I can't get in touch with my artistic side.

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I've been trying to learn how to draw, and it's not going well at all. Just about everyone I know has some kind of creative talent (drawing, animating, music, etc), but it feels like I just can't connect with this part of the brain everyone else can. I can draw rather well if I copy hand movements but simply translating a visual image to a process with my hands inevitably fails, no matter how simple. If I try drawing, I try to calculate the exact details of each line to know the exact length, curves and angles, but it never turns out correctly. I can't even comprehend how someone writes a tune, because as far as I know, you need to know the exact notes to press in order to make the music so it feels like something of a paradox.

The thing I'm consistently told is that I need to stop thinking so hard about doing it and just do it, that too much conscious thought about every little detail is my major setback. I can totally understand why and see where they're coming from, but they seem to just let the creativity flow onto the paper/ onto the screen/ through the instruments, and it looks like magic, like they're tapping into some instinct that I can't comprehend.

Not sure if this is because of my aspergers or if someone people are just naturally lacking in that kind of ability, has anyone else faced a similar issue, and if so, did you find a solution?

You say you can draw rather well if you copy hand movements?
Good ... sounds like a wonderful start,
and it could very well be that you draw better than I do ...
and I'm an artist
(photographer for many years who has gotten into art galleries, museums, etc.
am now just getting into acrylic painting this year).

In Star Trek fandom, I call myself Q
and dress the part to attend conventions.
You may have heard of
"the creative powers of the Q."

If you ever actually observe Q ...
did you notice ...
the playfulness?
Playfulness leads to imagination leads to creativity.

That's my recommendation to you.
Go have some fun!

Not everyone is artistic, so don't worry about it. Not everyone can sing, or draw, or play an instrument, or be a doctor, or programme a computer, or ride a horse or whatever. Everyone has things they have a talent for and things they just can't do. That's just normal.

drawing is hard..if its not for you then don't force yourself!

have you considered woodworking? it's a very technical art form. try chiseling out a dovetail joint...it's more difficult than it looks..kinda takes your perception on a loop. very fun and useful!

but if you're set on drawing you could try to make exercises for yourself. i've done this before as a warm up for painting sessions, where i give myself two minutes to make an impression of a subject and do that maybe 5 times over. it takes away the "preciousness" of the drawing and forces me to draw on impulse without having to focus on exactness. i have a tendency to get caught up in details and precision so i find this kind of exercise useful..maybe you could too.

see what you do is you just start drawing not knowing what you are drawing or judging yourself just draw like a five year old would on the wall and just keep drawing and drawing and even if its not good like it for yourself and keep drawing and then one day out of nowhere you are drawing really good.

also measuring lines and angles is just as much capable of making art as flinging paint on a wall or whatever else people do

I really want to draw too, but I have a lot of trouble with it. I can picture things I want to draw and finished works in my head, but I can never seem to get them to come to life. I would definitely suggest that you keep drawing and maybe check out some books on the topic. I found them very helpful Good luck!
Also, I love your username

At first it might take a while to figure out what your good, at. Do you have any friends who can draw maybe you can work together. You don't have to draw art isn't entirely production, there are more processes. You could do it on a computer I find it easier that way. Dalek, By the way do you like Doctor who? Drawing is also about the editing and designing each of these are equally important. I can't edit well, just can't draw so why don't you find someone to help you draw or to teach you. It's the developmental coordination not the creativity, You just need to find the way that is easiest for you, You could get a touch screen laptop or a touch screen accessory. Is it easier for you to draw with a (computer) mouse? Etc. I learned to draw by taking it slowly I look at it much like you did, Then I started trying myself, I started with editing then moved on to drawing, Not as good as people without developmental coordination, problems. Though I'm still good enough to do it. You could also get a team together like a band but for art. Where one draws, and one edits. Kinda of like a Singer/song writer duo.

Perhaps your worrying about all this is actually your creative side. I paint and draw quiet often and I would say it is a risk-taking and worrying business from start to finish. Perhaps you could produce a drawing that is about an emotion? I have periods when I get stuck and tapping into an emotion often helps.

I used to be an artist. And now I don't know how I ever did it!

Sure there must be a way of finding our way there.

And understand what the obstacle really is. Brains are weird.

I don't think it comes to order. All my life I've wanted to be more artistic but my brain tends to pull me onto the technical side of things. I get a few artistic things out (chiefly music and a bit of photography) but nothing like as many as I'd like, and I can never tell when the good ones are going to happen. I think it helps to avoid getting into too much science and objectivity, and to spend the freed-up time looking at / listening to your favourite kinds of art and hanging out with your favorite artists, and watching them working, if you're lucky enough to be able to do that. Then you just hope that something will rub off and that you'll create something that's more than just copying what you've seen, though I wouldn't worry too much about that because art is full of recycled ideas, it's just a matter of using them in a new way. Another way is to just keep doing art - I used to be poor at writing poetic song lyrics, but when I started writing lyrics a lot, I was amazed how much better I was getting, and now I don't write so much any more, I can still write lyrics but it takes me ages. Of course the results are very subjective, one person's amazing masterpiece is another person's boring crap. Main thing is to try and have fun with it, you'll know when you've expressed yourself well.

One of my biggest inhibitors is that I tend to be afraid to produce new work because I'm a compulsive systematiser, I fear losing track of my output and not being able to categorise it all. Stupid isn't it?

My art is music, theatre and comedy.

I did draw a bit in college.
Doodling by starting to make marks on the paper. When an image caught my eye I developed it.
I also did some copying.
Sometimes traditionally and sometime with the picture up side down.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I took a group painting class. After 3 hours we had the same basic forest scene but with different colors and brush strokes.
Have you taken drawing or watched you tube. I go there to learn certain things.
I know I get better at my music by practice, solo shows and jams or siting in with bands.

It looks from this post that you're trying to replicate exact photorealistic images. That is not the only form of art.
As far as I'm aware, the best art out there doesn't simply replicate in exact detail the physical reality of the subject. Art is an interpretation.
Artist Ken Done once described the kind of setback you're dealing with, in that as children we are very free with artistic expression, but as adults, begin to be critical and our expectations of perfection begin to erode any spontaneous originality we may once have had - at school you're told there are too many petals on that flower, for instance, he described in his example.
His advice was more to capture the feeling of the flower, or tree, or whatever the subject is. Create your own impression of how you perceive, not just see, the subject.
I once attended a sketching workshop that worked on nothing more than getting people out of this rigid idea that your drawing has to be an exact replica by having everyone sketch with their eyes closed.
Being creative is a good thing by most standards. If you were really keen to develop your drawing skills there are classes available to do so often through community colleges and so on. The interest is there, you just got to develop it!
I just remembered this post in an attempt to try and be more creative myself. Not just art per se, but open out that creative side that often just gets buried under everything else going on in more routine everyday life.
Keep at it!

I used to love drawing as a kid, tried to take up recently but just accepted I am no good at it, think I am just not a visual thinker. Other artistic forms, writing, I just have no imagination what so ever, wouldn't even be able to come up with a little story based on characters I already know, I must have the lowest amount of ability in this area as possible. I am a little better at music, I can think up music but find it very hard to realise, its like I have to fumble and search for the notes before it leaves my head, wish I could just play what I am thinking (probably learning proper theory would help with that). Feel like I am supposed to be a creative person but just am not, I relate so much to the creators I admire and yet don't even have a fraction of that ability, maybe all people think that though.

I have an "artistic" side---but I can't draw to save my life.

I can right okay poems, though.

Anyone can draw.

Drawing is a human ability and aspergers and autism doesnt change that.

Although people with a more verbal oriented mind MAY have difficulty with visual and spatial skills.

All drawing takes practice. No one is born a "good drawer" some people just pick up a pencil and never put it down.

Be patient, keep trying.

Good practice : find a picture and try and re-create the picture as accurately as possible, and repeat, repeat repeat.

Nope....some people can't just reproduce what's in front of them. I'm one of those people

I'm not lamenting the fact that I can't draw. I just can't. It's something I have to live with. And I succeed despite my inability to draw.

It comes naturally to you; therefore, it seems to you that it should come naturally to other people, too.