How to Achieve Artistic Talent: Are Artists Born or Made?

Last Updated on August 1, 2025

The mystique surrounding artistic talent has long been a topic of fascination. Both parents of budding artists and the artists themselves frequently grapple with the question: “Are artists born or made?” This interplay between innate gifts and nurtured abilities lies at the heart of understanding the essence of creativity. In the following article, delving into my own artistic journey, I offer a personal anecdote to explore the roots of artistic talent.

Is Artistic Talent Genetic?

I’ve been interested in art for so long that I sometimes can take it for granted.

Most kids like coloring, but I really liked coloring. In fact, the best birthday gift I could receive as a kid was a large set of crayons. I was fascinated not only with the basic colors of the rainbow but with the plethora of colors in between. I wanted them all, all the colors.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time coloring. My mom was my first art teacher. She seemed to take pleasure and satisfaction in showing me how to stay perfectly in between the lines. Hours would go by. She even showed me that by taking a cloth or tissue and rubbing the crayon wax against the paper, you could make the colors and shading so smooth that your individual markings would seamlessly blend into a pool of color. With this technique, and with a bit of help, I even won a few coloring contests. Being ‘good at art’ once got me $300 and even some pizza on occasion.

But, it’s hard to draw the line between nature and nurture when it comes to art. My mother most definitely had an affinity for art, although she hadn’t officially picked up a paintbrush until the age of 70. When she did, however, she took to it like a fish in water, to the extent that her art teachers assumed she had misled them as to the extent of her prior painting experience. She is also a serial decorator, meticulous and relentless in achieving perfect aesthetic harmony in every room of the house.

It may be easy, therefore, to jump to the conclusion that I got my artistic talent, genetically handed down, from my mom. Doing so, however, would overlook all those hours she spent with me as a child sitting at the kitchen table patiently coloring with undivided attention. It also may dismiss all the coloring books she bought me, and all those crayons. And, it most definitely overlooks the fact that she, herself, was first influenced in art by her older brother, who too liked to draw and spent quality time with her one-on-one sharing what he had learned.

But whether or not I was born with a special talent, the encouragement to continue drawing and coloring was always fostered, even outside the home. As I reached elementary school my teachers ‘caught’ on to my drawing enthusiasm. More specifically, they caught me selling my art for homework passes. 

Students at the school were rewarded for their good homework with passes that gave them a free day without having to do homework. When kids saw my drawings and asked if I could make a drawing for them, I sold them my drawings for these passes. Word got around, and soon I was coming home after school each day with new assignments: two horses, one deer, a unicorn, an eagle, and so on. I would break out my encyclopedia, look up the animal, draw it, and trade it in for a homework pass before class the next day. I went weeks without doing homework before my teachers eventually caught on. 

My parents eventually did receive a call from the principal. I remember the day well, My parents came to the school nervous and ashamed of my blatant disobedience, but my father, a self-made businessman, was secretly proud. I was terrified, I had never been in trouble before, not officially, and I imagined the worst: having my crayons taken away and no longer being allowed to draw. But rather than scold me, the principal disciplined me by contracting me out to draw portraits of teachers on their birthdays in front of the classroom. 

I couldn’t believe it: my punishment for drawing, instead of doing my homework, was to draw more? As I would draw the teacher’s portrait on her special day, the students in the classroom would scoot up their desks to get a better view of the work-in-progress. The finished pieces would then be paraded through the school, among the other teachers. It was my time to shine.

The school I attended was named after Saint Catherine of Alexandria. In addition to portraits of the staff, I was also enlisted to recreate scenes from biblical stories to be hung over the altar for Sunday mass. On Fridays, I was taken out of class and placed on the floor of the cathedral with a box of crayons, markers, and a huge white piece of paper. I was in heaven. I would stay there alone until I finished my weekly masterpiece.

Every now and then I would look up and stare at the stained-glass windows showing St. Catherine casually posing next to the wheel she had been tortured on. Her facial expression looked sad but far away; she never did seem to mind. The lights, the colors, the smell of incense impacted me deeply.

Not coming from a Catholic family, we never attended the Sunday mass, so I never did see my banners on display, but the feedback I would receive each week did wonders for my confidence as a grade-school student. I was lucky to have this amazing support behind me, and I don’t know what my trajectory as an artist would have been like without it.

The Genetic Argument: Nature’s Role

I’ll never forget watching my cousin raise her three boys—three baby boys, all born within a year of each other. Two of them were twins, and the third, their slightly older brother. And from a remarkably young age, their personalities couldn’t have been more distinct.

One was the athlete—climbing, jumping, and throwing with balance and coordination far beyond his age. Another was dubbed “the lawyer” early on, constantly reasoning, debating, and showcasing an advanced command of language. And the third? He had the makings of an engineer—spending hours with blocks and Lego, sorting colors and shapes, fascinated by patterns and possibilities.

Was this just their way of carving out an identity within the same household? A sibling survival tactic? Or were they truly dealt different hands from the start?

This anecdote sits at the heart of the age-old debate: how much of our talent is something we’re born with?

Scientific research suggests that there is indeed a heritable component to creativity, though it’s complex and multilayered.

For starters, twin studies have consistently shown that identical twins raised apart tend to display strikingly similar creative aptitudes. This points to a genetic underpinning, though not a singular, isolated gene.

In a notable 2015 study from the Karolinska Institute, researchers found that certain genetic markers related to dopamine regulation were more prevalent in individuals working in creative professions. Dopamine, often referred to as the “motivation molecule,” plays a role in reward-seeking behavior, curiosity, and novelty preference—all traits deeply tied to creativity.

Beyond dopamine, several personality traits commonly associated with artistic talent show moderate to high heritability:

• Openness to experience – the willingness to engage with new ideas, sensations, and perspectives – is one of the Big Five personality traits most strongly correlated with creativity. It has been found to have a heritability rate of around 50%.
• Divergent thinking, or the ability to generate many solutions to a problem, is also believed to have genetic underpinnings, although it’s more influenced by environmental stimulation than fixed intelligence.
• Sensitivity, often found in highly creative individuals, including emotional reactivity and perceptiveness to aesthetic nuance, also appears to be at least partly inherited.

This means that while there may be no single “art gene,” many of the raw materials that support creativity—such as curiosity, pattern recognition, sensory sensitivity, and intrinsic motivation—can be influenced by genetics.

But genes don’t dictate destiny.

Even with inherited traits, context matters immensely. A child may have a keen sense of spatial awareness or a natural flair for storytelling, but if they aren’t exposed to nurturing environments or encouraged to explore those interests, those traits may remain dormant or redirected into other outlets.

In the case of my cousin’s three boys, perhaps they were each born with a different creative orientation. Or maybe they adapted to the dynamics around them, leaning into what made them stand out. Most likely, it was a dance between biology and environment, between temperament and opportunity.

In the end, artistic potential doesn’t spring from one source—it emerges from a constellation of traits, intersecting with life experience, attention, and affirmation.

Stages of Artistic Development

One thing to bear in mind when trying to assess your child’s artistic talent and development is to consider what developmental stage your child may be at. According to Viktor Lowenfeld in his book, published 1947, Creative and Mental Growth, children’s artistic development moves through 5 stages:

• The Scribble Stage: between 2-4 years old. Here, children move through disordered lines to assigning narrative or representation to the scribbles.
• Pre-Schematic Stage: between 4-7 years old. During this stage, children learn to draw basic shapes like circles and lines and are able to combine these shapes to create a crude likeness.
• Schematic Stage: between 7-9 years old. At this point, with an awareness of 2-dimensions, in the form of space, direction, and scale, children can relay more visual information in their representation.
• Dawning Realism: between 9-11 years old. 3-Dimensionality begins to emerge. Objects are not only placed next to each other but show relationships to each other. Understanding of techniques like shading and perspective show themselves.
• The Pseudorealistic Stage: between 11-13 years old. Drawings become less rigid. The activity of drawing produces a positive feedback in terms of identity. Representation includes subjective experience and narratives with the outside world.

How to Develop Artistic Talent in Your Child

I often get asked by friends, especially parents, how they can support and nurture their child’s artistic side. It’s a good question—and one that’s more about presence than programs. Sure, structured classes can help as children grow, and yes, skills can be taught. But if I look back on my own path, what made the biggest difference wasn’t formal training. It was attention—pure, consistent, and with no strings attached.

Art, at its best, can become a kind of conversation between parent and child, a space where time slows down and connection deepens. When you sit with your child as they draw, paint, or build something strange and imaginative, you’re not just encouraging creativity—you’re reinforcing that their vision matters, that their inner world is worth exploring.

Growing up, the time I spent making art with my mother wasn’t about producing something impressive. It was about mutual joy. It was her way of showing interest in my interests. I didn’t feel pressured to perform or perfect. Instead, I felt seen.

Later, at school, I was lucky to have teachers who saw what I did not just as a “talent,” but as a gift to be shared. That kind of recognition—especially in a young person’s life—can light a spark that stays lit for decades.

So, are artists born or made? I’d say it’s not either/or. Talent may be innate, but confidence is cultivated. What makes the difference is how a child’s creative impulse is received. When a child is met with encouragement instead of indifference, curiosity instead of critique, they’re far more likely to stay connected to their creative self.

Here are a few small but powerful ways you can help develop artistic talent in your child:

• Make space for mess and experimentation. Not everything needs to be pretty. Let them try, fail, and surprise you.
• Notice, don’t judge. Say things like, “I see you used so many colors,” or “Tell me about this part,” instead of “What is it?”
• Join them sometimes. Not to teach, but to play. Draw together, paint together—even if you’re “not artistic.”
• Celebrate their process, not just the outcome. Creativity is a way of thinking, not just a product.

In the end, artistic development is less about instruction and more about invitation—to explore, to express, and to be embraced in that expression.

Because whether learned or inherited, when a child feels their creativity is welcomed, it becomes a gift they can carry with them for life.

Conclusion: Talent Isn’t Destiny—It’s Just One Piece of the Puzzle

In our article Top 5 Art Myths Debunked, we looked closely at the stories artists are told—about genius, success, and natural-born brilliance. One of the most persistent myths is the belief that artistic talent is primarily genetic. But as we’ve seen, this idea oversimplifies a much richer reality.

Yes, certain traits—like visual memory, sensitivity, or coordination—may be inherited. But without exposure, encouragement, and years of practice, even the most promising raw abilities fade. And those who begin without a “gift” can still become powerful artists through dedication and vision. Art doesn’t demand perfect genes—it demands curiosity, courage, and persistence.

Talent may be the spark, but it’s not the fire. That fire is something you build.