Hello guys!
Today I want to talk about my personal experience of becoming an artist. I want to share with you what it’s like when I started drawing and decided to post art online. Especially in the beginning there were many setbacks and lack of belief. However, the hardest things were the pressure of social media and the steady comparison with successful and established artists.
How to begin
First of all, nobody was born as an artist, not even Picasso or Monet. Every human being has to learn how to draw or paint. One has to start the journey of art at some point in life to become an artist. Some would say at that point, “Yeah, that’s true, but Monet and Picasso had talent!” Indeed, that’s maybe true, some of us learn techniques or get the feeling for materials faster than others. But, even if you have all the talent and potential in the world, you need to practice to use your potential. It took me a few years to draw compositions like this one in the picture on the right. So, we all start at the same point with the first lesson of practice.
At first I was only sketching around on a messy paper during lessons or while I was doing homework. After some time I was at that point where I wanted to get better and learn drawing techniques. I bought some basic drawing books to learn drawing from the beginning. In that books I’ve learned even how to warm up my wrist and fingers for drawing with special exercises on paper.
The most important thing in the beginning is to practice regularly with a special goal in mind. For example “I want to learn how to draw an apple that looks three-dimensionally”. In addition to that it can be useful to have some kind of personal example, an artist or a style you really like. Instagram is a really good platform for finding artists and inspiration. In the beginning, it is not reprehensible to be guided by the style of another artist until you find your own style. To sum up, always keep in mind, every artist was at the beginning once and faced the same struggles as you do!
Setbacks and artist blocks
On every journey there are setbacks. Sometimes, especially when it’s hot and sunny outside it’s hard to focus on sitting on a table and draw. I tried drawing outside, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable at all with it. There have been also times where I stopped drawing for a while, because there was no motivation, inspiration or I felt blocked. But, after some time there was always the urge to continue and getting better. After an artist block for me the best strategy is to lift off pressure that the first drawing after the block has to be perfect. Even if I have been drawing for years now, after weeks of doing nothing the routine is gone and drawing doesn’t feel that good as it has done before. So, it’s okay to make a mistake or not feel that good about it, the next drawing will be better. Important is getting your routine and motivation back.
The pressure of social media
As said before, Instagram is a source of inspiration for me and also many art beginners share their work there. After few months of practice and feedback I decided to open an Instagram account for my artworks. This step motivated me to draw regularly, but also put pressure on me. On Instagram you have to engage highly with the community to grow (posting, liking, commenting etc.) But why the pressure to post or like regularly for a community you don’t even know? The answer is simple and also the reason why Instagram is that successful. Even if you tell yourself, you’re doing Instagram for yourself and for constructive feedback – after some weeks, you don’t anymore. I also told myself I won’t ever evaluate the quality of my drawings on the amount of likes or followers I get – Trust me, you will and it will pressurise and disappoint you!
I think that the major disadvantage of social media is that the perception of your art is influenced by an algorithm. That realisation took me while. My feelings should depend on an algorithm that decides how many people will see my art? After that thought I changed my approach to social media. I tried to not let the belief in myself change by the reach of a post. I have begun to see Instagram as a community of artists helping and motivating each other. Now I try to have as many interactions with artists, because the exchange about art is fulfilling and not because Instagram likes engagement. So long story short, believe in yourself and not let this feeling be influenced negatively by external factors like social media.
Comparison with other artists
Comparison is a natural procedure in our mind. Perception functions over comparison with already known things during the process of looking at an object. So even when we do not actively compare things, our mind does. Comparison with other artists is an active process which can be positive or negative for your personal art journey, but it depends on you. On the one hand, comparison with other artists is essential for getting better. For example, if you do a tutorial it’s totally normal that you compare your result to the one shown. Your eye searches for differences or maybe mistakes. By understanding what could be better, you learn. Next time, it will be much better. In this case, comparing has helped you in your art journey. On the other hand, comparison with other artist can also be toxic. It can set you back in finding your own style or lead to doubting in your own skill.
In my journey this happened when I started comparing with successful artists on Instagram. There was this dominant question in my head, “How can they be so successful with THAT?” I didn’t realised that some styles are more suitable for social media and some are more traditionally artsy. Or that some artists on Instagram are doing social media as a full-time job and post once a day. I really started to believe that I never gonna be an artist, because my growth on Instagram wasn’t fast enough. The realisation that success comes with time and has not to happen on Instagram was a real relief. In the meantime, I tried to focus on my art, my inspiration and technique. I tried to hear on my gut feelings what to draw next, not what is mainstream enough for Instagram. In this way, I found my true style which has remained until today even when I am trying new mediums.
Calling oneself 'artist'
Finally after long times of struggling, I was ready to call myself an artist. It was just time, nothing changed objectively, my confidence was apparently big enough to take this step. In spite of my confidence, it felt weird the first times somebody asked me what I was doing. Doing art has become more important to me than being a chemistry student. This does not mean that I let my studies slide, but art is currently more important for my whole self-concept. Sounds totally like a cliché, but art has become some kind of a mission for me. Chemistry might be my profession, but doing art is my mission. Ok well, that sounded really clichéd, but that’s what best describes how I feel about chemistry and art.
To sum up, the journey of art is different for everyone of us. I hope that my experiences may be a useful input for your journey or at least reading was interesting.
Greetings from Vienna!
Max