Some days I feel discouraged because I'd spend most of my free time trying to do a drawing but nothing comes out right.

I think back to how I never took art class in high school because the school's only art teacher came in with a hangover half of the time - and the time that he was switched on he'd only teach abstract art (e.g. drawing thick and thin lines), or play Tetris on his Apple Macintosh.

I never learnt anything to do with making my line art better, or shading, forms, values, etc.

I lost interest in that class as a result, and eventually took I ancient history instead as my elective, followed by Japanese.

Whether I made the right choice in not choosing art now that I look back on things, I can't say that I am 100% certain, but I don't think you could learn anything useful from a guy that just couldn't be bothered.

Despite written complaints to the school, the teacher was not removed because he was the only art teacher, until several years later, when they had another art teacher who was normal and actually wanted to teach her students visual arts.

But by then I had moved onto studying Japanese.