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Serving others, once you reach a certain level, has no step-by-step plan, no methods, barely a guide. It doesn’t work that way with art.

When I was about 10 years old, I became fascinated with drawing. I thought drawing on a 2-D surface and making pictures that looked 3-D was incredible. Eventually, my 3-D art went on to form the base for much of what you see in Avatar. I know you’re dying to know my secrets, so here you go.

How I started drawing

Photo by Bill HR

As a squirt (i.e. young kid), I of course colored and drew and painted. But I’d say my drawing really started with a book called Drawing Textbook. It taught me how to create a foreshortened circle. (A foreshortened circle is that oval-like shape used to create the top of the cake in the picture.) That rocked my world.

After that, I learned the foreshortened square (which does for the square what the foreshortened circle did for the circle). After that, I learned about shading. The shading tipped me over the edge – I was hooked.

I started drawing buildings of my own. I drew household objects. I started trying different kinds of shading, trying to show more than one light source. I tried charcoal. I mixed different textures and elements. I pushed beyond the simple exercises I’d learned to create my own ideas.

That’s how I started drawing.

Let’s go back over this, though, because – like drawing – serving others is also an art.

How you start serving others like an artist

In the beginning, you’re like me with drawing: you goof around with it. You do it because it’s fun. You genuinely – though perhaps somewhat naively – care about others. But what you’re doing might not actually help anyone. You’re art is lousy.

My first drawings before I learned anything about drawing were pathetic. No one told me that, though, because I was three years old and my heart was bursting forth with creative expression.

That’s also how we all start with the art of serving others. Our hearts are in it, but what we actually have to offer others is pathetic.

After a while if you stick with it, you discover something (or perhaps someone) who ignites you with a desire to learn the art, to study it, to develop you abilities with it.

For my drawing, that spark came from the Drawing Textbook. It started with some basic principles (the foreshortened circles and squares) and gave me a feeling for what was possible.

So you spend time with the art. You build a foundation. You learn what others have done. You copy them. But then with art, to become a real artist, what do you do? You make it your own.

Once you’ve learned the basics of serving others, you start creating. You start mixing and matching. You start exploring what’s different about the way you serve. You’re going to have abilities that no one else has.

At this point, serving others becomes art. You grab ideas from others, but you make them your own. You inject your own style. It’s not art if you’re coloring by number. You often need the color by number guides, the Drawing Textbooks, to ignite your desire to start learning to serve others. That’s what I hope many of the articles here do. And yes, you can (and should) serve while you learn.

But the real art of serving others is creative. It’s about getting to know your art. It’s about going beyond anything any person can teach you and becoming fully in the Spirit.

Welcome to artistry.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Where are you in the process? Are you passionate about wanting to learn but still unsure about the tactics? Are you copying others, trying to learn to serve (I mean that in a good way)? Are you creating your own art? Find where you’re at right now. Don’t get discouraged – I move around all the time. I don’t think serving others is always a straight progression from novice to expert.

(2) Now that you know where you’re at, what do you need to do next? Do you need to learn the basics? Do you need to copy others? Do you need to start mixing and matching? It helps to know the process – but it’s worthless unless you actually do something about it.