How to get better at art

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People keep asking me what programs i use, and what program is the best for drawing and what brushes i used for this artwork or that. Those are legitimate questions, sure, but not entirely accurate. There are differences between programs and brushes, but in the end, they are all tools. They are tools artists use to put their imagination onto a canvas. Just like a traditional artist can use 10 different brushes to paint an artwork, or just one single brush, digital art is the same in that regard. There is no one brush that can achieve an effect that none other can. Sure it's a little more difficult if you're using one brush type to draw everything, but not impossible. Artists might have hundreds of brushes in Photoshop but in truth, we use 2-5 brushes the most and those hundreds only in special cases. I personally use a hard brush and a soft brush for 90% of things, what i do change is the opacity and turn the pressure on and off, change the size etc. 
And the most common misconception is that if someone uses a specific brush or program, that will magically enhance their drawing skills. Well unless you use magical fairy dust along with that brush, chances are they won't. What will enhance your skills is daily practice. I see people literally on the hunt for artist's brushes hoping something magical will happen when they get it. They get angry when the artist doesn't want to share them thinking he is holding the secret to art skills all to himself! That meanie! Well some artists are too busy or don't feel like sharing but trust me, whatever brushes you find on the internet, they are just as good as the ones he/she has. This endless quest for this special technique or trick or brush that will make their art skills better over the night, has artists feeling cheated when they don't find it but the cold hard truth is talent is only 1% of the job (although some speculate talent doesn't even exist) the rest of 99% is hard work. 
There is one more thing besides hard work that is needed if improvement is to happen at a fast pace, and that is applying a learning method. The reason schools exist is because you get to have teachers that guide you in the right direction, provide learning material, and keep the students on track all the time. If you would learn at home, you might fal into the trap of lingering for too long at something, or slacking, or trying too many things at the same time and learning none, or not trying anything new. There are many many problem that occur in self learning. If self learning were so easy then teachers would be out of jobs. 
But chances are most people reading this are in fact self taught, so am i actually. So here are my tips (they're not magical unfortunately) for learning by yourself.

1.) Gather learning materials. (This is the easiest step :) (Smile) ) Make a folder in your computer, and download there all the books about drawing you can find on the internet. Go in deviantART's resources and stock category and browse the most popular brushes and download them. Browse the resources and stock category for step by step tutorials on how to draw water, fire, etc. And save them all, gotta catch 'em all gotta catch 'em all!
Here is my collection 
yuuza.deviantart.com/favourite… although on my computer i have much much more saved. Keep adding in this folder whenever you find something new, this journey never ends. Save in this folder any artwork you find intriguing and want to replicate this effect or that. 

2.) Identify your weakest point. Ask someone to critique your whole gallery and find the thing you need to work on the most. With that weak point in mind, make your learning be focused on that aspect of your art more than the others.

3.) Make a plan. Teachers have all the things they need to teach planned for a whole year, and that's what you need to do as well. You're missing a teacher so you have to act like one for yourself. So make a document, .doc or paper, and divide the year in 12 months. Each month should have a theme. Like for example you want to learn anatomy, then each month should have a body part attached to it. You can allocate 2 months for hands since they are harder, and 2 months for feet. The rest i leave it up to you to decide, for me personally was neck, head, hands, feet, male torso, female torso, butt (yes, need to learn how to draw that), shoulders, i found those to be more important. 
Each month should be divided in weeks, and each week should have a separate theme. Here's where the learning materials come in handy. You pick go through your tutorial folder and pick a tutorial for each week. You can make things last for 2 weeks but don't linger to much on only one subject. Here are the subjects i choose, a few examples in case you don't know what to pick: how to draw water, fore, earth, grass, crystal, folds in material ( i allocated this 2 weeks), hair, fur, metal, glass, fish, etc. Whatever suits your fancy :) (Smile) If you look at a piece of artwork that is so good it makes you wanna quit, then don't quit! Try to find the one thing you really like about that artwork, allocate it one week to try to replicate the effect, and move on. 

4.) Stick to the plan! This is another thing teachers are good at, keeping you on track. But you have to find it within yourself to stay on track because you have no one pushing you to do it or threatening to give you bad grades if you don't make your homework. It's tough, it's an interior battle, so it's good to find something on the outside that helps keeping you motivated. 

5.) Stick to the plan! No, this isn't a a copy paste error, sticking to the plan really is rule no. 5, and rule no. 6, 7, 8... 1000 because it's the hardest to follow. 


And i wish you all the best in this learning journey 
:iconmuahplz:

I did not proof read this journal o___________o  

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LeChaoss's avatar
gosh bit boring view... @.@