10 Tips for Young Artists from an Old Artist: Encouragement and Advice for Practicing Traditional (Non-Digital) Art
Now, this is not another “old person yells at children for doing things differently” type of post. I love digital art as much as anyone else does, and I’m always impressed with what people can do with just a computer, some skill, and some time. I can’t use a tablet half as well as most of you can!
I just want to provide some tips and an exercise you can try below, because if you are feeling down, feeling stiff, feeling mentally exhausted-- Take a break from screen time. Set your tablet aside for a second. And don’t worry about “wasting time”, because developing your skills and knowledge in a fun and relaxing way is never, ever a waste of your time.
Here’s what you do for some helpful, guilt-free beneficial artist stress relief which will help you develop traditional medium skills:
1) Pull out any paper. Doesn’t have to be a sketchbook; A lot of us artists who taught ourselves to draw before tablets and art software were available on the non-business consumer level used nothing but lined paper, grid paper, or anything else around. I often drew on cardboard from food packaging. Using marked paper or other types of paper can help you “feel out” the dimensional space or proportions on the page, and can help limit your stress when drawing. Switch to unlined paper when you feel ready.
If you really struggle with traditional mediums, try getting a cheap Seyes lined notebook and using that to draw in. The particular lined ruling of Seyes style paper can be great for digital artists to acclimate to paper medium, as the lines can mimic grids in some drawing software programs.
Seyes ruling is sometimes called French Ruling, if you can’t find it otherwise.
2) Use a pencil or pen; Start with basic materials only and don’t try to plan out a whole big idea just yet. Don’t try to do any colouring unless you end up getting into it and want to go for it, don’t worry about materials too much, just stick to basic stuff. Pen and/or pencil. If you have a particular tool that you enjoy using, like a water brush, see if you can find a pen that has water soluble ink and use the water pen to create effects on the page. But don’t get too complicated if you don’t want to.
This is not homework, this is not a lesson, it is an exercise. The point is to learn in a relaxed and beneficial way for you, so you don’t have to follow anything I’m saying to the letter. You’re creative, so be creative! Some people struggle to get started, and sometimes materials limits or suggestions can help with that, which is why I’m saying if that applies to you, just use a plain old pencil and pen. Any ones will do, and try not to overthink getting started. You can develop it as far as you want from there, but getting started is always the biggest hurdle!
3) Don’t belittle yourself. Now, every artist knows this is hard! If you’re more familiar with digital mediums, of course traditional is going to be a very different experience for you. But the real goal of these tips and exercises is to learn to take a break from your comfort zone without any pressure or obligations to yourself or anyone else.
If it looks bad, that’s fine! If I could show you my old sketchbooks, trust me, you’d be amazed I ever got into art school.
But you will get better. I got better. Everyone who practices gets better, no matter what your starting point is.
Here are some example of quick pocket size sketches of mine that took me under 10 minutes:
Note that they’re not really all that complex, technically speaking. I used a water soluble ballpoint pen, a water pen, and a pencil. The above landscape study was fountain pen ink on semi-transparent layout paper.
You aren’t obligated to make a masterpiece, or even anything you’re particularly satisfied with, because this is all about practice. Use economy of line to create shapes and texture, like in the top sketch example. Use basic shading like in the lower example to create depth and visual interest in fairly straightforward line drawings.
Remember that this practice is stress-free; If you don’t like a sketch, get another piece of paper and put the last one out of your mind! Just keep going, no matter what you make or how you do it or what it looks like, you are still making something, and that is always good.
4) Look up some inspiration from non-digital artists. If you have a favourite series that might be a long-runner, look up any available character models or concept art from the 70s, 80s, or 90s when traditional mediums were getting increasingly experimental and stylised.
You may also want to look at old comic books from the 1930s to the 1960s to see how comic books used to be manually assembled on draft pages before digital processes were available, especially the more creative pages such as this Fantastic Four spread below by Jack Kirby:
Now, the way he made this is by collaging magazine photos, wallpaper, patterned craft paper. He used a mug to create the circular shapes, and enlarged a rivet from a jacket to create the photo-realistic metallic circle in the middle right of the page.
He then drew Reed Richards on another sheet of paper, cut it out with a scalpel, and overlaid it on top of the flat collage. The speech bubble was cut out and lettering applied, then also overlaid onto the collage.
This type of technique is what inspired the Layers function in Photoshop.
Look at some old shows you like that were animated before digital animation. Find art books, cels, or other pre-digital content that you can still recognise and enjoy, but stuff that looks different from what you’re more familiar with, and try to figure out how it was made.
5) Look up old animation or illustration tutorials. When I was a kid, I loved the Behind the Scenes episodes they used to make.
If you like animation, here’s Slimer Won’t Do That: The Making of the Real Ghostbusters, on YouTube in full.
Here’s How Walt Disney Cartoons Are Made, an animation process tutorial from 1938!
6) Look up old arts and crafts tutorial shows! There are several of these, and most are intended for kids, but they’re often very informative, fun, and relaxing.
I recommend Art Attack, which you can find all over YouTube.
7) Look up old drawing guides. Infamously, anything by Andrew Loomis is going to be your best bet, and I myself taught myself how to draw from Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth and his other tutorial books.
But he’s not the only traditional artist of note with good tutorials out there, so start Googling! I recommend going by decade or art style, then finding out popular artists from that era, and seeing if they have any sketchbooks or tutorials available out there.
8) Practice figure drawing and materials techniques/visual textures from fashion illustration. This is a real pro-tip. Fashion illustration is based around figure, form, and silhouette. All of these are important for you to learn, especially if you are interested in character design!
I recommend looking at Antonio Lopez, who has portfolios from 1960-1990. Below are two of his magazine illustration spreads:
Both are great examples of styles emblematic of their decades, 60s and 80s, and have great figure and texture elements.
9) Let yourself make mistakes. Now, this is what artists struggle the most with, especially young artists. I know how you feel, believe me. The pressure of starting a new sketchbook, the frustration of messing something up, the fear of messing something up, the disappointment when something doesn’t look quite right, the sadness when a new idea or material doesn’t work out.
But the thing is, I know you don’t feel like it, but you are a good artist.
Please read this out loud, or at least mouth the words: “I am a good artist.”
Write that in the upper left hand corner of the inside cover of any notebook or sketchbook you have. Even just in pencil. But write it down: “I am a good artist.”
Because it’s true. And from here, with every mistake you make, you are getting better and better. Every mistake you make is one less mistake you’ll make in the future.
And it never feels like that’s true, but I guarantee you, it’s true. Every sketch you hate gets you closer and closer to the sketch that you will love.
Never give up! Never surrender!
10) Look at old zines. Now, I used to make zines by the dozen, I still do occasionally, and this is the bread and butter of old school underground, subculture, and fandom art.
You can find endless fan zines all over the internet. I recommend you look up any long-runner franchises or one hit wonder shows you like, and see what the old school fandom made.
You can also find tons of old subculture zines, including one I used to read as a kid all the time whenever I could find it, Cometbus.
I hope this thread is helpful, and I know it’s long, but please share this for any young artists struggling with either traditional art practice or just generally with their creative self-esteem.
If any young artists want to ask me anything about art stuff, you are welcome to! While I have an Enhanced DBS check (government background check) and have worked in education and social care, please keep in mind that I am middle aged, and if you are uncomfortable talking to adults online I fully respect that. I don’t want you to do anything that might make you feel awkward or unsafe.
Feel free to reblog this post with or without any interaction, or if you would like, comment or add tags, whichever you prefer! I hope it helps someone.
