As with everything, there is always a beginning and an end.
In terms of art, I didn't take the profession seriously until later on in high school when the topic of where I wanted to go with life and college were applicable.
Until then art was just something I did to pass time.
Anyways, if you want to be an artist you've gotta start somewhere. For me it was at the age I could hold a crayon in my hand steady.
However, you may have started much later on in your life, which is perfectly fine.
I'm not typing this to make a long worded essay or anything, that's boring even for me. What I'm trying to get at is that like birth, art is messy. But you have to get through the mess of your work to see the end results, which is all the good stuff.
Love it or hate it it's a start, and that's where you gotta pounce and lock onto that skill of yours, to hone in on the quality.
That being said, let's look a bit into what made me want to choose my profession and how I got there.
When I was younger I always had my hands on tape, more tape, and paper. I made a lot of crafts and drew a lot of stick figures.
But from the lens of my five-ish-year-old mind, I didn't see stick figures or waded up paper in the vague shape of a gift box. I saw fleshed-out cartoon characters interacting with the objects drawn on paper, and paper boxes that looked like professionals had accidently left these magnificent boxes on our doorstep by accident.
It was beautiful, and I was satisfied. (Which is really the basic needs an artist has to have anyways).
Point in case is, your art will always look good through your eyes, but perhaps not someone else's.
Back before 3D animation was a really huge style that companies used to advertise and animate with, art seemed to not be a very viable career choice to pick. The only people who got famous were those who had an eye for traditional painting, or you just looked interesting and maybe had a different technique of painting.
While I'm sure the other styles of art were used during this time, no one seemed to be interested in them unless you could paint.
Kinda backwards compared to how many CGI movies we get in a year now, and that this even extends down to commericals and televison shows.
I guess I'm trying to say that art as a job was never in the forefront of my mind as I continued my education.
Timeskip a bit forwards into freshman year of high school, I found out that people really like to shove applying for college down your throat. (It's not that I hated college, I just grew tired of hearing it over and over again from my teachers.)
With this in mind, I began a job hunt from what I wanted to do.
I found two I really liked:
1. Video Game Beta Tester
and
2. Storm Chaser
This was a time in my life where I had access to more free time for myself and I often spent a lot of this time switching between watching
Storm Chasers and
Krypto the Superdog.
When I did finally decide that Art was the passion I wanted to pursue, the rest came down to planning how to achieve my goal and what I was going to do with it.
In terms of my art skill level, I really didn't get the boost I needed until I went to college.
Not to say college is the cure all for everything, but for me it worked rather well.
College education or not, I'm going to tell you the billion dollar secret that will save you the effort of having to go work and learn this yourself. Ready?
Experience makes your art skills grow. The artist makes the art, not the art makes the artist.
In order words, work, work,
work! You'll never get any better if you don't put practice time in!
I didn't start out great, and neither will you!
Use a lot of references if you need to figure out a shape! Don't be afraid to trace other people's work if it helps you better understand the placement of an object. Inspiration is not just in nature or figure drawings, it's all around you! (Even on the internet!)
That's it. That's the secret.
Whenever I search on Google for information about a famous artist, or maybe I'm just looking at their work; you'd be floored by how many rough sketches and works I see that are nowhere near the level of art skill you'd expect from such a famous person.
Why?
Because all good artists plan ahead using sketches!
Don't be fooled, I haven't met an artist yet that can just magically close their eyes and produce an amazing piece of work from scratch. It takes time, planning, and multiple sketches before an artist feels comfortable enough to start creating their masterpiece.
A masterpiece is sort of a loose term actually... Like, Da Vinci's work is often considered painted well enough to be a masterpiece. But if Da Vinci were to see the works displayed in various museums across the world, he'd likely be floored that his work was considered good enough to even be displayed!
It's all about perspective.
There is a line between how an artist sees their artwork, and how a spectator sees it.
However, progress can be seen and measured even.
I guess I'll use myself as an example.
Here's something I drew last month for my new icon picture.
And here's something I did two years ago...
If we wanted to go back further here's what my skills looked like.
Ugh, now these are some cringy pieces. :U
But as you can see I've improved a ton over the years.
So for all your artists beating your head against the table, keep working at your art! One day it'll shine brighter than all the others. ^w^
