Blog 1-How to Be an Artist

After reading Jerry Saltz’s article on How to be An Artist, I never realized how a lot of the rules connect to me as an artist.  One of the rules that speak to me the most is lesson #5, which is “Work, work, work!”. That rule itself speaks to me the most because to me, I find it helpful and useful whenever I have the urge to draw. Sometimes, I suffer from art block and distanced myself from drawing for an unknown amount of time before taking out my old sketchbook and pencil again. Sometimes, it’s good to take a break, just because it helps clear my head full of necessary thoughts, but at the same time, it affects my ability to draw, giving me the assumption that I stopped improving and went back to square one. That’s when I realized that if I wanted to improve on my drawing skills, I need to continue drawing. Granted, it does not mean drawing every single day, nor constantly drawing complex pieces of artwork. It means that if an artist wants to get better, they’d need to practice, even if it’s creating something simple like a hand or circle. An artist can only get better through working, and I know that if I wanted to improve on my drawings, I need to keep drawing. I know that as I continue to draw each day, I see little signs of improvements and progress. In addition to #5, another rule that relates to me as an artist is lesson #20, which is accepting that you will likely be poor. Granted, not everyone who becomes an artist will automatically be rich off their artwork, and I know that I will most likely not become automatically wealthy when I pursue my career as an artist. There will be times where I will struggle, feel under paid and underrecognized, but that’s okay. It doesn’t matter if I make a fortune or less off of my artwork, I chose to become an artist because art is my passion. Drawing a piece of artwork may not be much, but it’s what I love and I’d rather spend most of my future drawing anything I want.