As an artist who is mostly self taught, I’ve read countless articles on how to improve my art. Most of those articles reached the same conclusion on which is to practice and practice. Other articles highlighted things like having an open mind and being okay with making mistakes, which are all very viable and helpful tips. But I still was clueless on how to actually start.
To give y’all more of a background, I started my art journey at the beginning of my undergrad career. Studying fine arts wasn’t even my major and I was always lost and confused but, on some late nights I would have an epiphany, an “ah ha!” moment that boosted my confidence and motivated me to trek on when I was on the brink of losing my shits and giving up.
Fast forwarding to the present, I have graduated and am now trying to break into the art industry bubble in hopes of making a career out of my art. But I realized one thing. Even though I have been exposed to art for the last four years, I still have no skills-no improvements in my abilities both technical and confidence wise.
So, to tackle on that problem that’s been eating at my creative soul pretty much ever since four years ago, I decided to self teach myself.
Starting from square one.
Which meant scrapping everything I’ve learned and been exposed to with art in the past and re-learning everything.
Oh snap this bitch is going back to the basics.
I wanted to start off with the basics-the foundations because, I know I’m especially lacking in that area no matter how great I think my current drawing skills are. And the truth is that a lot of professional artists are still improving their fundamentals.
I mean…it is the building blocks to creating anything. Think it like constructing a building, the building can have a beautiful and well though out design but, without a sturdy under structure the building will eventually collapse.
In scoping the internet, I decided to take classes on Udemy because it was the cheapest expensive option that worked best for me and my situation. I get the bang with literally no cost. ( Note: this article is NOT affiliated with Udemy in any way, I was just lucky that I was able to take classes on the platform for free).
The class that I signed up for covered topics like understanding basic shapes and forms, using value and perspective in your drawings, and how to use all these tool items to create a really good drawing. It seems simple. Like we all know shapes and lines but, the importance of these classes was understanding the underlying reason for making each mark.
In other words, each line, each stroke, each placement, has to be intentional, not just because it looks cool or pretty.
It doesn’t sound much but I’m half way through the course and I can definitely see an improvement in my technical skills-drastically even.
All of this is easy to say in writing but when it comes down to re-learning something, I had to admit and accept that I wasn’t good and that I needed help.
Every time I login to the platform I face the hump of telling myself that I don’t know something, that I don’t know a lot of things. And then after the class I end up telling myself that it’s okay to not know things because look where I am now compared to four years ago when I drew human eyes without knowing anatomy or value.
All else that I have to say is that each time I took a step back, I ended up moving forward and if I continue with this habit, then in four more years, I’ll have a massive art artillery that once used to be empty.
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To recap/ways that can help you too:
- Identify areas in which your art may be lacking. It is okay. You do not need to know everything.
- Be proactive and find solutions to problems. The internet is an oasis of knowledge and resources (that is if you know how to use it well…we all have gone to the other end of the web)
- Know that every small improvement stacks up to large scale changes. Keep going because you can do it!
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Take time to sharpen the saw because a dull saw will get you nowhere
