6 Tips when you want to start doing Art professionally
🌙 Why do you want to do Art
The first question should be always the same. Why do you want to start being creative? This is important to know because then you can easier set your goals right. Do you only want to be creative and do art as a hobby or do you strive after a whole professional career? Both are totally fine. If it’s just a hobby and something for your free time and to get more relaxed then there is not much to say here. You can do whatever you want to and whenever you feel like doing something. On the other side, when you strive for a professional career, then you should ask yourself WHY you want a job in the art industry. Finding you WHY is important for the whole journey. It can help you to stay motivated and supports you when you want to give up along that path. If you don’t find your inner desire, then it will be really hard to survive in that industry.
🌙 What is your interest?
Every person has a favorite thing. For me for example, I love animals and nature. These are my main reason and drive to create art. That’s why I love drawing and sculpting all kinds of creatures in fantasy and sci-fi worlds. There are a lot of areas out there which YOU can choose from. Character design, asset art, environment paintings, visual effects, animation, Disney style, game art, robots and mechanics and so much more. You probably already know what you love and what your interests are, so this is not a hard step. It’s important to know what you want to do to not get overwhelmed. We can easily start procrastinating when we want to do EVERYTHING at the same time. So it’s better to focus on something in the beginning for example character design in a cartoon style, landscape drawings, or rigging characters, because it’s easier to improve your skills when you put all your energy into one thing. (what doesn’t mean you can’t do other things besides that). Focus on one and slowly over time you can add more and more to it so that you have knowledge of multiple things. But first, start small.
🌙 Cheap and simple are a beginner’s best friend
I hear so often beginner artists asking about which brushes they have to use, which software programs, and how many tutorials and courses they have to buy. But the truth is, it’s not about how fancy and expensive the tools you use. It’s also not important to have 200 different pencils or brushes from pro artists. Every start should be easy and simple. Start with one or two pens. One color. Start with free software to get used to 3D. Start with watching free courses on YouTube or ask someone for help. Make it easy and start with the things you already have. No expensive material will give you better results and 100 different tutorials will not make you improve faster when you don’t watch them. Step by Step, easy, simple. That’s how you should start. :)
🌙 Do it for yourself in the first place
A big problem for people who give up art is because they are doing it mostly for attention from others, for social media popularity, and for getting proof from others that they and their art is good enough. Please don’t fall into this trap. I experienced it by myself. I got so unmotivated in my free time when I finished one post for social media because I only did the piece for the attention of other people. Furthermore, I didn’t put my heart into it and I also didn’t feel any satisfaction in my art at all at this time. I’m glad i took the time to be in silence and thought about everything because I wasn’t happy anymore. And the REASON for that was, that I stopped doing art for MYSELF. So please keep in mind, when you feel unhappy with your art, maybe this is a thing to take care of as well. Do it for yourself in the first place. You can only give value and beautiful things away when you are happy with what you are doing.
🌙 Have every art supply close to starting right away
When you want to start something new then, of course, you are normally bad in that area at first, which also causes the problem, that we get distracted by other things so easily. Having your art supplies ready to grab in a second will help you to overcome that part to start. When you have your sketchbook in a drawer, and you need to get up first to start doing drawings, and then you also have to search for some pens, then you already bring up a lot of willpower which is bad for starting. Put everything close to the place where you are most likely to sit down and do the thing. For example, opened on your table with a pen on top of it. Charge your iPads every evening if you draw on that or make the program automatically open after starting the computer. All these little things help you to not procrastinate and to start right away. Starting something new is hard enough, so make it easier for you to get into that habit.
🌙 What do you want to give to people
There are different kinds of things you can give to your audience and community. The most common thing is selling your art. You are drawing all kinds of images, printing them out, and selling them to people. Or you are creating 3D assets, models, brushes, etc. to sell them digitally in online shops and websites. This is one path you can go, but there are two others. The second one is going on the teaching and educational path. That means you are creating tutorials and courses or selling a mentor program and doing feedback sessions, so other artists can grow and learn with your help. The last one you can go with is the entertaining path. This means, everything you are doing besides being creative, is to entertain people. A good example here is Jazza and RossDraws. Both are focusing more on the entertainment side and built their audience through that. Of course, you don’t need to stick to one area. You can do all, mix them up or change them over the years. But it’s good when you stick to one at least for a bit, so you can see what you like.
