What makes a good self-taught artist?

[Vompt]

Hey guys,

For a couple of months now, I have been looking back at my art school experience and trying to figure out how did the people at the top of my class ended up being at the top of the class. I know that they didn't rely entirely on school to learn everything they wanted to learn which made them stand out.

One of these guys once said to me that he would pick at someone's brain until they acquired what they wanted and that's pretty much it. I saw him read a hole bunch of books related to art too. So I've come to certain conclusions but there are still a few things that I'm still trying to figure out.

A good self-taught artist is:

-Self-reliant
-Always reads on the subject of art
-Learns from people who are better than himself
-constant in his work
-dedicated to his craft

One of the things that I can't wrap my mind around is how does a self-taught artist see his own mistakes and his own bad habits that he develops? How does he get around to dismantle these things without outside help?

Also, if you guys know other things that aren't in my little list, could you please list them and maybe explain them to me please? I'm sure that would help a lot of people here too!

Thanks for the help guys!

[Patrick Gaumond]

A lot of people misunderstand what self-taught means. It doesn't mean that you don't seek outside help, in fact it can sometimes be the opposite in that you constantly seek outside help and feedback from others. I don't know of any self taught artists that lived in a bubble only reading books and working on their craft with no critiques, never watching other people work, never participating in some sort of group activity and so on

Self taught really just means that you have no institution or curriculum guiding how you learn and when you learn. You decide it 100%. How you gain this knowledge is up to you, but I highly doubt its even possible to gauge your own work without ever being told whats wrong with it. I'm pretty sure every artist thinks their the best at some point early in their career, and if that attitude persists too long it can become a bad habit and lead to constant disappointment or inflated egos

You develop the ability to see mistakes in your work in a few ways in my experience

1. Getting critiques on your work
2. Hearing crits of other peoples work and seeing if it also applies to yours
3. Studying the real world and comparing where you're making mistakes to how it is in reality
4. Varying how you think and go about studying/making your own work so that you gain different perspectives on how to work, how to analyze things, how to plan out a picture etc

You might be lost doing work strictly from imagination and not able to gauge why it doesn't look right. Over time, however, your ability to see naturally and subtly develops to the point where you will be able to spot mistakes in your studies very easily, and hopefully you will have an inner dialogue that will allow you to remember those mistakes and at least attempt to correct them in your imaginative works

[Amit Dutta]

A "good" self taught artist needs to be
Persistent
Passionate
Dedicated
Determined
Patient
Humble
Balanced (in life, health, exercise, social etc)
Selfless (willing to give back) and teach

That's what it takes. The what and how is totally individual to the person, and doesn't bear talking about in too much specifics. Everyone learns differently and in different orders, under different circumstances.
The only thing I will bother explaining, is the selfless bit. So often I have seen many self teachers because they have this huge task ahead of them, be totally obsessed with their own improvement and what they can get out of people in terms of technique, crit etc. Fewer take time to teach and help others with what they have learned. This is why it is always pro artists, most who went to art school, harping on about how shit it was, and how we should pay them for their teaching. F*k that. I mean sure it's good stuff technique wise but learning from someone who has done the hard path of being purely self taught themselves, would be infinitely more valuable because they really understand that side of the game. So yeah...when you feel comfortable doing it, start teaching and helping others, and you will learn even more as a result.

[Jeso]

1 word..... Balls, that's what you need. This line of work ain't for the faint of heart.

[Vompt]

Thanks guys! Cool insight!

I've read somewhere else about something that self-taught artists do to see how they can improve their work. They are able to do so because they have developed a well trained eye to good work and they don't let this effect their self-esteem. That thing is confronting their work with the one of a professional artist. They are really self-demanding but that doesn't mean that they will constantly feel bad about themselves, they are just won't let themselves be satisfied with just ''oh, I'm just starting out, it isn't too serious that it isn't like that''. I don't know if you catch my drift but it made me have an epiphany this week.

What they would do is look at their work compared to a similar image made by a pro artist and ask themselves his images isn't as much powerful, why his image isn't rendered as good and etc. And then the next time, they raise the bar and try to do what that pro is doing in his work. These people are the ones that truly has conscience of their true level of experience but still has the confidence in their own potential. They can better themselves more than the next guy because they are lucid in their own work. That what is called ''artistic ambition''.

It's not a method or a technique but more of a way of thinking.

[Amit Dutta]

Hmm I didn't really understand what you are saying vompt sorry, but one thing I would say is there really isn't much difference between someone who excels at art be they self taught or university taught, I don't think. if you think about it, getting better at art is purely a personal thing, dependent on attitude, determination, curiosity, passion etc etc.

At a certain point we are all self taught, because the real insights come from the doing not necessarily the method of learning! so actually what difference does it make which you are?
Just learn and grow they way you prefer in the best way you can, defining it further is a bit pointless in my opinion.

[KurtJeremy]

i agree with amit on the doing' aspect instead of the more methodological way of learning.
to add to that....
thing with art is , its purely visual' theres so much ways to go about drawing/painting.
so you cant really stick to a one method of drawing only , you make your own one.

its how someone approach this , "designing your own method" thing is on my opinion , what makes a good artist , be it , self taught or not.

ive seen so many artists , who i knew havent got to some educational institution , and make some awesome shit. my thought about that is they watch some tuts and compare their works with artists that they like. they imitate them , they copy their works. with enough time spent. theyll just gonna get what they needed from this "other artists" and ditch off what they aren't gonna need. now with the "tools" that they acquired , by imitating , practicing , and comparing. they can now in turn do their own stuff , doing those 3 things can be tedious at times. and that i think what makes a good artist do in order to stand out of the other artists.

[jqln]

Something that I found interesting and helpful is to keep your old work. Usually I want to toss it, but recently I found an old sketch I made of a model, and a more recent one (sketches made from the same photo), and I was surprised how much better the new one was (as I've been learning new techniques for drawing). I think it's also helpful if, after you achieve a new breakthrough or realization, to do an audit of your work, and see where your flaws were. Even if you only mentally take note them, you can see how you could have made it better.

As for instruction, reading books isn't as effective as watching a video of an artist teaching. And, it has to be someone who is top-notch in teaching (like Glen Villpu). If a teacher is talking too slow or has a nasal voice, then I don't even want to hear what they have to say because it's too frustrating. When I do try to learn from books, if there are diagrams or drawings in them, I will try a little quiz on myself. I'll try to draw that diagram from memory on my ipad, and then go back to the book to see if I remembered it correctly. This is a fun little exercise and super effective for committing to long-term memory.