Letters to a Young Artist: Understanding your Strengths and Weaknesses

Dear Young Artist,

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to understand where your skills lie. You will have the thing you are best in and the things that give you more trouble. Some of these trouble areas just need more study, some need more practice. Ideally you will leap frog skills. Where eventually your worse skill becomes your best. This growing never stops. 

Below is a chart. Number your skills from 1-7 with 1 being your strongest skill. If you are brave enough then let your 2 or 3 of your friends who know your work also fill this out. Now not every artist needs all these categories. There are painters that cannot draw or draftsmen that lean on those skills and are weak painters but still make amazing art. In short some of these skills may not apply but the more you have the better the art in my opinion. This will give you greater understanding on what to work on. After you do that come back and Ill give you some ideas to work on. 

Skill	Definition	Score
Composition	How you put the objects of your painting together
Color	How well do your colors work together.
Craft	How is your presentation
Concept	What is the idea you are expressing
Technical Painting skills	How well do you paint
Draftsmanship	How well do you draw
Sophistication	How “grown up” is your painting
Voice/originality	Are your pieces beginning to have a “you” in them? Are you creating something original or does it look like anyone could have made it?

Composition: Yay, field trip time or at least time to go look at master level paintings. Go pick out 10 that you really like and figure out what they are doing with their composition. Where is the eye line? Where is the subject in comparison to size of the canvas. May I suggest looking at Tinteretto, Velasquez, Norman rockwell, Sergeant and Millais. Also go look at comic artists and kid book artist. As always, what do you like? Unfortunately there is not a winning formula but there are some rules that make it more likely to succeed. 

Color: There are so many ways to improve color. At first its just a matter of not making your colors muddy and being able to mix the colors you intend. My advise is to cut out colors out of magazines and mix the paint till you get it right. Then write down these formulas to start a  color journal. The next color practice is to move away from local color to a better understanding of how color shifts on a surface. This is just practice. In the beginning I just didn't mix my colors well and that gave me a variety. Now I follow a warm cool warm rule. If you just always mix a second color in with the local color instead of just white (please don’t use black.) you’ll at least be pointed in the write direction. Finally are you using your color compliments and color story to really make a painting sing? This involves years of practice and loads of color studies. Also go to museums and ask your self why some colors sing and others don't. 

Craft: This one is easy, its just about taking a few more minutes to do something right. If its on camera, make sure the photo is cropped and color corrected. Have you framed, painted or otherwise considered the edges of a canvas. These little things matter.

Concept: What story are you trying to convey? Does your landscape have a mood? Are there details in your painting that reinforce the story or undermind it? This is one of the slow down and think deeper problems? Don't know where to start? Make a painting that says one thing if you look quickly and something else f you look deeper? 

Technical Painting Skill: This is a great problem to have. This just takes practice. Take a class. I work mostly in oil. When I wanted to truly master it, I took classes in classical painting. It gave me another view of the chemistry. Also watch brush strokes that people use on instagram. Go to museums and look at those paintings for evidence of techniques. 

Draftsmanship: First know that painting and drawing are two different skills. A great painter may never learn to draw and a great draftsman may lean on drawing skills and never truly become a great painter. That being said,  Practice! I recommend setting up one object still lives. Start with doing 3 minute sketches of the Object. Then do 5 30 second sketches of it and then do 1 30 min sketch. Within a month this practice will improve your skills. Also trace a photo and then go draw it freehand. This will teach you an awful lot. 

Sophistication: This one is hard to define. I would define it is your art fine art or illustration. Neither is bad, it just defines the opportunities you go for. If you want your work to be more sophisticated it just a practice and taste issue. 

Voice: This is another hard one. This takes time of practice and experimentation. A word of caution.  Its ok to be influenced by others just don't get stuck making copies of someone else's art.  Also, don’t confuse mistakes for style. My only advice, make the art you want and don’t pull your punches. Eventually you skills will grow into your voice.  

Now that you have an idea of what you are good at and what you need to work on, Go forth and produce amazing art. 

You got this, I believe in you