Deliberate awkwardness

If at any time in your life you’ve wanted to try your hand at drawing, there’s a good chance you’ll recognize this image:

It’s a portrait of Igor Stravinsky by Picasso. He didn’t draw it upside down, of course, but millions of people got to see it like that for the first time because that’s how it appears in the famous book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Take ten minutes to copy this portrait as I’m showing it to you, upside down, and you may discover that you’re just as good at drawing as Pablo Picasso. All you needed was to force yourself to observe rather than assume, and all it took to achieve it was embracing a little awkwardness.