Here's some art tips from a (mostly) self taught artist that aren't just "practice a lot ^_^"
Most paid premade art courses (i.e lessons are youtube videos/written lessons) are a waste of money. They go through the same fundamentals everyone does and tend to talk about concepts and terms originating from popular books such as andrew loomis' bibliography or james gurney's color and light. just buy (or pirate) the books about the topic you wish to learn about instead.
in contrast, art courses that focus on tutoring you, even if not 1:1 (i.e its a class) are extremely valuable. they are very expensive though so I won't act like you Must do them.
in the same vein of premade art courses, most tutorials/youtube videos are also information from books of art masters through insane degrees of separation. They're free so its not like theyre bad but they slowly erase any nuance and educational lessons that the books offered in trade for being easy to put in a 10 minute video. they may be good introductions but if you ever feel like they dont give much that's why.
the reason why "just practice" feels unhelpful is because each area of art has multiple methods of practicing it, some of which are not interchangeable, and are not common knowledge. here's some ways I practice:
precursor practice that helps you in all areas -> learning about shapes. the volume of boxes, cylinders, spheres, how they move in 3d space, how they can be cut, interpolated, etc. put them in a perspective grid, try layering shapes and cutting them up.
human anatomy -> learn about muscle and bone placement, and how they move. study the shapes and planes of the body, what is hard vs soft. gesture drawing if youre stuck on poses and dynamics
light and shadow -> learn to simplify objects via planes and how those planes are illuminated, where the light positions itself and why (is it the sun? a lantern? a lightbulb?), learn about the science of light such as the different types of shadow and how light bounces. pick up photos and find the light source.
its fine to take long breaks from art. drawing everyday is not super useful and only works for a few people. yes youll have rust but its very easy to shake it off.
if you learn how to get joy from the action of drawing over the results of drawing, studies will feel less like a chore and youll be less reliant on an art piece turning out good to not feel miserable.
if the only art community you have is your followers/social media you will go crazy. your audience has no obligation of enjoying every single piece of yours and alienating them will make things worse. find actual art friends where you can have conversations about your art so you dont feel so reliant on social media numbers.
appreciate art that isnt other illustrative art. find joy in abstract sculptures, architecture, music, novels, the world around you etc.
yes materials help a lot but if you dont have experience then you'll not see a big difference in output. you also need to learn to use those materials before being able to draw how other artists do.
no matter how good you are, you will always make art that you see as bad/lower quality. those artists you think only make bangers are still feeling bad because some of those bangers are not good to them. learn to come to terms that nothing you make will be a hit or satisfy you, and move on.
blakekathryn
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