I've lived all over the U.S. and traveled through a good portion of the rest. I don't have any former training in art, unless you count high school. Back there I had such trouble keeping anything in proportion or perspective, I eventually started doing all my artwork upside down. Sometimes I still do. (I've since discovered that it isn't just art wherein that odd little principle applies.) After high school, I amost totally ignored any creative impulses for more than twenty years. About the only thing I had remembered was how to scratch out five little lines to make an eye shape.
Two, maybe three years ago, I doodled some figures that I'm sure would have been rejected as cartoons for magazines. (They were supposed to be likenesses of real people). I was suprised when I could clearly see what was wrong with some little aspect or another and whats more, I was able to correct it. After several thousand repetitions of that small effort, I discovered something. I discovered that there is a difference between what I think is there and what really is there. So, now I spend most of my creative time and energy seeing instead of looking. That is a big job, because I'm easily distracted...