Post by Byrne on Oct 27, 2006 13:59:32 GMT -5
I recently sent this letter to a friend of mine. I thought I would share it with the rest of you…
How to be a better artiest
I think that it’s funny how as artists some times we think that perhaps we are not very good. We look at are work with the most critical of eyes and find every flaw and fault. We give life to paper and clay, we make the bland beautiful, but in the end it is never perfect. There is always room to improve. Look at your art, what do you think of it? Are you 100% pleased with you work? Do you feel that it is done in up most quality? If your answer is yes then may friend, pleas, let use all know what your secret is because I have not meet an artist yet that felt completely content with there style. The key to improving style in artwork is finding out what you don’t know and then learn it well. Some times what you think you do well is the part of your style that needs the most improvement. Similarly, the things that you think you need to improve upon could be the things that you do best. So how do you determine what you need to work on? It is a rear occurrence when an artiest can effectively review there own work. So what is the secret? One of the most effective ways I know of is to show your artwork to others. Not just your friends and family, In fact I discourage that. There is nothing worse then an artiest that thinks he is the next Picasso because that is what his mommy tells him. No, what you need to do is show your work to people that you are acquainted with. People you know at work or Church. Let them see your work and tell them that you want to know what they really think. Do not offer any suggestions and DO NOT TRY TO DEFFEND YOUR WORK! Thins is a very common mistake that many artiest make. If you truly want to get better at what you do, you will listen to all the criticism they have to offer with out making any comments your self. You will take note of what they have to say. If several people tell you the same thing then it is a good bet that you need to think about reworking how you do that thing. For example, let us say you show a work you drew of a man to five of your co-workers. Four out of the five say that the hands of the man in the image look funny. Perhaps you should consider doing some studies on human hands. Do not be concerned about changing that particular image; Leave it the way it is. You want to look back some day on your work and see just how far you have come. Instead Study the thing you need to improve on, in this case hands and then do another drawing that shows your improvement. You can repeat these steps as many times as you want, and I recommend you do just that.
Pleas keep making the world a more interesting place with your artwork. Remember that great artists are nothing more then mediocre artists that have many years of practice to reflect upon.