The Process of Learning as a Self Taught Artist
How I learned to paint and draw without officially going to art classes or art school…
The Early Years
I didn’t have a formal art education. I’ve always love to draw and be creative. As an only child, arts and crafts were the perfect way to keep myself entertained too! I used to watch a TV show called Art Attack and then do my best to recreate the craft projects I saw. Luckily, my parents provided me with all sorts of supplies from coloured pencils and construction paper to glitter glue (yes my mom was brave letting me have such a messy art tool!).
As I got older, I became more interested in colouring and drawing pictures of my favourite characters from Sailor Moon to the Archie Comics. I’ll admit though, I was lazy and opted for tracing paper whenever I had some so that I could get to the fun part of colouring faster. However, it wasn’t a waste of time or a cheat as I really believe that tracing figures over and over again helped build muscle memory for basic proportions. I eventually graduated from tracing to copying. I would look at a picture and do my best to recreate it in my sketchbook. They didn’t always turn out but I would try over and over again until I got it as close as I could. Soon my confidence grew and I began to skip the tracing paper and minimize the direct copying opting to copy only parts of my favourite fairy art and then go wild with my own colours, for example.
Both my parents are wonderful artists and I was especially inspired by my dad’s pencil work. I began to only use pencil and coloured pencil to practice. I had sketchbooks and sketchbooks of figures, fantasy characters and fairies! I didn’t realize it at the time but I followed an ideal path of focusing on drawing skills before ever tackling paints such as watercolours or acrylics (aside from the occasional mess around). After all, drawing is the foundation to pretty much every art medium!
Discovering Paint
I didn’t always work with watercolour paints. In fact, prior to falling in love with this medium, I was obsessed with acrylic paints! My very first set was a small set of five System 3 Acrylics by Daler Rowney. In hindsight, having only five colours (red, blue, yellow, black and white) was hugely beneficial in teaching me about colour theory. Thankfully, with acrylics there is a lot of room for experimentation since they are fast drying and easy to paint over top. I could mix and make a mess without being too precious about canvases or paper.
Then I discovered Stephanie Law’s watercolour paintings. The amount of detail completely transformed the way I viewed watercolours. In my infinite wisdom as a 13 year old, I had written them off as a washed out medium that only showed up in faded prints on the walls of waiting rooms! Thankfully I was wholly proven wrong! That was the day I decided I needed to get my hands on a set of watercolours.
I got myself a cheap set of Reeves paints, one paintbrush, a plastic palette and some paper. I had NO idea where to begin with watercolours. I made many mistakes in my attempts to recreate the effects I saw in Stephanie Law’s paintings. The subject matter of her art kept me so inspired that I pushed through the paint struggles and slowly began to learn brush and water control. Thankfully she also had a blog where she shared her process and I discovered the power of glazing and patience.
The Entire Roadmap
Get a sketchbook and draw, draw, draw! Don’t be precious about it - make a mess and make mistakes in your sketchbook. Not every page has to be “pretty.”
Draw from life, trace pictures and copy/create master studies to help build your muscle memory and train your eye to really see
If you are struggling to draw something in particular, draw it over and over again! With each iteration you will see improvements.
Pick a coloured medium and practice mixing. You don’t need a full kit of colours - get yourself a limited palette of colour and practice. You will gain invaluable knowledge about colour theory and the capabilities of a few choice colours.
Read books, blogs and watch videos. There are TONS of resources now, much more than I had access to when I began.
Persevere. As you stretch and push yourself, your skills will grow and before you know it, something that was hard to draw or paint will be second nature!
Thank you so much for reading!
Like this post? Feel free to pin it on Pinterest! :)
