myself to play guitar but I wasn’t very good at that.

Aw, I thought the choices were limited to: musical instruments, painting and drawing. If we can list other things then I’ll add: knitting, cross stitching, embroidery, crocheting, sewing, refinishing furniture, and HTML. :-P

Other things are fine. :)

When I was 15 I really wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I was to shy to play in front of a teacher, so I started teaching myself, and by the time I was 16 I could play really well and actually joined a bend! So it’s totally possible to do it yourself.

@ChloeReed That’s awesome. I had a similar experience with learning to play a drumset. It just felt weird playing in front of the teacher. I ended up quitting, then teaching myself about seven years later. No band though.

I had a piano teacher, but I taught myself to write fiction.

I consider myself a mostly self-taught artist. Loving deviantART. You can check out my profile, it’s the same user name that I have here.

I taught myself basic cinematics and screenwriting. Still learning.

I taught myself to draw. I started by using styles that I learned from the cartoons that I watched, and my style progressed from there.

Whoa… Already answered this question. Weird.