Being a self taught artist

[Christina Perez]

Greetings fellow artists, friends and classmates. I posed this on my art blog but i decided to be brave and break the ice perse and spark a conversation. Mostly about how I became a self taught artist. This will get mushy and at times ranty so forgive me. Also yes this is the filtered version of the one on my blog.

1. Be your own worst critic and advasary (edited)
   Okay hear me out. Whenever i draw or do anything.. i dont hear my voice perse. I actually made a OC.. to be my critic. and advasary
   (putting this here for future ref to draw her.)
   Enzerubebii
   Gender: Female
   Race: Elf
   Occupation: my art critic (when not my art critic she is a huntress)
   Aesthetic: Kawaii
   Details: Long black hair, glowing green eyes, Bangs that cover the left eye, and painted nails.
   Personality: Strong willed and creative on and off the battlefield

As you can see she is a strong ass woman and is capable of handling herself. Why i created her is mostly to be an alter ego side of myself.

While i am on this topic I will bring up my friends as ocs in my blog as well cause i trust them...with my life..
Enzer: I do what people call a compliment sandwich Ill compliment on it..critique it..then compliment it again. You expect me to bully my own creator? Well i do that as well but not in this field.
Chrissy: ok ok we get it now shoo off.
2. Expect nothing, but aim for everything
I think of the art world as a crane or gacha game. You COULD get what you expected.. however, i also expect nothing in the end. This is why Im not doing commissions till i get better.
3. Copy the masters
No that doesn't mean literally copy their work and post it online and claim it as your work! As in try to copy their techniques and merge it with your own. Heck maybe mish match a few that are painters/illustrators/Sculptors maybe? I dont know! Just do what makes you happy.
4. Consistency is key
Listen..i know we all be lazy potatoes however, practice does prefect the work. Think of drawing as a workout. If you don't work out 10 mins a day or more your gonna result in lazy work. If you balls to the wall and do a sketchbook slam of maybe 20 pages a day and spend maybe 12 hours on X pages in totall...Hows that carpal tunnel? What im trying to get at is if you want to unlock the secrets. THINK ABOUT CONSISTENCY!

5. Don’t compare yourself to others
   I HAVE FELL INTO THIS ONE SO MANY TIMES THAT IM GONNA RANT ABOUT IT! I honestly hate myself and my toxic mentality when i was in this stage. "Oh im not good enough as Demitrius!" (one of my friends NO not their real name im not that type of person you know who you are tho you tiefling) "I'm never going to be as good as (insert celebrity anime/comic artist here). They make great work while i make trash." I swear to ARES i wanna travel back in time, Slap myself in the face for saying those things. Then give myself a cupcake and say everything will be okay. This is bad toxic behavior, and it will be the end of your art career before it even begins. Good thing i snapped out of it before it was too late.

6. Document everything
   looks at so many art refs she owns Okay this one is as simple as confessing that..my anatomy practice is CRAP! I have FILES! in a cupcake USB filled with NSFW models and SFW models mostly because i cant draw people in certain poses because i cant draw naked people without freaking out. I have A WHOLE FILE DEDICATED TO ANIMALS! IT IS OKAY TO HAVE A REF! Models, normal people, NSFW scenes, you name it, it might happen to be in that cupcake.

7. Take part in the art community
   Instagram, Twitter, SVS(hi class), and if youre dareing facebook.. there are so many ways to use the art community to bond and grow. I use
   Insta
   Twitter
   SvS
   Discord (mostly)
   so my locations are spread like a willow tree. It's just how you depend on how you feel comfterble. HECK YOU CAN USE TIKTOK IF YOU ARE INTO THE 'TRUST THE PROCESS'!

So thats my ways of how i became a self taught artist. let me know how you were taught.

[lpetiti]

@Christina-Perez Some great thoughts, thank you for posting them! I would argue, though, that instead of us being our own worst critics, we need to be our biggest advocates. Labeling this as our "worst critic" is more likely to lean towards negative self talk and berating ourselves. It's possible to push ourselves as artists by saying "it's okay if I'm not quite there, I'm still learning/it's a first draft/whatever" but to me, the phrase "worst critic" sparks ideas of "you're terrible at this, you'll never get better, others do it do much better than you". Definitely a fine line, but after spending tons of time dealing with this in therapy myself, I wanted to speak out on this.

[Christina Perez]

@lpetiti fair point and that is why i should have mentioned the compliment sandwich. Which is where i hear enzer Compliment it...say a critique..then compliment it again. but you are correct on calling me out on that ^_^