Whether you’re a painter, drawer or a sculptor you’ll probably have the intention of becoming a better artist. There are a few techniques that you can use to help you out on the route to always improving.
Practice Each Day
Although you might not feel like doing so, it’s important to practice every day. When you do this kind of practice, you’ll notice yourself improving at a rapid rate. Keep a track of the hours that you spend and the improvements that you’re making.
Setting an alarm to prompt you to practice will help you to stick to this. This will act as an external indicator to get practicing, just make sure you pay attention to it.
Experiment with New Techniques
The best way to improve is to try out new techniques, some will work well whereas others may not. Push yourself to try new things and you may just find that you discover something that makes you a much better artist. Don’t be discouraged if the new techniques don’t work the way you’d planned the first time around, practice makes perfect after all.
Critique Yourself and Others
Critiquing and questioning are sure fire ways to improve. You should spend time understanding what makes a piece good and what you would do next time to make it even better. With some mediums, it’s possible to go back and edit this, but in other mediums you’ll just want to keep a note for next time.
Taking a look at other work, like the examples on FineArtAmerica.com, will also help you decide what you like and dislike about them. This can, in turn, influence your own artistic journey.
Challenge Yourself
Setting yourself challenges to complete each day is an excellent way to keep on track with your overall development. This could be to use a subject that you wouldn’t usually or to take more time to view other artworks. Write this down in a list format, with daily or weekly challenges and then stick to them throughout the month.
At the end of the month, look back to understand what challenges you enjoyed and which you found to be the most useful. Then, you can set a whole new list of challenges for the next month.
Work in a New Medium
Working with a new medium can really give you a lot of insight. For example, if you primarily deal with a two dimensional canvas, then working with a three dimensional model can give you a better understanding of the form. You can work with mixed mediums too, taking a new technique and combining it with another one that you’re more experienced in.
While you may need to spend time and money on your new medium, it might just inspire you to pursue a new form of art that you otherwise wouldn’t.
Becoming a better artist is a challenge, if you rise to the task then you can improve at a startling rate. Push yourself to improve and you’ll reap the rewards in the long term.
