10 Top Tips To Become a Better Artist

Robert Chang wrote:

My top 10 tips would be:

1) Buckle down and really learn the foundations (composition, perspective, anatomy/figure, color theory, values/lighting...etc).
You cannot really call yourself a competent artist until you have done so. Ideally you should not only learn them, but master them, and when you do, you're not merely competent, but confident and authoritative as well.


2) Break out of tunnel vision.
If you are obsessed with anime/manga, or superhero comics, or any kind of specific style and have not been exposed to or have explored fully other art movements, styles, cultures, and time periods, then you need to become more well-rounded. Tunnel-vision is creatively crippling and it breeds imitation and homogenized artists who can't think outside the established box. Cross pollinating and hybridizing various art styles and influences is the healthiest and most creatively interesting.


3) Don't be a mindless artist.
Think about why you are creating. Is your only interest to make "cool shit" and "hot babes"? Do you even have something to say as a human being living in a complex society? Is everything about your creative works completely disposable and meaningless? I'm not saying we have to be "deep" all the time, but if you are producing works that have absolutely no meaning even to yourself and only serving the basest level of gratification, never involving the higher motivations like intellect or emotions, then maybe it's time to dig a little deeper. You have a soul--use it.


4) Don't slavishly copy reality--we invented the camera for that.
Being an artist is about interpreting the world around us, expressing ideas and emotions, telling visual stories...etc. If your commercial job as an artist is to reproduce reality, then well, a job is a job. But if you have aspirations beyond a day job, then really think about how you want to approach your personal works. As artists we have the power to stylize, exaggerate, simplify, selectively detail, idealize, use abstract and surreal approaches--it would be a shame to not utilized those powers.


5) Surface polish is the last on the list of things a growing artist should care about.
How clean and tight your render the surface, how expressive and organic your brushwork is, whether to use clean lines or sketchy lines...etc--they are all simply options you can pick and choose as you wish, and often different subject matters will use different surface treatments. More than anything, it's the underlying structure and foundation knowledge that needs to be strong--the surface polish is really an ongoing experiment, and it's always changing and evolving. A good artist should be able to utilize all kinds of surface polish approaches effectively, not just locked into one and knowing nothing else. If your underlying foundation is strong, then almost any surface treatment will work with it, but if your underlying foundation is weak, no surface treatment will save it. You know the saying "You can't polish turd..."?


6) Do not simply practice hard--you must also practice smart.
Don't run around in circles thinking merely filling up sketchbooks aimlessly is all it takes. Plan your growth with milestones. Set clear goals. Be resourceful and know how and where to acquire knowledge. Target your weaknesses and don't dwell on things you can already do in your sleep--train on the things you can't yet do and learn to do them well. Push yourself and explore your limits, then break those limits. Learn and grow with a clear focus--know exactly why you are doing what you're doing at any given moment, and know exactly how it will help you learn and grow. Don't just draw and paint mindlessly--think about what you're doing and analyze, observe, deconstruct, and recognize the structures and patterns--be it the scientific physical laws of our world (light, shadows, colors, stress and compression points of fabric...etc), or creative approaches that yield the most effective results (utilizing contrast in color, values, and shapes, varying edge qualities..etc).


7) Have realistic expectations; Rome was not built in a day.
It takes years of working hard and working smart to get good. Filling up a sketchbook or two means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Artists don't just draw a few dozen heads and then get it right--they draw hundreds and thousands over the years, decades, and they don't do it mindlessly--they are studying the underlying structure of the human head and the affected surface by different facial expressions. And that's just the head.


8) Learn to take criticism.
To be an artist and living among other people means you will get comments about your work, and if you cannot take criticism you will be miserable. Instead of being miserable, you should see criticism as valuable arsenal for your growth. When nobody bothers commenting is when you should be worried, because your work is not able to elicit any response from another human being, which means you are neither getting helpful criticism to help you grow, nor getting feedback on what people like about it. When you get both negative and positive comments, be grateful, be gracious, and keep an open mind. A bruised ego is an ego that's being conditioned to be stronger and more open-minded. If you cannot see beyond your bruised ego, you will become crippled by it. Also keep in mind that sometimes you don't get feedback because you are simply still too early in your growth, where everything you do is wrong, so it's very hard to give feedback on specific points other than "keep learning your foundations." When that happens, buckle down and strengthen your foundations for a while and you'll automatically see improvements.


9) Be a well-rounded person.
If you know how to draw and paint well but have no life experience, your work will suffer. Learn about the world we live in. History, politics, religion, economics, science, literature, music, photography, film...etc. You'd be surprised how the world is interconnected and so many things have direct or indirect relationships with each other beyond your initial understanding. The more insight you have about the world we live in, the better artist you will be. Have healthy relationships with other people--family, friends, lovers. They often form the core of your emotional expression as a human being and as an artist. An intellectually and emotionally sterile or vacant person will have very little to offer as an artist.


10) You may or may not be suited to become a good artist.
There are all kinds of personality types, and not all are suited to become a good artist. If you are impatient, cannot sit still, lose focus quickly, easily frustrated, lack motivation, lack ambition, cannot take negative criticism, wants only instant gratification and not willing to pay your dues...etc, then you probably won't fare well as an artist. This goes the same for many other human endeavors--not only the creative ones.