Tips to be a better artist

Above are 5 tips to be a better artist.

Becoming a good artist takes years of dedication, passion, energy and time. There are no short cuts but here are some tips to send you in the right direction.

Tip 1: Learn the Importance of the Sketch

Sketching is one of those things that every artist MUST do and do often. Sketches don’t have to be perfect, nor do you have to show them to anyone. They can be as rough or as scratchy as you like but the thing to keep in mind is it’s readability. The purpose of a sketch is to quickly illustrate or develop an idea you have, to capture or study some form of reference so that it can be worked on at a latter date. Because of this, the sketch only needs to convey the right information to you and you alone (unless you are drawing an idea out for a client then the message needs to be crystal clear).

Tip 2: Draw, Draw and Draw Some More!

This is a similar tip to the first but what I mean by this is draw anything that comes to mind or visually interests you. Sketch on the bus, train, in bed and even on the toilet. Seriously! The more you draw from your mind and from reference, the better you will become and the quicker your skills will develop. Take the time to doodle lots of different subjects and in lots of different environments as this will all help build up a mental cataloge of images to draw upon latter when you may become stuck for ideas or inspiration.

Tip 3: Build a Reference Library

This is a great tip that I learnt from years back. As you begin to fill sketch books with illustrations of ideas and reference material, you should build up that stack of books with more books. By this I mean buying art books, books on clothing, guns, tanks, other cultures, animals etc. The list of what you should look into is endless and should extend beyond your general interests. But it mustn’t stop there. You should also collect images off of the internet and save them to your computer and organize them correctly. Take photos of things you see if you don’t have time to sketch them. The purpose is to have a nice big collection of images that inspire you, inflame your imagination and, more specifically, if you need to draw something right, having the material there to draw from will add realism and clarity to your work.

Tip 4: Explore Different Mediums

This is when you take an idea from sketch to final painting. Exploring other methods of creating that end piece can really yield some unexpected results and challenge you to push yourself further into new situations. Playing with different types of paints such as oil, acrylic, water colour or gouache are the options most people would suggest trying, but there is more than experimenting with these. You could try air brushing, pastels, using charcoal or taking the leap into the digital realm. All these different mediums have their strengths that you can harness but you will never know them unless you try them out.

Tip 5: Learn Some Colour Theory (At Least)

This is a big one. Colour theory is a massive, massive subject and I can’t do it justice here. What I would strongly suggest is investing time and money in a good colour theory book and learn from that. Even learning only a little bit, will help your work massivley. The more you push yourself to learn, the better and better you will become.