How I went from no painting skills to professional artist.

hey friend in this video we're going to be talking about my journey from no painting skills to professional artists so if you're dabbling with watercolor or any medium rather I wanted to point out and pull out some of the main phases that I experienced as a hobby artist then turned professional artist so growing up I grew up around art supplies but I did not go to art school I grew up my mom was a painter and both of my grandmothers on both sides were also painters but it was just a hobby that we kind of did every once in a while it wasn't like something that we pursued or I took classes in and thought to myself I'm going to be a professional artist one day it wasn't something that I ever thought that I was extraordinarily good at or had a talent in or I had friends growing up who I would think to myself oh that person is the artist in the friend group not me and when I was about 22 23 years old I came across the medium of watercolor I actually had acrylic paint that I was watering down and using as watercolor this was before the days of YouTube was around but it was before the days of like I didn't know that YouTube tutorials on Art mediums existed um I just got a smartphone and I just started like posting my artwork on Instagram for friends and family for my like 200 followers or whatever it was um but I was in what I like to call the obsession phase so every new artist when they're before they start adding it to the to a career or they start pursuing it professionally enters into the first stage which is the obsession phase and this will ebb and flow and you'll come back to this phase but the obsession phase is just like new love when you meet someone you fall in love when you meet a medium you fall in love and you become obsessed I was driving to my day job where I worked at a financial planning office and I hated my job and all I thought about when on my commute all I thought about during my day job on my lunch break on my way home was watercolor I thought about it Non-Stop and calligraphy because I was doing a lot of pointing depend calligraphy at the time so I was obsessed it took over my mind all I wanted to do was paint when I got home all I wanted to do while I was at my day job was paint all I wanted to do on the weekends was paint so I was in that Obsession phase it was still a hobby I had my kitchen table I had my art supplies in a box that I would just plop on my kitchen table and paint or on the couch or wherever I just did it because I loved painting I had no idea that I was going to pursue it professionally or that I was going to turn into this career that I now have this is 10 years later at the time of recording this video but all I all I could think about was watercolor was Art was creating and painting that was the obsession phase maybe some of you who are watching this video are a current day in that Obsession phase the next phase after the obsession phase is the research and testing phase so that obsession is still lingering it's kind of like we're year one or two sometimes it can be a few short months or a few short weeks depending on the type of the person you are the talent level that you have going into it and the amount of time that you can dedicate to this new obsession you might grow really rapidly and quickly and others might be a little bit of a slow burn so it just depends on the person and the amount of time like I said but that research and testing phase is when you start to Branch out a little bit maybe you hop on YouTube and you start like what is this how does this medium actually work what are the foundations of watercolor what are the foundations of oil painting or how do I study a certain subject and how do I sketch or paint or whatever a certain subject so instead of just painting whatever comes to mind or whatever feels in flow during that Obsession phase you're implementing and you're being more targeted with your growth areas maybe where you're struggling with the media maybe you've hit a wall and you need help with sketching or you've hit a wall and you need help with adding depth and dimension or studying color theory or mixing colors Etc So This research and testing phase is something that I like to call a loop with the next phase of the game which is implementation phase so the implementation phase and the testing and research phase is kind of like a seesaw you'll go back and forth even daily sometimes within one single day you'll go back and forth between implementation and the research and Testing Research and testing can look like watching YouTube tutorials maybe taking an online course or in-person course it can look like going for a walk and studying subjects in real life and then the implementation phase is literally when you create the stuff the creation phase so you're implementing what you're learning in the research and testing phase to then actually practice what you're researching and testing and pursuing and seeing where you need to go from there in some Seasons there's more research and testing going on and other Seasons maybe there's more implementation and you kind of also simultaneously weave in the obsession back through your art Journey because as someone who's a seasoned professional artist at this point in my career I've gone through many seasons where the obsession totally leaves the building where I am just kind of a little burnt out or little creatively stuck or feeling a little bit dry and so research and testing is extremely important to bringing that Obsession or that love of what you do back into your Pursuits one of the biggest ways to actually continuously grow as an artist is to always be testing always be growing and challenging yourself because when we get stuck that's when we feel burnt out that's when we feel bored and we want to move on and a lot of people just throw in the towel and artists are meant to expand and grow so continue to implement continue to research and test and another way to tie up all of this is to create something every day even if it sucks I say this all the time I've been saying this phrase for years it's so so important to continue to come back to that principle of learning and growing and creating something every single day even if it sucks and that goes back to the implementation and testing phase so that you can keep things exciting just like a romantic relationship you know you've been with the person for 20 years and it's like you don't do the you don't do things that are brand new anymore so do things that are brand new and it keeps the flame alive and then obviously if you are getting into a new medium or your brand new artist and you want to maybe one day turn it into a professional career create something every day even if it sucks never ah never always never underestimate the power of creating something every day even if it sucks we should always be learning and growing we can't know everything so you know keep that flame alive so back to my own personal story obviously when I was at my kitchen table coming home from my nine to five at the financial planning office my work was just not good uh you can actually I've kept everything on my Instagram so if you scroll 10 years back on my Instagram maybe more if you're watching this video later than when we post it um you will see some of that old work I think it was important for me to keep it up there because I teach obviously and I wanted to remember where I've come from and where I've been uh where I continue to go that old work um is there's no Dimension I don't really understand the shapes or basic shapes of flowers and things that I was painting at the time but it didn't matter to me at the time I was obsessed with what the medium itself was bringing to me and that was peace and joy and fun and happiness and all positive things and so because that Obsession continued to carry me through continuous practice I was simultaneously developing muscle memory and expanding my need for growth in that Medium because I was you know hitting walls of okay I've done this type of flower over and over again it's basically just a blob how can I make it look like more than just a blob and so you know hopping on YouTube or uh looking up online classes or in-person classes or really going out and studying what the flower looks like I grew up my mom is an avid Gardener and so she has a beautiful yard with tons and tons of flowers so I grew up around flowers a lot and so that was just readily available to me and to my memory as I started painting and so I painted a lot of flowers I would go over to my mom's yard I would go over to you know local Gardens or Parks or whatever and I would look at the flowers and I would study them and see what's the basic shapes and then also taking YouTube looking at YouTube videos of sketching human figures or sketching other things outside of flowers would also be educational and informative on how to approach any subject whether it's a human or a flower or whatever so go outside in other mediums go outside in real life and implement the things that you're learning by testing and tweaking and pursue what what lights you up pursue maybe your interests that are outside of maybe you've boxed yourself into watercolor flowers I remember when I was doing a lot of wedding stationery I was painting a lot of wedding flowers painting tons and tons of flowers just that's all I had time for because I was really booked and I had a lot of clients asking for the same types of flowers and so when I did have free free time I would try to make time to paint portraits or try to make time to sketch portraits and I'm so glad I made time to do that because having that that Insight on the planes of a face or dimensions of the face basic shapes in a face has also implemented I've been able to implement those foundations into florals and still life and everything else that I paint because it's across the board so that's kind of a little journey a little peek at my journey from no art skills to professional artists again if you want to check out my old work go to generating on Instagram and you'll see it if you scroll really far down and as a reminder it's so much more difficult these days when I started 10 years ago there wasn't a ton of noise on Instagram like I said I didn't really know that YouTube tutorials existed I'm sure they did but I just wasn't really like I didn't use YouTube yet and so I I just want to remind you that you need to keep your blinders on the comparison part of social media and scrolling and seeing all of these talented people all of these people with tons and tons of tutorials and thousands of subscribers on YouTube or whatever it is can be really intimidating and that comparison literally is the thief of Joy it can suck the joy right out of this this Obsession that you have with this medium that you're working with so make sure to keep your blinders on maybe that means having really strict boundaries on your scroll time on social media just so you can stay focused on that Obsession that you have and going out and testing and implementing the things that you want to learn and then obviously it is helpful to follow these accounts and to follow tutorials and all of that but there should be a balance so that you're not com just comparing yourself to all these other artists and feeling that imposter syndrome creeping up in your life so I hope this video was helpful please let me know in the comments below what else maybe I missed maybe you have a phase in your journey where you're a professional artist now and you started off as a hobbyist um that was really helpful for you drop it in the comments I'm sure it would be helpful for other people and if you're in the early days of your art journey I would also love to see you on my patreon I'm doing a lot of exclusive monthly tutorials there where I'm going in depth on watercolor and other things sketching as well we also have an art community for people to share their work and get feedback on their work and then I have my course the art within which teaches you all about Flow State how to create your best and most optimal work through the foundations of sketching shading Dimension perspective and all things Art Plus the Neuroscience behind Flow State so you can drop in a flow State and create your best work so as always thank you so much for watching these videos for liking our videos subscribing to this Channel and I will see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Jenna Rainey

Views: 135,811

Keywords: painting, painting skills, painting skills and techniques, painting skills for beginners, improve art, improve art skills, improve art fast, improve art style, improve art tips, how to get better at art, get better at art, get better at art fast, how to get better at art for beginners, how to get better at art faster, why cant i get better at art, best way to get better at art, professional artist, painting tutorial, art tutorial, art tutorial for beginners

Id: 7n5z5G-Y2j8

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2023