Becoming an artist is a gradual thing. It rarely happens overnight and its built on years of consistent practice, trial, and error.
Persistence is key
It’s the same with everything you learn. And building a daily creative habit is one of the best things you can do. Even if your daily schedule only affords you 15 minutes a day, use them for your art. Keep a small sketch pad on you and sketch during a lunch break, on a bus or tube journey to and from work, even in the car when you’re at school pick up.
And remember that persistence does not mean perfection
Not everything you do is going to be brilliant and when you are starting out that can be extremely frustrating. But look at this as all part of the learning curve. None of us came into this world pre-programmed or competent in everything. You are what you learn, and learning takes time. Remember that when you see artists showing beautiful works of art, what you are seeing is the result of many years (sometimes a lifetime) of practice to make perfect.
You will need to master the basics of art
As with every skill you have there will be basics you had to master first. Remember when you learnt to write at school? You would have spent hours learning letters phonetically before you even started practicing individual letters on lined paper. You then learnt words using the associated pictures and how to spell them, and then how to print the letters before you learnt to join the letters up in joined up writing. It was a process and it took time.
In art some of the key things to learn are lighting on subjects, perspective, colour theory, and composition. If you learn and understand the rules you can then have a fabulous time breaking them later on!
Reach out to others in your field. We’re a pretty friendly bunch!
And the great thing about art is that none of us are really in competition with each other for the simple reason that the ideas coming from our creative brains cannot be the same as anyone else’s.
What I mean by this is that no one sees the world in the same way. You could have a hundred artists paint the same landscape. Yes, structurally there will be similarities and there should be. However, every single one will be different according to how the artist sees what’s in front of them. A great example of this are the television shows ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’ and ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’. The same subjects but always very different results.
Finding your niche may take a while but you will find it. And do seek out constructive critiques from those that you admire and whose opinion you value.
Finally, and if you want to; share your work. Let the world know what you’re doing and build your own community along the way.
My top tips are:
- Practice as often as you can. Daily if you have the time. Be consistent.
- Master the basics. Small regular steps will turn your passion into a possible career.
- Shout! Share your work online. Get savvy with social media and tap into artist communities
- Dedication. Dedication to yourself and dedication to your craft are essential attributes
And if you want to sell you work, remember to take the time to learn the business side of things. One could argue that this is as important as the work you are creating.
For more blogs and to see my art please head on over to www.ritacariad.art and please do follow me on Instagram ritacariadart.