Have you ever considered why no one calls their accountant talented? Or even their plumber, doctor, teacher, or lawyer? These professions receive an education that teaches proven processes they can use to carry out their job.
Yet when it comes to creating art, the idea anyone can learn how to create gets tossed out the window in favor of believing it’s all about talent. I have news for you: artists are not born, they are made.
Every artist I know has gone through years of learning and developing their art. All of them have had to over come obstacles of frustrations, insecurities, rejection, and self doubt. Sometimes family responsibilities and money would take priority over developing their skills to become a good artist.
The willingness to learn the skills of a painter, sculptor, singer, song writer or actor is no less important than the skills it takes to learn to be one of the other professions I mentioned above.
The next time you are in an art gallery or museum and you are admiring a beautiful painting or sculpture stop, and consider the time and skill the artist put into creating such a piece. It didn’t take that artist 10 hours or 30 hours to create it. It took a life time.
Some of the students who come to me are just wanting to do something fun and creative for the day. Others really want to know how they can get better at painting. I gear all my classes around each students wants, skill levels and goals. I want their experience to be enjoyable and as painless as I can make it for them. Art is fun, yes, but it is also a lot of hard work.
Learning to paint a painting starts with learning the basics. How to mix colors, understanding composition, where your light source is coming from, knowing the values from light to dark…..and so on. To become good at painting, it takes practice, practice and more practice until it becomes muscle memory.
Artists aren’t born, they are made.