:art: Beginner Artist Tips :art:

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☆ Tips/Advice for Beginner Artists ☆

This is aimed at beginner artists for the most part, but even as someone who's been drawing for all my life, I only learned some of these things recently and I've been guilty of essentially all of them, so I hope you are able to take something from this as well. (Also, the art used here isn't mine, of course. Enjoy some Yusuke.)

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☆ References ☆

References are wonderful, they're VERY important to creating great art and to improving your skills. Use as many references as you'd like, it's not "cheating", wrong, or anything of the sort as long as you don't copy it exactly or trace and say "I did this completely from my own imagination", nothing is wrong with using references. However, references will be much more helpful to you when you reference real photos/people/etc. instead of referencing off other art, especially highly stylized art. Referencing stylized art will increase the likelihood of making mistakes or referencing other artist's mistakes, since no artist is perfect. It will also help with the natural development of your art style as I will get into later.

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☆ Anatomy ☆

Learning basic anatomy and how the body works, even if you don't have extensive knowledge of it, it will help improve your art and make it more realistic/accurate. Learning these things will help you greatly in the development in your art style, since you first need to learn the rules of art before you break them. By this I mean understanding anatomy, how the body works, how it moves, and so forth and practicing it will help you to create work that doesn't look "off" if you were to rush to create an art style, which at its core is an exaggerated depiction of realistic art/the body.

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☆ Art Style ☆

As mentioned in the last two topics, art style should not be rushed. Your art style will develop naturally over time and don't stress about not having a distinguished "unlike any other" art style. Take your time to develop it, do not rush it, and to have an art style with aspects resembling or taking inspiration from others and to develop your own and to combine it with aspects from other art styles is far from an issue and to take inspiration from other work and create your own work from it is a beautiful part of art.

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☆ Keep Your Old Art ☆

This one isn't as much as a necessity, however I still consider it to be important especially considering the motivation and hope it will give you. Keeping your old art and avoiding throwing it away will provide you with the opportunity to look back through all of it and look at how much you have improved since then. If you are in a slump, look through your very old art and look at how much better you are now, this is your own personal proof that you have the ability to improve despite how long it may take you to improve, continue to practice your art and you will get better.

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☆ Take Constructive Criticism ☆

Be open to constructive criticism. For example, take someone saying "The hands are too small". This statement both points out what looks off about the piece and tells you how to correct it in just a few simple words. Outsider opinions will help you a lot in improving your art due to the difference in perspectives between audience and artist. You may encounter people who are simply rude about your art such as saying "This looks ugly", but you have the option to turn that into an opportunity to improve as well, ask the individual what specifically looks ugly about the piece and it will help you determine what areas you need to improve on.

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☆ Don't Compare Your Art ☆

Don't compare your art to others, especially ones who have been drawing much, much longer than you have. There's a lot that goes into being good at art, not just the amount of time you have spent on it, like patience, time spent practicing, the tools used, motivation, and so on. If you compare yourself to other artists, you will frequently find yourself upset about your art, but you can always take seeing other artists producing wonderful pieces as an opportunity to be inspired, since that person was just like you originally and more than likely looked down at their own art. However, their art became wonderful just as yours has the full capability of becoming, it just takes patience. You will not become amazing off the bat, everyone starts off at the same place and to realize that and embrace it will help you.

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☆ Popularity ☆

Don't expect popularity soon. 99% of artists spend many years building up a following as they improve their art and evolve. The worth of your art is not determined by the amount of followers you have or how frequently you are commissioned. Especially concerning commissions, you will not immediately get them and it takes time as well, but do not undersell yourself. Draw what you love to draw and the worth of your art is determined by you alone.