What’s The Best Art Advice You Can Get?

Looking for the best art advice that will give you a framework that you can use over and over again?  The advice is simple, and you can use it as it applies to improving your art, or to any other area in your life.

And that brings us to a common problem…
Ever feel like you just can’t quite put your finger on exactly what you should be learning, or where you should be focusing? 

I feel like this all the time – in art, in life, for my health…

But recently I’m trying something and I think it could really help you out as well.  And the answer is so shockingly simple and easy to do that you’ll be saying ‘Duh, Mitch – of course!’ but before I tell you what it is and lay my best art advice on you, I want to tell you why this problem exists and why doing what you will learn can completely change your life.

We live in the information age, which is great – we can quickly find the answers to most of our problems…

However – there’s TOO much information.  For example, if you search on Google ‘How to draw hands’ there are 214,000,000 search results.  That’s INSANE!  How can you ever expect to find the best art advice in all of that?

best art advice search

You know how mothers love giving advice on how to do things?  Well, imagine if you had 100 mothers each giving you advice – it would enough to make your head explode…

And this is the exact kind of situation we are in right now.  I mean even just reading this text right now is another person giving you advice – but I promise that by the end you will be able to have peace of mind and clarity on exactly what you next steps should be.

So what’s the answer?

The best art advice I can give you is to:

  1. Identify an area of your artwork that you want to improve, or some problem that you want to solve.  Note that this can apply to any area of your life.
  2. Find an expert and get their advice.
  3. Then take action on that advice IMMEDIATELY.  Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now – like this second.

 

You might be saying ‘Oh, of course,’ but before you just stop reading, let’s break these points down into a little more detail so that you can up your chances of success with this.

Even though the concept is simple – it’s so easy to get derailed and go back into old patterns of not moving forward and getting stuck in the information loop.

First – Identify and area of your artwork that you want to improve

This should be simple – it could be that you can’t confidently draw hands, or that your faces always look kind of alien because the proportions aren’t what they need to be.  It could be that you have trouble being creative or that you can’t quite get the shading on anything right.
What your problem is isn’t as important as identifying one single thing that you want to improve – not three, not 5; but one single thing.
Now you may be saying that your problem is that you aren’t a good or great artist and that’s the problem that you need to solve, but this is too big to really take action on.  It’s like saying that you are having trouble being a master chef when you don’t even know how to cook rice without searching it on Google.
If you’re thinking too big like this, don’t worry.  You will get to greatness if you stick with it, but you need to focus on just one thing you can start improving today.  So make a choice on one thing.  It doesn’t matter if you aren’t sure if it’s the ‘right’ choice to make – just make a decision and move on.

Next – Find an expert to get advice from

Now, where can you go to find an expert?  There are tons of art experts all over the place – they are not hard to find. The easiest place is to turn to a Google search, or Youtube, but better than these is to go to your local library to the art section and start looking for a good book that will give you the knowledge you need.
How do you know if someone is an expert?  Just ask yourself.  If you think their work is no good, then don’t choose them.  If their work is exciting and obviously at a higher level than yours then they are enough of an expert for you to keep moving forward.
Or if you like…
We have a whole roster of expert artists who have generously laid out their exact process and techniques inside Pencil Kings.  We cover all kinds of topics from posing characters, to shading, designing environments, drawing hands and feet, getting started with Photoshop, designing characters, making cartoons and on and on.

Lastly – take action on that expert advice IMMEDIATELY

I see this time and time again where people can find the expert and the exact knowledge that they need to move forward, but they don’t do anything with it.
They feel like because they now know it that they have the skill, but they are so wrong.  Don’t be like them, because they are stuck in the information loop constantly looking for answers but never making any progress.
Don’t be like them. Take Action. Just do it.
Try out what the expert has instructed you to do and have a realistic expectation that you are trying something new and that you likely aren’t going to pull it off like a master on your first try.
Then try it again, and again.
Try whatever advice you are getting at least three times and see what kind of results you are getting.  If it’s learning something like drawing noses from any angle you can imagine, then you may need to draw 100 noses or more before you start to feel comfortable with this, but that’s completely ok – you are doing exactly what you should be.
The important part is not to get caught up in the trap of finding the answer to your problem, and then taking no action.
There’s no need to make progress harder than it needs to be.
If you need help finding an expert, or getting detailed instruction on what you need to do – then why not join Pencil Kings and start learning right now?

4 thoughts on “What’s The Best Art Advice You Can Get?”

  1. Thanks for that information. You hit the nail right on the head and picked the problem that I have. Faces, front no problem. I can get the proportions I should be getting, getting noses in the right place, and so on, but profile faces and 3/4 etc, my proportions go for a loop.

    I have felt what my problem is but not really done anything about it..so I am about to do just that.

    Thanks you for the kick in the pants.

    1. It’s amazing how quickly things improve when you start taking action on them – and if the problem you are trying to solve is too big, see if you can break it down even further and then just pick one thing. This is the fastest way that I know to improve anything.

  2. I’m really enjoying your newsletters. I posted a comment on this earlier but either it didn’t post correctly or it got eaten up in transit.

    Just wanted to say the third part of the advice to ‘take action!’ is so critical. I agree that the internet has opened up so many channels of information for us but all that information gathering can get in the way of actually doing art.

    I’m definitely guilty of it. So I’m going to get fired up and actually pick up a pencil…you know, right after I research the best pencil…and the best paper…or the value in going paperless in this age of digital art…ahhh and there go my good intentions. Kidding 😀

    1. Hehe – Just do it 😉

      I find that asking myself if I am putting off the action I really need to be taking – and this helps me to correct course. I’m a recovering info-junkie who is trying to follow the advice of a good friend – ‘Screw it – just do it!’ heh. So far it seems to be working out alright.

Comments are closed.