Hi everyone!
One of the most difficult things to do when you are learning art is : just getting started. It's difficult to give up fun and easy things that take up our spare time, such as watching TV or browsing social media, for arts progress that could take many years to bear fruit. I recommend spending just five minutes a day on your art in the earliest beginning of your creative life! You can always increase it later, but at first it's vital to make your 5 minutes of art a daily habit! A good book to check out at your local library or bookshop is Twyla Tharp's the Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life. Twyla Tharp is a choreographer for many Broadway musicals, and she has excellent tips for all creative people to improve through daily work. Another book you could get that's more specific for visual arts is Daily Painting by Carol Marine. It is a marvelous inspiration to make art every day!
If you like your five minute daily art sessions, that's when you start to increase the time you spend: twenty minutes, half an hour, to an hour, and if you feel this is something that you could really commit to - the five minute sessions will lead to making art more and more a part of your daily life until it becomes your primary passion and a way to earn a living. I have to warn you here that the level of commitment could be very intense - the greatest artists in history often spent up to 16 hours on art per day, but that's certainly not for everybody. It's perfectly fine to be a hobbyist, or to only paint 8 hours a day as a professional, but you must stay consistent at every stage.
Two books to help you once you're beyond 5 minute art playtime and into serious learning:
Deep Work by Cal Newport. Mr. Newport will help you get organized and eliminate your procrastination and distractions for a more productive day.
Mastery by George Leonard. Although George Leonard wrote this book from the perspective of a martial artist, this is very useful for creatives. I have almost forgotten "the War of Art" by Steven Pressfield and "Eat that Frog" by Brian Tracy. Both books are really great for helping you defeat the terrible dragon of Procrastination (and don't worry, the beast attacks everybody, but we can learn to defeat it!)
Continuous learning itself is a wonderful skill to have. If you have the time to watch an hour's long webinar on learning (anything, not just fine art), check this Google Talk by Barbara Oakley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd2dtkMINIw
Now that we covered time management for learning, I'd like to introduce you to two artists forums both of which have a wealth of information for traditional painting: https://arttalk.dailypaintworks.com/ This is a discussion board for daily painters making small paintings every day. Another discussion board which is very big but not very active anymore is https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/search/ Often when I have a question about painting, I put in some keywords into their searchbar and get interesting results from many different painters. One tip I'll give you here though, is don't obsess with your materials and things like the longevity of your art in the very beginning, and don't buy the most expensive things. A block of printer paper, a simple box of HB pencils, a child's chalkboard that can be wiped and erased indefinitely, a good student brand like Gamblin 1980 or Van Gogh will serve you much better than a $6000 box of oil paint, filled with expensive imported gemstone pigments (look up the history of ultramarine and the precious stone Lapis Lazuli. For the curious, there is a link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt9xbp5GEM0) You just need a simple pencil, you don't need to buy the fanciest hand-crafted brushes made from the silver tail of a unicorn. Of course, at the other extreme of art supplies prices, you shouldn't buy the cheapest possible things either - Dollarama doesn't have decent brushes, canvas, or paint, and it's suitable only for children or hobby crafters. Amazon carries many strange discount art supplies brands that will not give anybody good results, and should be avoided even by crafters.
With the right mindset and a consistent practice routine, you are headed for artistic success! But wait, what exactly should you practice and what should you study, especially if you are going at it alone? Comic book artist David Finch has an excellent guide right here:
https://davidfinchart.com/where-to-start-and-where-to-go-from-there-a-roadmap-to-professional-quality-art/
"but I am not doing comics," you might be thinking. Don't worry! Comic book artists must acquire very strong fundamental skills in anatomy and perspective, both being fairly challenging to master, and applicable to all realistic and more cartoony/anime/manga styles of art. David Finch also has a very large library of free content that's great for beginners:
https://davidfinchart.com/library/
I will post more free content from other artists here later, but this should be enough for you to explore in the beginning.
I wish everyone much luck, enormous artistic progress, and today and always, a colourful day!
Marina Hedgy
https://cara.app/imageryhand/all
One of the most difficult things to do when you are learning art is : just getting started. It's difficult to give up fun and easy things that take up our spare time, such as watching TV or browsing social media, for arts progress that could take many years to bear fruit. I recommend spending just five minutes a day on your art in the earliest beginning of your creative life! You can always increase it later, but at first it's vital to make your 5 minutes of art a daily habit! A good book to check out at your local library or bookshop is Twyla Tharp's the Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life. Twyla Tharp is a choreographer for many Broadway musicals, and she has excellent tips for all creative people to improve through daily work. Another book you could get that's more specific for visual arts is Daily Painting by Carol Marine. It is a marvelous inspiration to make art every day!
If you like your five minute daily art sessions, that's when you start to increase the time you spend: twenty minutes, half an hour, to an hour, and if you feel this is something that you could really commit to - the five minute sessions will lead to making art more and more a part of your daily life until it becomes your primary passion and a way to earn a living. I have to warn you here that the level of commitment could be very intense - the greatest artists in history often spent up to 16 hours on art per day, but that's certainly not for everybody. It's perfectly fine to be a hobbyist, or to only paint 8 hours a day as a professional, but you must stay consistent at every stage.
Two books to help you once you're beyond 5 minute art playtime and into serious learning:
Deep Work by Cal Newport. Mr. Newport will help you get organized and eliminate your procrastination and distractions for a more productive day.
Mastery by George Leonard. Although George Leonard wrote this book from the perspective of a martial artist, this is very useful for creatives. I have almost forgotten "the War of Art" by Steven Pressfield and "Eat that Frog" by Brian Tracy. Both books are really great for helping you defeat the terrible dragon of Procrastination (and don't worry, the beast attacks everybody, but we can learn to defeat it!)
Continuous learning itself is a wonderful skill to have. If you have the time to watch an hour's long webinar on learning (anything, not just fine art), check this Google Talk by Barbara Oakley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd2dtkMINIw
Now that we covered time management for learning, I'd like to introduce you to two artists forums both of which have a wealth of information for traditional painting: https://arttalk.dailypaintworks.com/ This is a discussion board for daily painters making small paintings every day. Another discussion board which is very big but not very active anymore is https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/search/ Often when I have a question about painting, I put in some keywords into their searchbar and get interesting results from many different painters. One tip I'll give you here though, is don't obsess with your materials and things like the longevity of your art in the very beginning, and don't buy the most expensive things. A block of printer paper, a simple box of HB pencils, a child's chalkboard that can be wiped and erased indefinitely, a good student brand like Gamblin 1980 or Van Gogh will serve you much better than a $6000 box of oil paint, filled with expensive imported gemstone pigments (look up the history of ultramarine and the precious stone Lapis Lazuli. For the curious, there is a link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt9xbp5GEM0) You just need a simple pencil, you don't need to buy the fanciest hand-crafted brushes made from the silver tail of a unicorn. Of course, at the other extreme of art supplies prices, you shouldn't buy the cheapest possible things either - Dollarama doesn't have decent brushes, canvas, or paint, and it's suitable only for children or hobby crafters. Amazon carries many strange discount art supplies brands that will not give anybody good results, and should be avoided even by crafters.
With the right mindset and a consistent practice routine, you are headed for artistic success! But wait, what exactly should you practice and what should you study, especially if you are going at it alone? Comic book artist David Finch has an excellent guide right here:
https://davidfinchart.com/where-to-start-and-where-to-go-from-there-a-roadmap-to-professional-quality-art/
"but I am not doing comics," you might be thinking. Don't worry! Comic book artists must acquire very strong fundamental skills in anatomy and perspective, both being fairly challenging to master, and applicable to all realistic and more cartoony/anime/manga styles of art. David Finch also has a very large library of free content that's great for beginners:
https://davidfinchart.com/library/
I will post more free content from other artists here later, but this should be enough for you to explore in the beginning.
I wish everyone much luck, enormous artistic progress, and today and always, a colourful day!
Marina Hedgy
https://cara.app/imageryhand/all