To all you artists out there just starting out, regardless of age, I wanted to share this bit of old art, to show how rapidly you can improve.
This is my lovely grandpa, Ole Fredrik Harbek. The drawing on the left was done July 2003, only a few months after I started drawing, and I was about to start General Studies in upper secondary school. Then I spent most of that school year drawing in class. January, I decided switch to Arts come autumn.
During the last half of this 14-month period, after I’d decided to commit to art, I uploaded 80 drawings to deviantArt. In September 2004, having very recently started studying art, I drew the picture on the right. Even over a decade later, I still think it’s pretty good. That’s exactly what my grandpa looked like.
So here are my two bits of advice:
Draw. A LOT. If you’re not using your hands or eyes for anything, draw. And don’t just nitpick on one piece for ages, draw lots of different things. Then keep at it. Have fun. Dive into it.
- Challenge yourself. If you don’t challenge yourself, you don’t improve. You learn way more from trying and failing, than from drawing the same thing/style over and over. Allow yourself to fail. Explore. Experiment.
The years when I have failed to improve as an artist are the years I haven’t followed these two simple rules. And these rules can apply to anything you want to be good at, not just art. People always say I have a talent for art, but what I really have is passion, which is what drives me to follow these rules.
And trust me, just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy. I’ve been actively drawing for almost 13 years, and I still have trouble following these rules. But they make a hell of a difference when you do follow them.
So go forth and art well! ♥
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