If you’ve been searching the Internet for “how to improve your art fast,” well I’d like to share some advice that I wish someone could’ve told me when I was at the beginning of my art journey.
All of the famous artists you see in various exhibitions were once students themselves before they mastered their craft. True mastery is a lengthy process that takes years, likely decades.
Maybe it’s not what you want to hear, but please don’t rush the process or cut corners when it comes to your art.
Put in the work, make mistakes and learn from them. Consistency is key. I go over this and more in my 10 Important Lessons I Wish I Knew as a Beginner Artist.
With that in mind, if you’re serious about your art and want to take it to the next level, the following advice is for you.
My best advice for aspiring artists
So my best advice is to prioritize having fun during your artistic process. Yes, FUN!
One of the reasons why I value my time in art school is because I was taught how to nurture a youth-like sense of discovery. One way to do that is to try a wide range of mediums and techniques.
Don’t just practice your fundamentals (values, perspective, anatomy, composition, etc.) because it’s what everyone else does. Learn to identify your weaknesses and focus on those.
Improvement is subjective when it comes to art. If you want to keep track of your progress, start writing yearly art goals.
Even if you already know, for example, that making oil portrait paintings is your thing, step out of your comfort zone occasionally.
I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to try all kinds of mediums and techniques when you’re an aspiring artist. You might even surprise yourself and realize that you prefer working with acrylics instead of oil.
Don’t focus your work right away or your “art style” just so that you can stand out on social media. By doing this, you risk self-imposing limits on your creativity without realizing it.
Trying new mediums or materials
Trying new mediums or adding new materials to your work doesn’t have to be expensive. Instead, find materials within your budget. They don’t have to be of the highest quality—quite the opposite actually.
Starter sets are great as they often include small samples of a medium. You can also find previously owned art supplies in your area at a huge discount. If you’re lucky enough, some may even look like they’ve only been used once or twice.
I would suggest alternating between wet and dry media. Last week, I wrote about mixed media art techniques which included several examples of wet media, such as charcoal and pastels, versus dry media, like gouache and markers.
Discover new mediums on your own terms and avoid looking at too many tutorials beforehand.
This is your chance to figure out what mediums or materials resonate with you. Remember the point is to have fun and learn something new.
Learning new techniques
I highly recommend studying from Master Studies like this one and drawing from observation, combined with your favourite online tutorials.
Learning for the sake of learning won’t make you a better artist. Online tutorials aren’t all created equal, so choose the ones that best suit your learning style.
Good alternatives include in-person courses, books, podcasts and visiting an exhibition at a museum. If budget is a concern, visit your local library and borrow books for free. Museums often have free access to their exhibitions on a particular day of the week.
Since this blog is primarily written for artists who paint and/or draw, I thought I’d mention a few popular techniques you might want to try.
Painting techniques (Beginner-friendly)
- Dry brush: Use a dry paintbrush to add unique texture to your artwork. You can showcase your surface’s underlying texture (like a canvas or cold-pressed watercolour paper) if you apply the paint quickly, in a gestural way. If you’re using oil or acrylic paint, you can also use it to blend your colours beautifully.
- Underpainting: Add a first coat of paint to roughly define your values in your composition before you start blocking in your colours. This is the very first stage of painting after applying your primer. It’s easy to modify some of the elements at this point. Another advantage of this technique is the fact that the colours you apply on top of this layer will influence the overall tone of your work. I wish I had known about this one sooner when I was a beginner!
- Glazing: Applying a thin, almost transparent, layer of paint over another dried colour layer to emphasize luminosity. This is how the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci was made. These subtle transitions of colour can soften the look of two different colours coming together such as hair and skin tones.
Drawing techniques (Beginner-friendly)
- Blending: A soft gradual integration between two or more values. Chances are you’ve already tried blending graphite or charcoal… Blending stumps, your eraser and even an old paintbrush make for great blending tools.
- Line Variation: By changing the size or thickness of the lines in your artwork, you’ll achieve a sense of depth. I remember learning the power of varying lines while doing an Intro to Animation course. For example, you can put more emphasis on your subject by having bold lines while using lighter thin lines for your background. If you learn to master this technique, your work will also appear more expressive.
- Shading: A play between light and dark areas in your drawing which mimics reality. Understanding how light affects three-dimensional objects in their relative space is a crucial skill. YouTuber Proko does a great job explaining shading in this video.
Key Takeaways
Please don’t rush the process and don’t cut corners when it comes to your art. Put in the work, make mistakes and learn from them.
My best advice for aspiring artists is to prioritize having fun during your artistic process. Yes, FUN!
Try a wide range of mediums and techniques before you focus your practice and step out of your comfort zone as much as possible.
- Discover wet and dry media and avoid looking at too many tutorials beforehand.
- Learn new techniques. I recommend trying beginner-friendly painting techniques (Dry Brush, Underpainting and Glazing) and drawing techniques (Blending, Line Variation and Shading).
This is your chance to figure out what mediums or materials resonate with you. Don’t focus your work right away or your “art style” just so that you can stand out on social media. By doing this, you risk self-imposing limits on your creativity without realizing it.
