How to Become a Better Artist (+30-Day Challenge!)

If you are an artist, chances are you have stared at a work that seems thousands of times better than what you can do and silently asked “How can I draw like that?” ( ；´Д｀)/

I ask that question fairly often, actually, because I follow so many amazing artists. ;A; And there are plenty of lists of tips out there, but in short, there is no singular “easy” way to becoming a better artist. Many people will tell you first that practice is the first thing that comes to mind in the form of advice, and that “practice makes perfect”; I’d amend that to “practice makes you better” since perfectionism can be discouraging if you really are striving that high. ><

Here are some of the things that I’ve found through my own experience that you can do to improve. It’s just a short (sweet?) list that won’t take you too long to read. I’ve tried to list them so that each item builds upon the previous one.

1. Practice. This basically just means keep drawing. You’ll find that you will improve almost without realizing it.
2. Identify areas in which you struggle, and work on them.
3. Stay excited. This is actually very important, because if you aren’t enjoying what you draw, it’s not going to come out as good. Or worse, your inspiration may fail you and leave you frustrated and reminiscing about days when you were excited.
4. Set a standard, approach it, and then move it higher. Try to do a little better each time you draw.
5. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. If you’re stuck on a picture, take a break, but come back to it. If you don’t, it may be two or three years before you decide to finish it–that, or you’ve improved so much you’d have to redraw it entirely in order for it to be good enough to post ^^; <– guilty of this; see example here
6. Lastly, you can try doing memes or mini-challenges. They’re also good for times when you’re bored or feel stuck on something. ^o^

Here’s a challenge that I’m going to do too! For the next thirty days, let’s choose one character* and draw them at least once a day. It can be anything from a quick sketch to a fully-colored picture, as long as it’s the same character. Why do this? For a few reasons:

) You will become comfortable with drawing the character in a consistent style. If you are the type of artist who draws in lots of different styles (like me) this will be especially useful to you.
) You will remember the character’s design without having to consult a reference sheet every time you draw them. Especially if you will be doing your own manga, this will be useful.
) You can experiment with different facial expressions, different clothes, anything you like; the goal is to keep the character looking like themselves.

*You can do this for multiple characters if you want! I’m just doing it with one. ^^

I will post my drawings to Tumblr and dA. Feel free to show me yours!

Related Links (I hope they help too!):

• How to Build Up Your Drawing Skill
• 10 Top Tips to Become a Better Artist
• 9 Warning Signs of an Amateur Artist

This post is a part of my August Art series. I’ll do a Q&A post at the end of the month, so if you have an art-related question or just want to ask me something, ask away!  *(*´∀｀*)☆