Unhappy with your artwork? 3 Tips to IMPROVE and change everything

Do you often feel stuck in your artwork because it hasn't turned out how you've wanted it to? Or maybe you have the desire to create, but haven't had the motivation to pick up that brush or pencil yet? Whenever you're here right now, we're going to go through three critical lessons that you need to know to significantly improve your artwork. And the first lesson is understand and manage your creative blocks. People seem to abandon their art practice because they're struggling with one of three things. Perfectionism, their inner critic being too much in control, or feeling like they're faking being an artist. And so much so that we have these thoughts. You suck at art, so why even bother? You'll never be good like other artists. And these get stuck in our head because of our high expectations on ourselves and this ideal we hold up that we can create the perfect drawing or perfect painting. And then when we fall short of perfection, our high standards steal our joy. And then we can't allow ourselves to enjoy creating. And there's a great quote I heard recently from a man named Vin Yang. And he says, failure is the price of entry. You fail, learn, then succeed. But by knowing you'll fail, it frees you to be more creative and less stuck on being perfect. By not having expectations that you have to reach each time you pick up that brush, you'll have a better experience through the process of creating. And it becomes more about play and enjoyment rather than making something perfect. And more importantly, by allowing ourselves more ease and grace with this mindset, one where we'll be more willing to come back to again and again and again, so we can see those improvements in our art. And now that we know that we're perfectly imperfect, our next lesson is to understand why we want to make art. Maybe you loved creating as a kid, but now you're in a soul-sucking job and you're craving something to fulfill you. Or maybe you're retired and have always wanted to pick up a brush, but never had time. But it's never too late to start an art practice. You can be 50, 60, 70, 80. Heck, if your goal is to master watercolors at 60, who's to stop you from being a critically acclaimed artist by 70? But the important question is understanding why we enjoy art. What is its purpose for you? What are you doing? Uh, making stuff? Why? Um, because I like it? Yeah, but like, why? Uh, I don't know. So, do you want to master a certain medium? Do you want to relax, play, heal? Use it as an outlet for self-expression? Use it as a way to let yourself have a voice and presence in the world? Or just savor the joy and quiet of creating? There are a million reasons why people enjoy creating and the creative process. But if you're watching this, your soul is excited about art for a reason. So try to understand why art is important to you. So I recommend reflecting on what purpose art plays in your life and being very conscious on letting art fulfill that for you. So now you're like, Jen, that's all fine and great. I understand I should manage my perfectionism and I understand why I want to do art, but I also want to feel satisfied when I look at my art and I want it to look nice. Which brings me to lesson number three, which is understanding light sources and their shadows. Understanding light is one of the more underrated knowledge areas. When you understand the different types of light and the resulting shadows, it makes your illustration or painting come to life. It's that hint of realism that turns something from flat on the page to bursting with life. It can add emotion and atmosphere as well, and light and shadow tell a story. Really just learning a little bit about light and shadow is a game changer when it comes to improving your art. So I'm going to add a little lesson here on the three types of light behavior that you need to know to move your art forward. And we're going to start off with learning about hard shadows. So a hard shadow is when an object is in the direct path of the sun and leaves a very defined shadow. So I have a little guy here that I've made. I'm going to call him Edward. Now as Edward is a sphere, he's going to be having some very rounded shadows. Anything that the sun wouldn't be hitting would be leaving a very defined shadow on him. And when you have a lot of objects or objects that are touching, like petals or for instance on Edward where his legs meet the bottom of his rounded body, we have this darker area. And when we create this darker area where objects are closer together or touch, it's actually called ambient occlusion. And you can also see it here in this example with the lavender, where the areas are close together or touching, it's naturally darker. And when we add ambient occlusion, it really adds a lot of depth into our paintings and our illustrations, and it really takes our drawings to the next level. So the next scene I have for Edward is this overcast day. There is still sun of course, but it's behind the clouds. And the clouds are the object now that is blocking the sun. So what we have is this diffused light situation. So when the object is behind a curtain or it's cloudy or there's something else blocking the light source, this diffused light is created. So when I go to add shadows on Edward, they're going to be much softer than the hard shadows from the direct sunlight as before. I'm still going to include some ambient occlusion, but again, it's going to be a softer, less harsh shadow. Now I could go on forever about light and shadow, but if you add some of these types of shadow and light sources into your artwork, you'll add realistic values, which will make your artwork look more three-dimensional and much more interesting. Now, these are the three things I wish I knew as a beginner artist, but they could be different for you. So please leave a comment down below on a turning point you had because someone may benefit from reading your experience as well. And it might encourage them to finally pick up that brush or pencil. So please write a comment below of what helped you in your art practice. I hope you enjoyed this video and thank you and I'll see you next time.