Q&A for How to Become an Artist

Stay connected to the people around you. Most artists, myself included, have a tendency to move around a lot and get lost in whatever is going on in their head. Try to stay connected to the people who care about you and the professional contacts you make. Also, if you find a gallery that supports your work, stay with them!

At a certain point, you probably want to pay someone to do this for you so that you can just focus on your art. The other bit of advice I'd have is to not overdo it. If you inundate your followers by spamming them with 5-10 posts a day, they're going to get annoyed with you. Just post every day or every other day.

It depends. The more often you practice, the faster you'll develop your own style. You should keep in mind as a beginner that your art will change over time, and especially so as you're just starting out.

Practice and continue to develop your own style until you graduate high school. After that, attend an art school. You could also find art shows aimed at children and teens for displaying your work and getting critiques. Art classes with a tutor can be a good idea too––why not ask for art lessons and materials as birthday presents?

You don't need anyone to help you, you just need to practice a lot. Look at and try to emulate other people's art. Find tutorials online. There are many articles on this website on how to draw specific things or use specific techniques.

Show as many people as you can. Post your art on social media -- there is a app called Art Amino and it is a very helpful app. Tell people to tell other about your art. Give paintings or drawings as gifts to people and usually, if they like it, they will hang it up. Try getting the app DeviantArt.

Anything and everything. Draw trees, go in depth, pay attention to how the branches intertwine and curl, paint every leaf individually. Draw eyes, the pupil, and all of the colors in the eye. Be sure to remember its the details that matter. Pay attention to them and just keep practicing!

Quite a few really. For example, you could be: An artist, a graphic designer, an artist in a TV show (props, scenery, makeup), an art teacher, an art tutor in a art institute or home-based, an art adviser in government or an institute, an advertising artist, an artist for a municipality seeking to improve amenity, a portrait artist, a festival or event consultant, and so on. Many of these require having multiple skills, so be prepared to get a broad range of skills but ensure that your artistic skills are what really define your role.

It depends, really. Some careers that involve art can be small and you may not gain a lot of money like for example commissioning for your art. However, others make decent amounts of money in areas such as animating, coloring, and designing a character for some TV show or cartoon. In the money-making areas though, you are less likely to be free about what you create and more likely to be under the direction of corporate requirements, so you need to choose wisely. Just remember, real artists have day jobs, and they're not necessarily related to their art.

Draw/paint whatever evokes the feelings you have. For example, if you are sad and daisies make you sad, you could paint them.

All artists have different experiences. To learn more about what it is like to be an artist, reach out to local creators in your area to shadow them for a day.

In my experience, you will only mostly use your art skills, but it depends on what kind of artist you want to be. You will probably need to be cooperative if you are going to work for someone, because you won't always be able to do exactly what you want. I've also found people skills to be useful.

It depends on your passion for art. In truth, some artists do not get paid well at all, and there are few who are appreciated enough to live in luxury off that one career. I advise getting another job alongside art, or simply doing it as a hobby.

Definitely not! First of all, you are still quite young. You can find examples of fantastic artists who didn't start until they were 60, 70, or even older. Just work hard and don't compare yourself to people who had a head start.

You have to follow your heart and pursue your goals regardless of whether or not other people want to support you. It will be tough, but with enough dedication, you can do it.

Yes, but it's definitely not an easy career path. You will have to go to art school and be very devoted to learning and improving your art.

If you are just a beginner, remember that each piece you create helps you get a bit better. You could look through the old work of artists that you admire and see how much they have progressed - their work was on the same level as yours, once! If you have been creating art for a few years, take some of your old work out and look at it. You will see that you've made progress, and that your old work probably isn't as bad as you thought!

Practice as much and as often as you can (but be kind to your body! Take breaks and stretch your back and your wrists regularly). Try drawing directly from real life, as well as photos of real life. There may be an art class available at your school or a local youth club. There are also many books available with in-depth discussion of art in general or specific styles of art, which you could own or borrow from the library. You will probably want to study at least one book on basic human anatomy for artists, and you can also find books on fun styles to try like various cartoons.

Shop your pieces to local galleries.

You can do whatever you like, but you may find this a challenging combination. Thicker paints will hide the pencil underneath, while thinner paints like watercolor might smudge the pencil.

You are an artist if you create art, but unless you sell art, you are not yet a professional artist. You could also call yourself an art student if you are going or planning to go to school for art. Your age will be a legal obstacle to taking commissions, since in the US and many other countries a minor cannot sign a legal contract. Your parents could sign on your behalf, but it may be a better idea to focus for now on improving your skills as much as possible and researching the world of freelancing, so you will be ready when you turn 18 (or the age of majority wherever you live).

Artist usually refers to someone who creates visual art, such as paintings or sculptures. It can also be used to refer to someone who creates music. A craftsman is someone who crafts objects by hand, usually functional objects. For example, a hand-blown glass vase was created by a craftsman. An artisan is sort of a combination of the two; they are someone who treats their trade as an art and makes a point to create something fantastic, usually using old and hand-crafting methods. An artisan cheese maker might make their cheese carefully by hand to produce a superior final product.

There are many articles on this topic here on wikiHow. Start with How to Draw for the basics.

Just draw. Keep a little sketchbook with you and draw things you see, or just things in your imagination. Try drawing the same thing over and over again and see if you can improve it.

You can use the internet to help you improve on your own, though lessons or classes can be extremely useful if you want to go far.

Ask your friends how much they would pay. Price according to how good the piece turned out and how long it took you.

Draw as much as you can. You can watch art videos on YouTube to learn. Also, pay attention in art class and try to do your best. You probably aren't going to be able to sell your art yet, so make art as gifts for family members and friends.

Art can be made will as simple as a pencil you'd use for school, and a notebook. You can still practice your techniques and eventually, when you have the money and access you can take the skill from the basic pencil, and transform it into your medium of choice.