Self-Taught Artists: Advice & Tips

hello I'm professor Liu welcome to our livestream I'm here today with art prof teaching artist Jordan McCracken Foster and Kat Wong we are going to talk today about tips for how to be a self-taught artist which i think is gonna be really helpful because I know a lot of you guys that watch us are self-taught artists so we'll give you guys some strategies if you would like to grow as an artist and you can't afford an art class we've got everything you need her an art prof critiques and tutorials now there's actually a lot of people out there that are self-taught artists and if you guys are watching tell us in the chat if you consider yourself to be a self-taught artist and maybe if you guys have questions or anything you want us to talk about we'd love to hear it so Kat what do you think is one of the challenges of being a self-taught artist well honestly the biggest challenge is that it's a huge role then it's unknown and you're not sure where to start exactly but that's why we have the stream for the 5 tips you can start with I think a lot of people there's just too many choices because when I was in high school I really was a self-taught artist in a way because I didn't have a lot of guidance and there was no internet but the thing is now you go on YouTube and there's 50,000 videos on how to do gesture drawing and I think a lot of people that's really overwhelming now what do you do in that situation Jordan because I know when you were in high school you were really learning on your own and you were watching some YouTube yeah so I well I had some people around me you know in high school that tried to you know teach me some things but what I did was I just found any avenues I could swear that the art books like oh the bookstore a fine art book or something like that I will go on YouTube and try and find the tutorials that were around in 2009 which weren't very many but I did the best that I could and I try not to put any excuses in my path because by doing that I would only stop my own and I know that I knew that there are artists who didn't have access to YouTube who became these phenomena ours that I looked up to so yeah and there's so many artists that actually I didn't even know they were self-taught until I started doing some research like I had no idea that Yoko Ono was self-taught some of you guys might know Grandma Moses for these really beautiful lovely delicate paintings of different communities and there are a lot of artists who were pretty trendy like Basquiat was a self-taught artist and so self-taught artists are everywhere and I think that it's a really great thing that now we have this thing called the Internet that connects all of us together but I do think it can be overwhelming because okay let's say you do find a tutorial that oh I really like this tutorial this is a good person this is somebody I want to learn from and everything but still even within one YouTube channel like ours there's so much to choose from so cat how do you start with that where do you begin first of all I just find something I like when I was really trying to practice on my own I was trying to find artists that I enjoyed their works and I actually would try to imitate them which is one form of practice so back in the day there was this thing called deviantART and is still up and running but it's like I guess you know it's valid it's fine you guys can use deviantART as well but it was something I used more when I was younger and there were just like these quote-unquote deviantART giants like these people who were super famous on deviantART and I was like oh my gosh like I have always wanted to paint like Charlie Bowater on deviantART she just draws he's like really hyper realistic mostly white women and I was like oh this shadings so amazing the technique is awesome so how I really wanted to start with imitating Charlie Bowater that's at least how I started out I think that's a fine place to begin because honestly you can learn a lot when you copy somebody's drawing or painting it sort of like a way to get inside their heads a little bit but I would also say because I know a lot of people look at Instagram it's so there's a million artists on there but I would just say you guys don't only look at Instagram go to there's a website called smart history org which is basically the art history version of us and it's free and I would just not ignore all of art history because you know what Artemisia Gentileschi she's not on Instagram so you're not gonna find her unless you already know that she's there so Jordan what do you think are maybe the limitations of using Instagram to look for artists I mean most things I see on Instagram are always just current artists I very rarely see like a Renaissance painting on there or someone trying to mimic that style and so it's one thing for trying to do something specific like like the entertainment Institute but if you're trying to do something more like fine arts or maybe you know anything in that run it's a lot easier to find stuff from a lot of these different sources that one website like Instagram doesn't have and also with Instagram you're relying on other people to post this stuff to inspire you versus some websites about history that has all the information that you could possibly want let's see Neal is saying I consider myself self-taught even though I'm an art student the program in my school just doesn't teach us anything I have to take the initiative to learn by myself that's really good that you brought that up Neal because you totally can be in an art class but still feel that you really have to take your own initiative I mean cat did you have a really good art program at your public school it was just okay I mean I was like impressed by the fact that we had an art program because a lot of schools don't they don't usually focus on the arts very unfortunate but yeah I mean most of the art making I did in high school was self initiated let's see bolt blue wolf Spirit says I think it really limits you to be self-taught you only know and explore what you know about you really need to interact with others suggest things you may not know about a lot of its exposure just putting yourself out there and exploring a lot of options because I know that if somebody hadn't really me to try something new I would still be oil paintings look I wouldn't have done anything else because I would have thought that oil painting was the way to go okay so tip number one is to maintain a daily sketchbook practice Jordan why do you think this is helpful if you're self-taught artist I mean there's the old saying practice makes perfect and so when you're keeping a sketchbook then you're constantly looking at the world and when you're studying it and and actively pursuing all this knowledge it's only going to make your work better and I think it's a great way to give whatever's in your mind on the page and it also just helps to loosen you up so I mean you keep a sketchbook doesn't always have to be the nicest thing well that has to go on the fridge later on it can just be you know quick and dirty and get your ideas out and it's like a little art diary I mean I think what I like about sketchbooks is that they feel so humble and I feel that they're a safe place for me to mess around and do really crummy drawings and I don't have to share them with anybody and there's something really nice about having that private space to just screw up and not post it on Instagram for everybody to see what is your sketchbook to you cat it's definitely just a place to think it's not something I pull out to show off because most people wouldn't get it honestly a lot of my sketchbook is also just written notes by if I have an idea or if I have a technique I want to try later I write it down so I don't forget it so it's also like a memo it's a very personal document Johanna Malin is saying should you still do your daily sketchbook practice even though you're working on a big piece I mean I think it depends on your focus in your schedule obviously but Jordan what would you say about frequency in a sketchbook is it once a week is it every other day what would you suggest I would do it as much as possible because just I mean sometimes I noticed when I work on a larger piece or something I'm really focusing on I get tunnel vision and I only think about that one thing whether it's that style or that color scheme or whatever and to break out of that is really really helpful just to sometimes that you can get bored or sometimes it just need something different to inspire the creative juices if you want I mean the way I think about a sketchbook is it's like primordial soup nothing is done yet things are generating and subdividing and dividing and I just like that idea that things are percolating in that sketchbook and often times one of the ways I like to get ideas is I go back and I look at my old sketchbooks and then you jog your memory like hey that was a really cool idea I came up with a year ago and maybe I'll bring that back and so really it's almost like an archive of your thinking process and your brain like cat I know you write so many stories have you ever done that like gone back and looked at what you've done absolutely oh my gosh my previous story is in for my current stories too and also sometimes you just like go in and you're just like amused you're like wow I wrote this like I'm it's sort of like rediscovering a new writer when you go back and you look at your new like the things you try the things you you didn't end up working out and it's cool to just learn from that let's see Sode says I sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between sketch booking and making a full piece so I think sometimes for me it has to do with the scale because I have this little tiny sketchbook that I carry in my purse all the time it's literally this big okay and I remember there's one time we were shopping for Halloween costumes for my kids and this was like the trip to the fabric store from hell like we could not get out of there and I was waiting in line for them to cut fabrics I was so pissed off and so I just whipped out this little sketchbook I made these crummy sketches of these women that were waiting in line to cut fabric and I was like you know I'm never gonna show this to anybody but this made me feel a little better so I think that sketchbooks can come up at a time that you don't expect them to in that spontaneity I think is really really important to have okay let's look at tip number two which is practice a lot and Jordan I think you to win the prize for practicing a lot because tell everybody here what you're driving exercise has been to get yourself to work yeah so when I was I was like 13 or 14 I met sunny who's hard so I looked up to I'm still friends with them today as it challenged me to do 2500 drawings which consists of 1000 heads 500 arms 500 legs 250 and 250 feet now I've done that twice am i you know in my artistic career as far like I remember and that takes a long time takes about it you know if you're diligent about a year to finish and what that does is it actively forces you to get rid of your artistic weaknesses so I just you know at first I struggle with drawing hands I guess he doesn't struggle with drawing hands anymore you know so taking those weaknesses and putting a number to them I think will oftentimes just result in your working so much better and sort of it's on a simple it's really not that hard to come up with these sort challenges but it's the dedication that's required so you have to put in the work there's no gain rabbit john Kievan is asking how do I find the drive to pay well John I would say you could do the painting version of what Jordans saying I don't think you should paint a thousand paintings because the sounds very sustainable but I've seen a lot of people do this exercise like a painting a day where you just commit yourself that every single day you're gonna make a painting but it can be small like you could just buy a bunch of little tiny canvas boards and just have your paints out and available and you sit down and you do that cuz Jordan I think what I like about your thousand drawing challenge is that it's really concrete and it's defined because like cat if I say to you can't go draw like like what are you gonna do it's so vague and I feel like the numbers it's a really specific goal you know when you finish you got the satisfaction of that and it keeps you on track because it's not too complicated you don't have to think so hard so like cat how do you find motivation to make work because that is a problem for a lot of artists right well I think first of all I try to dedicate a certain amount of time it could be ten minutes it could be several hours but so long as I have a time frame in my mind I can start to draw because something that really distracts me is if I have to do multiple things at once so I find that when living with my parents that's really hard because having a kid that's even worse anyways if you're like drawing and then my mom's like Catherine come take out the trash and then I have to go take out the trash well I just like I don't know it's just like my mind has like flitted somewhere else and I can't focus on drawing anymore so just like in my mind I think of ten minutes ten minutes drawing I'll do it and the second thing I do is I make sure to just start because starting is really the hardest part I'm just sitting down and having the materials and just doing it and once I start I can find my groove eventually another option you guys is I've been doing these live drawing streams which have been so much fun they're part of the anatomy for artists series and a lot of you guys are drawing along with me which is so much fun but also people will watch it later and draw along and the super cool thing about that you guys is that if you want to show us what you're doing tag us on Instagram and use hashtag art cross sharer because it's really fun especially in the discord server everybody posts there's a channel that's dedicated to that particular practice and it's so motivating to see what other people do with the same prompt I mean Jordan I know you went to art school but how does that make you feel when you're with a group of people you're all making the same thing but you get to see the reaction that everybody has it's different you know it's I love the camaraderie of just being together for one and then that reaction it's so it's so pure it's something that's so unplanned and just seeing how everyone it's sort of like when you when group of friends go to see a movie together and maybe they're all different personalities and you see everyone has a very distinct reaction to each line or each scene that's that's done on the screen and there's something that's that really appreciate but about that and can't really escape it let's see s schooler says what advice would you give for people who are perfectionists especially in the sketchbook I know it's meant to be practice and all but how do we get the mindset it is a sketchbook cat do you have any advice for that changing your mindset maybe redirecting it into a new route like if you draw something and it's not perfect maybe the perfectionist and you will be like okay next time it will be perfect it will encourage you to draw again but yeah I think that's like I think every artist in some way or form is a perfectionist and it's just in how do you want what what area do you want to be perfect and what do you want to focus your perfectionist attitude on and yeah I think that's actually really powerful tool to have it's just to be stubborn and constantly keep working on something just maybe like think of if you're focusing too much on one piece maybe you can move on to another one just like redirecting alright let's move on to tip number three which is to explore as many art media and subjects as you possibly can Jordan why do you think that's important because what if I'm like oh I'm an oil painter I really want to get good at oil painting so you would think okay you should just oil paint as much as you possibly can so why would a painter want to pick up a hunk of clay and do sculpture or fur a little bit there so I really struggle with this be honest there's certain times where I just want to do one thing and I don't wanna do the other and it ends up showing in my work and really winds I think winds up happening is certain me if informs the other clip so I was taking a digital painting class for example a couple of years ago and we were turning in our finals and some of the students were not as adept at drawing as they were painting and when they're coming up with things on their own and not you know having reference and stuff it shows you can tell when someone doesn't have good drawing skills in their painting and so I would say the same thing applies to sculpting and you know oil paint which is doing anything else because they all kind of merged into each other and you're really end up limiting yourself when you don't practice something that you're in that will you know will benefit you in longer I mean I'll tell you guys I went to graduate school to study sculpture with the intent to make my painting skills better because I felt that the figurative paintings I was doing at the time they just felt so flat to me and I wanted something a lot more tactile that I could engage with and you know something I actually stopped painting and now I'm doing drawing and printmaking and sculpture because I realize that that was actually a better material for me and if I had never stepped outside of oil painting that would never have happened and so I think sometimes people have perceptions of certain things oh no I'm not interested but if somebody gets you to try it it's like oh that's so cool like I think sometimes eva sumption 'he's about sculpture printmaking that are not necessarily accurate like cat when you were in art school did you ever have to do a material that you were like oh I don't want to do that but actually ended up being okay yeah absolutely I mean I went to receive Rhode Island school design so the very first year of rizzi they force you to work outside of like your comfort zone and not like with materials you're totally not comfortable with so my first year at RISD I was like doing woodwork and I was like I've never touched a saw in my life and here I was like being forced to make an instrument and I think it really it was like cool I really enjoyed the experience and I learned that 3d materials don't scare me as much as they used to and I think it also helped in terms of like outside of the box thinking like oh I guess I can't just focus on like proportions and people and drawing for now I have to think about how this like instrument will work and it's just like a totally different part of my brain and it's interesting because it's all art it's all art design all creative but it's just such a huge world it would be such a shame for me not to explore it for sure I think that you just don't know until you actually start doing it you know something that helps me if I'm saying oil and somebody makes me do 3d project I think a lot of people their first reaction is oh my gosh I'm so bad at that I don't want to do it but in some ways I find that really freeing because I'm like yeah I'm a painter I suck at this okay let's just do this like Jordan do you have any skill that you're like yep I'm not good at that and he's actually actually painting is still really difficult for me whether traditional or digital I have files on my computer right now that are just practice like fortunes and stuff because I need to work more at it so yeah I definitely fall in that category that could be a platform sculpture and a lot of stuff I just like drawing that's my favourites yeah I just think that you'll discover things that you didn't know existed to me it's like if you were an athlete and you had really strong arms and you went to the gym and you only worked on your arms and you never exercise your legs like that would be bad you would not be a very well-rounded athlete and so if you think about just working on things that you're not as good at I think that can be very helpful let's see sleepwalker says I read the tip to just make at least one line every day once you sit down with your supplies in your paper you're likely to be more motivated to do a bit more than just a line that's so true it's the starting part I don't know why that's so hard once the pencils in my hand and I'm touching the paper it's okay it's just that like moment before I touch the paper for some reason is there difficult for a lot of people micronic says how to adapt on drawing every day I'm on art block mode right now how to get motivated when overcoming through mental illness any tips to get back on top cat what would you say to do because that is hard to do it's not easy to have a regular practice yeah I agree I think also it's important to say don't completely force yourself learn to take breaks as well learn when your mind is not up for the challenge at the moment and maybe you need just like Netflix and just zone out for a little bit but I think the hardest part is honestly starting but again I think this is just something that practice will come about you will eventually learn your rhythm and that rhythm is very different from person to person you can think about it almost like if you were a soccer player and you were getting ready to play a soccer game you're not gonna just play the soccer game most people will run a couple laps they'll do a couple stretches that's basically what you're doing I mean you guys are not gonna hit it out of the park every single time you sit down Jordan does that happen to you you just pump out amazing work all the time no that never happens and very rare that I do but one thing I do want to say like one of the wife communes I talk about the 2500 drawings a lot is because what actually does while you're practicing angers you know skills better it actually rewires your brain so that you're more willing to to do this this thing that's difficult and after a while you start doing that over and over and over it starts to become practic habit and so that's you know I'm Clare's called me the ultimate drawing nerd several times I think that's part of the reason why because at this point my brain is wired to think that's part of my daily routine I have to draw and if I don't I get antsy and irritable I'm dead serious the traffic face me G says I enjoy doing abstract almost naive painting but previously thought I didn't have the right to do that until I was amazing at realism that attitude killed all my enthusiasm I don't think that that's true this school of thought that Oh before you have the permission to explore abstraction or whatever you want to do you need to learn how to draw a photo realistically I don't think that's the case somebody asked me the other day they said well do I need to learn all the anatomy first before I start experimenting I'm like no I'm like do you want to do and I'm either like no I'm like then don't do it this is so specific and why bother with something that you really have just no interest in at all I know that sounds like a contradiction because we just told you guys to try different media that you were uncomfortable with but really if something is that far off sometimes it's just not useful let's see um Neil is saying oops sorry I missed this comment that's back here Neil saying I'm still having trouble sharing my art I've made progress though because I used to hide my stuff from others I still feel uncomfortable this is why I don't post my stuff online any advice cat what do you think well take your time I think once you find a piece that you're genuinely proud of and you want to share you can share but also like finding a good community which we will talk about eventually is also equally as important as making art a community that you're comfortable sharing your art with and you couldn't find this community online somewhere maybe like a Facebook group or art discord or you can find just like your circle of friends like your family like ask your sibling does this track look weird if you trust your sibling just finding a good group of people to share with to start with and then maybe eventually you can take that leap to to go public well tell you what I really like about the art prop discord this is my perception it just feels like a very safe space people are not there to judge you they're not there to look better the way sometimes they are on Instagram I mean Jordan what's been your experience in the discord interacting with people everyone is so motivational encouraging to each other of life let's say sounds posting a piece that they're struggling with no one's going in there saying you really suck well I think you just needed like just figure something else out I don't know if this is the path to you no one does that they all say oh I see what you're saying why try changing the values try changing the composition you know X Y & Z and there are times where Sun will post an artwork like a day or two later like a revision and we're all mind-blowing including the staff works like whoa so it's always really always really well because I definitely have seen art groups online where people really don't care about anybody else in the group and it's all me me me me me and I want to post my work and that doesn't really work out so well like here's an example yesterday I reviewed some of the entries for the April aren't there and you would think that people would just show up and just look at their stuff and then leave you guys don't do that I mean have you guys noticed that during our streams everybody here Edd's each other on and you talk about well you improve so much and I really like the way you did this I mean somebody just left a comment I can't find it no but they told Nicoletta that they really liked her piece from the art dairy yesterday so I think we're a pretty special place online that you don't really see that often so posts in the discord because I think that's a very safe space and if somebody's a jerk will boot them out so don't worry the discord that we run you guys it's really heavily moderated so don't worry about that we'll do the best we can to stay on top of that okay let's talk about tip number four which is learn how to self critique because obviously at our prof. we have a lot of options for critiques for example if you want to purchase a critique you can do that I know that's not an option for everybody but you can also submit your work to get a free critique here on YouTube and then of course as we said earlier there's lots of critique channels and the discord which are extremely active I mean there's stuff going on in there all the time which is terrific but the thing is all of these are somewhat public and I know sometimes you don't really want to put it out there so self critique can be helpful so what are your tips Kat for how to self critique mmm I think how I self critiqued when I was younger was definitely imitating other artists like what is this artist doing that I'm not doing like is it the colour is it is it the composition something about it and just like finding first artist that I liked in the works that I liked and then trying to imitate that and also photo references also really helped in terms of just like getting proportions and Anatomy right like I had I didn't know why there was this portrait I did that was wrong obviously there's something about it that's wrong and then I finally noticed when I took a picture of myself that like I drew a really sharp line for the jaw and like it's actually not like a sharp line it's actually very smoothly like connected with the neck and so it's just being really vigilant and finding different sources to see like what is making me feel a little bit odd and those sources can be other artists they can be other photos they can also just be like friends family who can just like point that out to you but like be cautious of how you accept critique from people who don't know arts because sometimes it can be helpful sometimes it can be totally opposite of healthy well Jorgen how do you self critique because you just finished your master's degree which is very exciting and you've been working on this series of characters for a long time how do you know yeah that's that's the design that one's really good that's the one I'm gonna go with how do you reason through that you know part of that is just getting other people's feedback and just figuring out like what's working what's not and for the characters specifically I really struggle with that I did dozens and dozens of sketches for each and every one and when I got to a place where I was happy with my I feel like I challenged myself and I came up with a solution that wasn't in my mind before that I was happy with and I was happy with it and I put it out to the world there was like this is really cool but in terms of you know everything else there's something I noticed like the first day of art class wherever you go is always usually the most boring because it's always like the thing that's super basic it's like this is you know how you understand value on it like on a sphere or cube or this is line quality in honestly as boring as they might be sometimes those basics are incredibly important so when I'm struggling with something I'll say okay what's really the issue here and I'll go like well you know understand I understand the form is completely often spent and this piece right here so I have to go back and think about it that way and there's some really great artists Nathan Fouts who works for three more sainted paintings on like Prince of Egypt and Sinbad and stuff he says he always goes back to the basics when everything's struggling with something and I really think that's the heart of the key understanding those and really making sure you were okay Pat every every single turn yeah Asus is saying do you think it'd be better to master a certain skill like drawing before venturing into other mediums or should you constantly be dabbling in various mediums that's challenging because I think there is such a thing as doing so many things that you feel totally scatterbrained and I think we do like feeling that we have somewhat of control or mastery of something on the other hand I am the type of person when I get bored of something and I didn't feel like painting anymore I have to switch to something else so I sort of feel like I'm the type of person I lose interest really fast and so I rarely stick with one thing but I have a colleague who does only lithography nothing out that she is an absolute master of that one thing and I think you just have to know which type of artist are you are you really happy just going so deep into that material or do you want to be like me like sort of a jack-of-all-trades but cat how do you deal with that because you are very versatile artist like you do lots of digital stuff you do comics you do lots of oil painting as well you have experience with that how do you know when to focus or want to just experiment again it's just from person to person really finding your own I guess like niches and also want to go outside of that but I think something I always keep in mind is that you can never be totally perfect at any one thing when it comes to art because it is a lifelong learning process even though you're like I got drawing in the bag no you have like you can always be learning more in that medium and also like while you're learning that medium is probably gonna take you decades and decades and decades like it's never-ending process you might as well try something else while you're at it well I've had say things to me like when we do say a self portrait assignment they'll say to me oh I've done that before like see you did one self-portrait and you're done like I don't think that's a good way to go bout it I mean look at Rembrandt he was painting a self-portrait every month of his life and so it's tricky because I do think it's somewhat case-by-case but you know what helps me mia is if I find that okay I'm really focusing on drawing for a little while let's say I draw for a month if my drawings are static they look the same for a month and I don't see any progress or any change then I say okay it's time to take a little vacation let's do some printmaking for a week and then come back because I think there is something as getting stale with what you're doing it's like too much the same all the time do you ever have that happen Jordan oh yeah their their plane times where like if I'm just as much as I love drawing characters there are times where I'm like dang I like drawing cars but I'd rather job right now you know and so that getting that will taste of something different often improves my design also helps balance you out as an artist a lot more that's really the example you gave about you know something only works on works out at the gym you with their arms and none with their legs is just you become in balance then after a certain point it shows and it actually ends up hurting you in the long run well you know I notice you guys is that sometimes I get all ambitious and I'm like I'm gonna cook a giant pie for my kids and it's gonna be spinach and we're gonna eat it for awhile and I won't have to cook for a few days but you know what it only works for two nights because by the third night they're tired of eating the spinach pie and I have to switch it up so it's sort of like you need that variety a stimulus to keep you going and doing something different Rachel Diaz is saying how do I get over a fear to create art I usually do a realistic piece I'm really proud of but then I take a break for weeks because I'm scared I won't meet my expectations what do you think Kat sorry let me get this straight doing a realistic portrait for weeks no no no doing a realistic portrait taking a break for weeks like not drawing for a while because they're worried they're not going to meet their expectations oh my gosh yeah I mean like when it comes to fear you're really battling yourself I think in this case it is time to actually ask for other people's opinions and maybe encouragement as well again post in the discord if you can but I think again it's like also the same mindset as practice like you take a break for weeks it's hard to pick it back up again maybe if you just like put a paintbrush in your hand put some paint on it and then just like touch it to your canvas you might be able to start start again did I answer the question well I'm gonna piggyback on it a little bit and I'm gonna say that I I think one thing that you can do and this is gonna be really hard but you should really try because it helps get rid of those expectations because you know what a lot of people say to me is the drawing didn't come out the way I wanted it to you know I never have drawings come out ever they're always a surprise but sometimes it's a great thing I mean Jordan do you have in your head what it should look like before you started drawing I always wanted to look good you know but as far as how I get to that path how I get to that to that journey or on the way it's always different yeah it's really really tough it's very very rare that I end up getting exactly what I want all the time and sometimes when I do that I notice my joints end up stiffer even if I am drawing a character sometimes I'll just go off the top of my head and say honking do this and I look I'm like why is it not dynamic why isn't it fun you know and I realized I was in my head so much that he ended up sniffing my own drawing and it made it worse so sometimes you just have to get out of your head and that fear is hate to break it to but almost always gonna be there three of us that's kind of just how it is it's the name of the game it's just you don't want that fear to be debilitating or it paralyzes you and you can't really go forward so cat I mean do you have a vision of what you want when you start a drawing or whatever of course like we all have dreams and aspirations and visions so let me start something but I think it's also good to have the flexibility in thinking you know what it might not turn out that way and if it doesn't turn out that way I really shouldn't beat myself up because it's not my fault I'm just just trying to do my best here you know but I think whatever that outcome may be you will end up learning something so it won't be for naught and you guys I really believe that there's no such thing as wasted time on your art because a lot of people they think oh my gosh I don't like that drawing that was a total waste of time because I didn't get the result I was looking for I mean I rarely do but the thing is that's time you spent engaging and thinking and yeah maybe you didn't get the results you wanted but you guys I don't knock it apart all the time I would say if I'm working on a body of work probably only 20% of it actually gets shown I did a series of self-portraits several years ago and Jordan I know you're gonna think I'm Lena I did 50 portraits I know you did a thousand but I did 50 and you know something I didn't make 50 I made 65 cat why did I make 65 when the goal was 50 maybe you just found your groove and you just kept going heartily who's that but also there was a learning curve so the drawings that I did at the very beginning they didn't match what was happening towards the end to the point that it was distracting I mean sometimes it's an okay thing but I just would not set such high expectations because it's really really unrealistic it's very very hard to do let's see Annie is saying do you ever ask yourself why is painting so important to me what keeps you piling canvas on day after day and to keep going at it I don't know I feel like some of it is some what compulsion but some of its passion I feel like there's a very fine line between the two I mean Jordan what keeps you doing this that's like asking a singer what keeps them singing you know or or asking a chef what makes them want to keep cooking and it's just a part of who you are at a certain point like I I realized that I was born to be a creative person and this is the Avenue I've chosen for myself to express that creativity and now that I've wired my brain in such a way to constantly think about art drawing I just can't let it go and I often have like these you know these not-quite nightmares but like man what happens if my hand just locks up or I get injured and I just can't draw and I would just like I can't think about that sound just be so miserable for me and you know so I don't ever have to really force myself to draw of course I need breaks every now and then like the other day I was working on a project and I was so burnt out from finishing school college and everything like that and I was like I think yeah it's just it's an intuitive thing I can't really describe it Sode is asking how do you manage to keep your art the same style with different media I often end up having totally different styles than certain mediums cat what do you think about this issue of style because I hear a lot from younger students like people who are sixteen telling me that they're frustrated that they don't have a style that everybody else knows what they're doing what do you do with that I don't think it's extremely productive to be like focusing on one style right now are trying to find your style because well you have like the rest of your life to figure out your style why lock yourself in right now you can figure out you can just try out different things and ultimately what your issue is with the different styles with different mediums I think ultimately if you're one person making all of this it will end up looking like you made it regardless if you're like actively thinking about style or not there's just something about I don't know it will look like the same person made all the work I'm sure but I wouldn't worry too much about style I would just keep focusing on trying to improve yourself in general in terms of medium in terms of style and in terms of like what you want to convey through your art I think that style should evolve naturally it should happen slowly over a long period of time I'm talking years and it should not be a decision you don't wake up and say today I'm gonna find my style here it is stuck at concrete and I think that when it evolves naturally it's just much more genuine because I definitely have seen people I went to art school with who said okay what's trendy in illustration today I think I'm gonna start drawing like that and that does make people have careers I mean I know lots of people that do very well because they're just doing what's trendy at the time but you know what that's not a long term solution what are you gonna do when that illustration style is not trendy anymore you're stuck with doing something you weren't really even that into anyway so guys cool it on the style thing it's just not that important to focus on because really you should be focusing on other things I mean Jordan did you ever worry about not having a style and feel like everybody else did um yeah I was in high school especially I was really worried about that and I don't number who I heard it from but I remember hearing that your style will come over time and the way I think about it is like let's say I'm making something like spaghetti right everyone makes a gay almost the same way you got noodles you got sauce like those are like the two basic things you need but maybe after a while you're like you know I get I'm kind of bored maybe I'll put some salt you know you just start adding things a meat baller or in my case of eating meatball you know it's so I just I try different things out and then at certain points like it's becomes your own it's really really good and even though it's still spaghetti now it's your own and I think that's the same thing with our you know it may not look the exact same as you're anticipating or song as a style but over the influences that you have around you and your own personal spin on it then I think your style will come out it's a natural thing it's not something like Clara said that you can't just sit there and plan how like it will take me 4 hours and 58 minutes the final style and then I'm gonna figure out my coloring song after then it's gonna take about 4 hours and 6 minutes you know it's not like that alright tip number 5 is to meet other artists and we're talking about in real life and also online now depending on where you live one is maybe more an option than another I know a lot of people who watch us do live in somewhat remote areas maybe you're far away from a big city in fact tell us in the chat right now do you guys find that you do have in real life options for artistic community or not are you mostly online to find that but so cat why does this matter because ultimately as an artist it's so much about what you are doing but why does this communication with other artists matter well there are multiple reasons why one reason would just be to expand your horizons like this isn't just your world that you're living in this world has many other artists as well and it's really good to see what's out there and another reason would be just like I guess mental stability it's hard to know if you're the only person making art you kind of feel isolated you kind of feel like you're the one that doesn't belong and so the biggest thing about community of a community of artists is just like finding a place you belong finding other people that like what you like and finding other friends you know so it could be just like to improve your art it could be very for selfish selfish reasons but it could also just be like I just need mental stability I need that community I feel like for me half the reason I talk to artists is just to validate that I'm not crazy because some of the things that go through my mind that have to do with being an artist I'm like the only person on the planet that thinks this way and honestly the discord is I just love how nerdy we are it's like somebody will be like what type of charcoal pencil do you recommend and then people come in and they're like well I find that the generals pencils get a little bit stiff sometimes but I also tried prison the color and they're a little bit too soft for me I love that kind of talk because if I tried to talk that way with somebody who was not an artist if you like what right Jordan how has community helped you it's you know honestly there are times when I thought about quitting are all together and it was being around other people and seeing their excitement that encouraged me and so I don't rely heavily on community but I do very much go out of my way to try and seek that out whenever I can and now I've built up kind of this this army of art friends who I can go to whenever I need some help or encouragement or things like that some of them are on our team something from school and so it it's really really helpful and I find that when you have some just someone to talk to about these issues with art it just helps you out so much and anyway that you may not even fully understand and also for accountability because if you're being lazy or something they'll call you out because that's a problem for you right being lazy well and like there are times our post on Instagram and maybe like when my teachers are a friend would be like dude why'd you draw that leg like that come on you know that that's happened to me several times and it's just it's so so yeah it's really really helpful for accountability purposes and for encouragement and I will say with artistic community just because somebody's an artist it doesn't necessarily mean that they're good for you to speak to because I actually have a couple friends I went to art school with who I adore as people and I love hanging out with them but they're not a good fit for critique I have very specific people that I'm like okay this person really knows what I'm trying to do they're a good person for me to speak to so you really have to find the right space because here in the chat seven angelic enigma says all the artists I know are much older and accomplished so I'm super intimidated yeah I mean if you were 15 you probably don't feel like you want to talk to somebody who has a 30 year exhibition history like it just you feel like you don't have a lot of relationship in there and let's see other people are saying lesson says I've trouble finding community I'm on several groups on Facebook but that doesn't work so well and Ray is saying I'm just a community which is about four people deep I live in a town less than 2,000 so I go to the next town over and John is saying love the art prophet discord the nerd discussions about supplies can people well good I'm glad we can help you guys out there and thank you so much to Amaris and John and Nikki for the super chats we really appreciate you guys supporting us because we love you guys but it really helps us to have those resources Manu Chan is saying I also find healthy rivalry helpful with some of my artist friends it's good to challenge each other once in a while and then talk about it do you have any rivals like that cat right I mean like all my artist friends are my rivals but yeah I think it's also really important to learn to foster healthy relationships between artists as well because you guys are ultimately going to try to help each other right and if anyone's really toxic or just like I don't know bully you in any way or form it's good to also cut that out so healthy rivalry yeah you know what you can do though this is what I did if you're jealous of somebody make friends with them it fixes everything because there's um kasi speranza who used to teach with me at RISD and she's somebody who I am just intensely jealous of she's basically the oil painter I always wanted to be but we'll never be and I get mad when I look at her work but then I can't be mad because she's my friends it's like okay I don't know it's hard to find those relationships but when you do it's great because she and I have had such great conversations she shot a tutorial for us that I'm hoping to get done by the fall so it's a really good thing to think about that drowning do you have any healthy rivalries oh that's like so for those who don't know I came from the games program and just by the nature of games there's always a little level competition and uh we had something recently called the spring show which is this big art exhibition for all the students and I placed second the cat Care design category and the one slot went to a friend of mine who actually sat next to the entire semester while we were working on the projects that wanted and so when we found out that we both like kind of like that was awesome else and we just kind of pushed each other encourage each other even while we were making it and you ain't got inspired from each other like oh that's a really cool design melty I'm going to copy and paste that online change it just a little it's so we just we just feed off each other like that so it was great and by the way you guys if you're an oil painter don't limit yourself to only talking to oil painters talk to people who work in different creative fields like Jordan I would say you and I could not be more different as artists you do digital stuff you're focused on character design and story and I'm very fine arty by comparison but I know through these streams like I've had such great conversations with you guys about stuff that I just don't think about like cat you did that character design tutorial and I learned so much from that so cat why do you think that's valuable to talk to somebody who's in a totally different area again just to expand your horizons like you're not the only artist in this world and talking to other artists it's gonna help you in the long run as well I also I just like I don't know why I love showing my illustrations to my non illustration friends who are still artists like I have friends who are architects I also have friends in like furniture design and jewelry and metalsmithing and they don't do what I do but they still are somewhat in a similar mindset and that they're still thinking of Art and Design and being creative and when I make an illustration and they like it like my architect friends love it I'm like I feel like I've accomplished something like I felt like I've connected with someone else with like a medium I'm used to but they aren't it's still a little foreign to them but they still are able to like connect with me does that make sense guys we have an art prof share to show you guys today if you don't know what this is basically if you guys watch one of our videos and you create artwork any artwork you want in relation as a response to that video we might give you a shout out here on YouTube so today we are looking at an artwork by Alexandra who is from Poland and if you guys go down to the video description below you can read Alexandra's full artist statement and Alexandra is 15 years old and she's a self-taught artist perfect that we are featuring her in today's our proshare and she says she watched our tutorial on self portrait drawing in crayon and she says she really enjoyed the clarity of the tips drawing people has always scared me away it seemed to be difficult to do properly but your tutorial did the opposite encouraged me to try it and I was not disappointed I think the technique was not only surprising quick and effective it's also simple and I could still have my own space from my own expression so she talks in here about playing with different colors leaving a strong contrast between the black background different colors to express her and herself and emotions cold dark colors on the left to represent her deeper personality but warm bright shades and characteristics in others she said drawing the nose and lips was really challenging but thanks to tutorial learned a couple perspective trips and is going to try to work on them with facial proportions so Jordan what's your take on Alexandra's drawing you know I really like the part in the artist thing where she mentioned that drawing self-portraits was something that was intimidating at first and then not only does she do it but she does it with these really wild colors I'm like wow you just kind of jump the whole level there and I think that's really awesome I love the bright saturated deep blue shadow that you have and then how that's mixing it with the the clothes in the cheek and the pink and yellows and stuff is very hard to get all those cars to work well instance ink there and but I think he did a really great job cat what do you think about Alexandra's drawing I mean I also have similar thoughts to Jordan I also was surprised when she said she struggled with the nose and the mouth because they do look natural in the piece I will say that the most striking element would be the eyes for me maybe it's like the really big pupils in the middle but like those are definitely eye-catching haha well I would say I love the shadow the blue shadow on the left hand side that makes the portrait for me because lighting really is what helps you define the form and I love how in that area the shadow has so many transitions like on the forehead it goes from like purple to pink to orange to green and those are all colors that you would not think would go into a self-portrait and so I just love how Aleksandr was so bold about the color because a lot of people are afraid to put somewhat crazy colors and they think oh well it just needs to be earth tones and just do that but I think really Alexander you embrace those colors so so well and we're so excited to see the results of that and if you guys have an art prosser you can go to our profit org click on tutorials and project ideas there is a purple button on the left hand side that will take you to the art cross shared submission form so you want to submit there for our YouTube chat out or if you guys just want to show us and you don't want to submit just tag us on Instagram use our cross share because we love seeing what you guys are doing like how does it make you feel to see that somebody has actually made something in response to our tutorials I feel like a warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart because we've bothered to put something out there and the fact that people are receiving and doing because of it it's just really rewarding it's like my art profs soul it just surges it's just the greatest thing ever I love it you guys alright guys if you are not in the discord channel let's peer pressure you to join because all the cool kids hang out there the link is in the video description below so we hope you guys will join us and subscribe to our channel and join the art cross family and thank you so much to our top patreon supporters who make all of this possible those of you guys who tuned in the chat contributed to the discussion thank you so much you guys make this such a great experience everybody please stay safe well

Channel: Art Prof: Create & Critique

Views: 19,866

Rating: 4.9520383 out of 5

Keywords: self taught artist, self taught artist curriculum, self taught artist journey, self taught artist tips, self taught artist progress, self taught art curriculum, self taught art lessons, teaching yourself to draw, teaching yourself to draw and paint, how to become a self taught artist, how to be successful as a self-taught artist, art advice that changed my life, art advice for beginners, this art advice will save your years, art advice

Id: Ct6yoqzszuk

Length: 57min 10sec (3430 seconds)

Published: Sun May 31 2020