I’ve been learning and making art since I was a kid. I taught myself at first, by copying art. Then later, I bought instructional books with my allowance money. You know what happened after copying and buying books? Not a damn thing. I still wasn’t any good. Do you know why? It’s because I was a proud little shit that did what I wanted and who knew too much for their own good. So I couldn’t be bothered to read the books all the way through. As a result, I was bad at art for a very long time.

That changed once I went to the Academy of Art University. It was late in life for me, and I had a fire in my ass to learn as much as possible, fast as possible. Did it help? Hell no! All the lessons I learned during the semester never seemed to really stick. It just never sunk into my thick head until the following semester. There’s a bit more to it, but at the time, I just accepted it.

Learning how to draw or paint is a skill. It’s no different from being an athlete, a chess player, a pro-gamer, or really anything that you have to put time and effort into learning. So if you’ve decided to start learning art, the very first thing you need to do is fix your attitude and be ready to work. Believe me when I say that you’re going to have to put in the work and eat a whole lot of humble pie while you’re at it. The work can be fun or it can be frustrating. It all depends on your attitude.

Have a positive attitude, look forward to the challenges in front of you, and be excited by the nerdiest of technical minutiae. Stay calm. You can’t be creative if you’re spazzing out over a blank surface. If you don’t like working, don’t bother making art.

If one of the reasons you want to learn to make art is because it seems fun. Hold on to that thought. Because if making art is not fun, then why waste your time learning something that makes you unhappy? Life is way too short to bother being miserable doing something that makes you feel like you want to scream at a piece of paper and stab it with a pencil.

Let me clue you in on this little bit of history. In the ancient days, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and Leonardo Da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa, being an artist was like being a carpenter. It was considered blue-collar work. So roll those sleeves up, my friend, and get ready to grind. Be patient. Learning how to draw and paint is a lot of fun if you let it. You’re sitting down with a thought and a blank page. The next moment, it’s a caveman riding a dinosaur in the prehistoric past, as it steps into an alien spaceship.

Chris Oatley once said (I’m paraphrasing here) that the path to mastering art is like climbing a mountain. Sometimes the climb is easy, sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes you’re walking on a plateau for a long time. But the climb is always upward, and it never ends until you either stop climbing or die. That’s the truth.

Are you a slow learner? Are you a fast learner? Or are you like me…learn by doing? Are you thick-headed, stubborn?  Is your mindset of ‘don’t tell me how to do things, I’ll do it my way?’ Good for you and good luck! You’ve got what it takes to be an artist.

Are you unsure about how to set out on your art path? It’s OK. I was in the same boat. I’m throwing my hat into the ring and lending my hard-earned wisdom for those of you who follow me and are interested in learning how to create art or just interested in my creative process. I hope you’ll find some good information that’ll help your creative process a bit easier and a lot more fun.