Want to be an Artist? There's Really Not Much to It

You can be an artist! Yes, you! This is a reminder for you all, whether you’ve never touched a pencil before or you’ve been practicing for years: you can be an artist! You can start now from the beginning, you can resume from where you left off, and you can keep improving.

I can’t say this loudly enough: ANYONE can learn to draw. Absolutely anyone. Yes, that includes you watching this video, you can’t escape my gaze. There’s really no specific audience this video is meant for. If you want to draw, you can, and there’s help the whole way. It’s easy to think that you’re “not an art person” or “not cut out for art”, but those are myths! They’re excuses we tell ourselves and each other to not give things a try. But you can! No one was ever born an artist. No one is “cut out” for art. It’s not a magic talent, there’s no mystery to it, it’s a SKILL that you practice and improve on.

All you need to get started is wanting to give it a try, and the ability to set aside just a few minutes every so often. It doesn’t even have to be every day! Really! That’s it! You don’t need to be in the right city, or have special tools, or need a certain instructor. You just need some time, a pencil, and some paper. And you can take breaks, you can continue your progress whenever you want. If you mess up your practice schedule, no worries! You can get right back to it.

The internet, despite its many faults in modern society, has meant that it’s never been easier to get started with learning to draw right from your home. It’s easy to feel lost if you don’t know what to look for, but I’ve put together some of my favorite starter resources before, which I’ll link here and in the description. There are specific things you can draw to practice. You don’t have to figure out what to draw yourself! This was one of the things that I got hung up on forever. I didn’t know what to practice, so I just… didn’t. But there’s PLENTY of things to practice, guided or not: Perspective drills, line exercises, studies of the human figure and master artists, even following along with Bob Ross. Every little bit is just that much more practice, no matter what you’re drawing.

You’re going to start out bad: that’s part of the process! You have to create bad art and work past it to get to good. Everyone has, so don’t shy away from it. Don’t feel embarrassed if you’ve made some art that doesn’t look good. Even the expert artists you look up to have gone through that. Heck, they probably still make bad art here and there and just don’t share it: nobody’s a perfect artist!

It’s hard to fight past the sluggishness and get started. I get it! It took me forever and of course I wish I started earlier. But there’s no point in feeling depressed about the past when you can start now. You didn’t miss the boat. You don’t have to worry about catching up. Get inspired by other artists, but don’t get stuck feeling jealous of their skill. I promise you that when you start to notice your own improvement over time, even well before you have a high level of skill, you’ll start to get happier with your progress and can stop comparing yourself to others. I love looking at my own progress. I still don’t think I’m that far along myself, but just this morning I looked at some of my art from last year, compared to now, and can appreciate where I’ve improved. It’s neat! It’s fun, and it makes me feel nice.

If you’ve been watching my videos for a while, this is a reminder that you can and will improve. Keep at it! If this is the first time you’ve seen me, check out my channel and poke through my playlist. I hope it excites you and gets you on the path to learning to draw. It’s truly such a fulfilling hobby that you can carry with you for the rest of your life. Give it a shot.