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5 pieces of personal advice for smaller artists: A thread
1.) If one or two engage with your work, work on engaging with them. The first part about building yourself is creating a community and network with those who are close to you or around you. Establishing that kind of relationship will help a lot
2.) Have a portfolio site in hand. Twitter and other social media sites with the exception of IG make it harder for people to navigate and see your works. Even if they are just sketches or wips, put it on the site.
http://Carrd.co is a good site to easily make a portfolio. Constantly I was moving back and forth between different websites, but having a carrd site made things much easier. My carrd isn't that perfect but you can use this as a reference https://regallery.carrd.co
Also having making a header with your artwork and links go a long way. Not many people that so consider modifying your bio that has a place for your portfolio site so that people know where to find you and see your art.
3.) Self depreciating your art will put you in a bad place. Encourage yourself more than anything. Art may be considered a hobby or a profession to you but you need to have the passion and drive to strive to get better and improve.
Don't let someone yet alone yourself tell you that you aren't good enough. Others will see that negative and distance themselves away. I advise you to take a break and think on ways one how to get better
One thing I always did back then and continue to do is sketch or doodle out different things I am not good at drawing while listening to music. Sometimes I sketch out what a certain song makes me feel or just sketch out random hands since I was bad at it.
The saying, even if it is as mediocre as it sounds, "practice makes perfect". Develop your skills one step at a time and focus on the easy areas that you wish to improve on first before the complicated things.
Still up to this day I can not draw backgrounds but I am slowly working on it by sketching things out one step at a time.
4.) Never be afraid to ask some artists for simple advice and after you receive said advice, don't ignore it. I keep seeing comments from pros that there are some artists that do ask them for advice and just abuse it, making them feel not entitled to give you help.
It's understandable because there are some at times that do never follow up and they think it was a waste of time. Always follow up on things you ask for and be patience if advice isn't given right away.
When asking for advice, ask them something really constructive something like "Your recent work has a very good use of [such and such] especially [so and so], I am wondering if you have an advice to how to do [such and such] and how can I apply to to my artwork"
Even though it is an example, it kinda provides a sense of what kind of advice you are looking for and in a why gives the artist you are asking a straightforward answer.
At the end of the day, you want to improve so never hesitate to ask. Not all of us may be professionals or some of us are so our advice will be based on our personal experiences (just like this thread). Don't be afraid to ask.
5.) Do art because you love it, not otherwise. You are an artist and you are doing most of what non artists are not doing. Work smarter not harder, engage and build confidence. Don't engage in something you are truly not passionate about.
I'm going to end this thread there. Now this is all personal advice and I am not a pro but hopefully this will encourage some of you and at the end of the day, I hope to discover more or your art and help you grow :)
Also I will like to add, I do have some typos in here, but I hope I got my point across to all of you xD
