5 Tips on How to Improve As An Artist
I wanted to write this post to encourage artists of all levels and to provide steps to help with improving skills. I wish I had known this information earlier in my life. I don’t want my fellow artists of any level to have regrets on how they could have spent time enhancing their skills.
My Personal Journey As An Artist
First, I’ll briefly share my personal journey as an artist to give some insight into my previous mindset. I knew that I always had some natural talent as an artist, simply because while I was growing up people would comment positively on drawings that I had created and sometimes ask me to draw for them. A family friend, Peggy Walk, always said that I had “potential”, and even bought me an easel for encouragement.
Even with the positive feedback, I suppose I considered myself only to be an “okay” artist. I certainly had peers who were miles above me in their ability. For multiple reasons such as ignorance and a lack of discipline on my part, I didn’t draw or paint in a consistent way for 20 some years. I created a sporadic painting, graphite drawing, or colored pencil drawing, but that was about it. I thought that I was super slow as an artist, meaning that it took me more hours than others to complete work, and that this was an abnormal thing. Because of this I wasn’t often willing to put in the time to finish pieces.
Drawing completed in 1997 of my Aunt Cap’s dog, Hershey, using Prismacolor colored pencils. I knew I liked working with this brand of pencils, but at that time I wasn’t aware of all of the techniques that could be used to create more realistic work.
Oil painting completed around 2013 of sled dogs on a boat. I have painted approximately ten oil pieces in my life, with no guidance or instruction.
Graphite Pet Portraits
Fast forward to 2018, when I was 42… I did a sketch of a dog in graphite and my mom sent a picture of it to her friends. One of these lovely ladies, Ilona Behnam, hired me to do some pet commissions as presents for her loved ones. This dear friend said that she wanted to motivate me to produce more art by compensating me. She was my original patron, and she certainly did encourage me. The first drawings that I did for her were in graphite. The drawing of Oscar in the coat was my first paid commission. This drawing took me maybe 10 hours to complete.
Gradually, as she and others began asking me to draw more pet portraits, I decided to spend more time drawing each work to improve the pieces. The drawing of Joe and Riley on snow watch took me approximately 40 hours.
The drawing on the left of Oscar was completed in the winter of 2018 and the drawing on the right of Joe and Riley in November of 2019.
Incorporating Colored Pencils Into Pet Portraits
After completing some graphite works, I was asked to draw a picture of a dog on a boat. I decided that the piece needed to be completed in color, because the reference photo was so pretty. I have always loved Prismacolor colored pencils, and so I decided to use them although I had never done a full colored pencil piece including the background before. It was an ambitious first attempt. I spent some time researching on YouTube how to fill up the grain of the paper in an attempt to create a “painterly” style. Learning was a painful process (and still is!), but gradually I was hooked on colored pencils.
Marshall On A Boat was completed in the spring of 2019 and Phoebe was completed in the late summer of 2020.
Learning to Use Pastels in Pet Portraits and Wildlife Drawings
As the months went by and I kept drawing, I realized that I was seeing gains in my skill in a rather short amount of time. This drove me to want to learn how to use pastels as well. I am currently still in the process of learning how to use pastels. Below is one of my early attempts, which I believe was made easier with my new found colored pencil knowledge.
Tiger completed in the summer of 2021 using pastels.
5 Tips on How to Improve As An Artist
I am still on my journey striving to create better works and share what I discover. I’m excited to see how much more I can learn and achieve. Reflecting on how I have increased my skills, I have come up with five ways to improve as an artist. I honestly think anyone can benefit from these tips.
You must spend time drawing or painting to improve.
I know this sounds very elementary, but to me it was not. I used to believe that people who were better artists than me were “just born with it”. Of course, it is true that some folks are born with more natural talent, but I think you will find that anyone who is excels at their craft has put in hours and hours of practice. Malcom Gladwell popularized the 10,000 hour of practice theory in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. While I may not agree 100% with the exact number pf hours, I think the whole premise makes sense.
Once I figured this first tip out, it actually gave me hope. It meant that I could also be a great artist, maybe even similar to whoever I was admiring on Instagram. If you think about it, hundreds of years ago, the Masters painted for their jobs, and so they practiced all the time. This made me realize that I needed to be more disciplined about drawing, whether or not I was creating a piece for a commission.
Of course, devoting more time is harder if you aren’t a professional artist. With a full time job, I am limited to when I can create. I am way too tired after work to even try to draw, so I had to make it work for me. I made a commitment to myself to draw four days a week for at least an hour a day. I force myself do this even if I don’t feel like it. I am not one of those people who naturally want to do things. I have to be disciplined about it. As a result, drawing has become a habit, and it makes me want to create more. Now I find that if I don’t draw for a little bit, I miss it.
Find whatever time you can to practice your art, and stick to a schedule. Promise yourself that you will draw for just a half an hour on x number of days. You may find that if you start creating, you will keep going for longer once you get into it. The bottom line is take whatever schedule you have and make it work. Over time, even if you only draw for 1/2 hour for four days a week, eventually you will have put many hours into improving your art.
Educate yourself on whatever media or skill interests you.
This caveat must follow tip #1- You could draw until the cows come home and not improve if it turns out you are doing something incorrectly. Practice alone does not make perfect.
This is where we are very fortunate with the availability of knowledge from the internet, books, courses, and workshops. There are so many ways to educate yourself without going to an art school. The only limitation is narrowing down who or where you want to get your information from.
I started by finding free tips on using colored pencils on YouTube. Plenty of artists give advice for free on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and in blogs. From there, I picked a few artists whom I admired and I completed tutorials with them on Patreon or Skillshare. If you are interested in learning how to improve in oil paintings, graphite, colored pencils, pastels, water colors, or any other media just do a search on YouTube and see if you can find someone who resonates with you. Learn from people who are more skilled than you. You will be able to find all levels of artists to choose from.
Seek out other topics to learn about such as how to: create a good composition, draw correct proportions, draw accurate anatomy in your works, utilize color theory, create a business in art, understand the importance of values, and so on. I think you’ll find that learning about one topic will lead to questions you have about other topics. Take advantage of the free information.
I like to listen to artists’ tips while I am driving or doing chores. This way I am multitasking and not using time at home watching YouTube when I could be drawing. You can listen to people talking on YouTube or find art or business podcasts to learn from. I look at learning as putting in hours towards perfecting my craft and I believe it is just as important as spending time drawing.
Exercise patience.
This one is still a hard for me. In our culture we are used to getting what we want fairly quickly. We can download a song we want to hear or immediately watch a movie or even buy a book in a few clicks. It takes some effort to slow down and realize that it takes time to create good art.
Not everyone creates at the same pace, but I will say for me it was helpful to learn that it takes other colored pencil artists hours and hours to create their pieces. In fact, it’s actually quite normal for it to take so long. To remind myself of this, I talk to myself when I am working on a piece (admittedly, this runs in my family). I tell myself to slow down, because I know that the final product will look much better if I take the time to work out the values and the hues instead of rushing to finish.
Patience also helps me to remember that I won’t become better overnight. I understand improvement is going to take time and effort. Gradually I can look back at older pieces and feel proud that I am in fact getting better. So keep pictures of those old works, because they are good to have to check your progress.
Don’t be a perfectionist.
One of my favorite artists, Van Gogh, painted over 900 works of art during only 10 years. That’s a crazy amount of artwork! That works out to about one piece every 36 hours. This tells me that he didn’t agonize over every piece. What I take from this is not that I need to work faster, but that I need to keep moving and creating.
It can be hard to know when a piece is “finished” and it’s time to move on, but it’s important to not over analyze your work. It helps me to take a step back from my work to appreciate it more. I spend most of my time with the artwork very close to my eyes. Most people aren’t looking so closely at my drawings, so it helps me to remember that it doesn’t have to be microscopically pleasing. Letting up on a little of the perfectionistic reigns frees me to create more pieces.
Also, if something isn’t working for you- let it go. For example, at one point I tried to create art with watercolors. I followed tutorials and my works came out slightly better than if a first grader painted them. I gave myself permission to drop that media, and it freed me to move along to something I might be better at, like pastels.
Keep a journal.
I have a journal where I write about my art journey for several reasons. I keep track of commissions I have completed, I take notes on what I have learned from pieces that I have completed (color selections, what worked and what didn’t work), I also take notes when I watch videos and tutorials, I make lists of things to do, and I write short term and long term goals.
I find that I am constantly going back through my journal to remember how to use a media in a specific way, to read notes I made regarding some technology, or to reassess my goals. Another positive of a journal is that you can check off items that you have learned, create new lists about things you want to look into, and have a record of your improvement. It’s neat to look back to earlier notes to find that I have accomplished what I set out to do. It’s very inspiring and it keeps me driving forward.
I hope that you have found these tips useful. Let me know in the comments what you think about my post or if you have any tips of your own.
