How to start practice art?

[Eyliana]

When you start drawing (and maybe later as well, I'm not that far yet) there are a lot of areas you need to improve before you can make a drawing or painting that looks decent. Anatomy, colour, light, composition, perspective and so on. And you need most of them to make one painting look good. This can be quite demotivating, at least for me, that if the sketch looks good and you start painting that it is totally off again. Or that the painting is good, but that you discover the sketch if off.

Besides this, there always are new subjects and areas to study. For example, at the moment I'm focusing on portraits and getting the anatomy right. But to make a finished portrait, you also need background element or you need to learn how to paint some kind of jewelry or other things. In order words, there are a million of things you have the feeling you don't know and need to learn.

So how do/did you deal with this? Did you study all the subject one at the time or at the same time? How do you stay motivated if final paintings don't work out the way you wanted? And how do you deal with the feeling that there are so many things you still need to learn?

For me, I'm just trying to focus on portraits and the anatomy and painting with water colours. Sometimes I add a bit of background or part of the body, but that is more for fun and studying that part comes later when I'm satisfied with my portrait skills.

What are your thoughts :)?

[Olooriel]

What usually works best for me is to focus on my greatest weaknesses first, whatever it is that my works are consitently lacking, that never really turns out right, because that's what will improve my work the most if I can get better at it. That's in regards to fundamentals (drawing, composition, value, perspective, anatomy...) Focusing on any one specific thing like "how to paint jewelry" for a lengthy period of time doesn't really get you far in the long run, these are the things that you study best when you need them for a project. As for the fundamentals, I don't think you can ever feel that you know enough of any one of them, the more you learn, the more you'll notice that you still have to learn. Yes, there is a lot to learn, but it helps to realize that you have a lifetime to learn it, and you'll still never learn it all, and nobody ever has - just start with the most important basics, and never give up, never get comfortable with the level you're at, never stop learning.

If a final painting isn't working, figure out why. Put your work next to work you admire and compare - what is yours lacking? If you can't figure it out, get critique from a more experienced artist. Then start the next piece and try to apply what you've learned. The best way I've found to deal with disappointing pieces or crushing critiques is to tackle that monster head-on - it'll make you feel better to know that you're doing something to fix the problem. The worst thing you can do is let it discourage you and stop drawing for a while, because it gets you out of practice.

[Sloane]

I don't really have an answer. Finding motivation can be really really hard. I think one of the most common solutions is to keep a swipe file: a folder or a scrapbook of artwork that you admire or images that really speak to you. It's good to remember which direction you want to head towards as an artist. A lot of the time I just don't know what it is that I want to draw or paint, and it helps with that too.

[Bookend]

I think practicing and improving in art is a very individual process. Well-meaning people will tell you what you should do quite often, hoping that they're being helpful.

What I have found is that all of this advice people will give you is absolutely great-- Except that it depends on what you need. So, it's only helpful if you're at a stage where your brain is ready for it.

You'll get bombarded with great advice--

"You should really study anatomy", "You should study values", "You should do environment studies," "You should do personal imaginative pieces"-- etcetera, etcetera!

Then you get overwhelmed. "Holy crap-- I have so much that I need to do! Where do I start!?"

I think the first thing you need to do is: Define where it is you want to end up. Ask yourself-- "What do I want to do with this?"

Do you want to draw characters? Do you want to draw environments/landscapes? Do you want to draw animals?

No matter what you decide, learning to draw one subject will flow fairly seamlessly into another, but it's important to choose attainable, small goals to start with.

It's perfectly fine to decide, "I want to draw faces." Then you draw the human skull, you draw spheres, you draw boxes/cubes, you draw cones, you learn about how light falls on these objects by drawing the planes of the face, etc. You take your time, and you do your best. Draw it from memory, draw it from life, draw it from photographs. Take a sketchpad with you and draw when you're out.

Choose small goals that will direct you towards what you want to be doing with this skill.

Good luck!

[Eyliana]

Thank you all :).

I think an important part is that you can't learn it all at the same time and that you have to break it down. This can be quite frustrating, because sometimes you want to be able to do all :P.There is so much to learn, so little time.

[KurtJeremy]

yep exactly, that whats make it so challenging , hard work needs to be done otherwise anyone can be a master in doing visual art.  Its gonna take a lifetime so why not have fun while youre at it?