Anyone with experience, or suggested readings? Thanks in advance!
This is going to sound a lot like shooting down, but it's a note to myself as much as it's a note to you. You got this. :+1:
There is a difference--huge, massive gap--between, "I want to make art" and "I want to be an artist". The first is about creation and expression, the second is about going to parties and having people be excited to greet you.
Stephen King said it something like, "i meet a lot of people who tell me, 'oh! i want to be a novelist' but what they really want is to have written a novel."
Ronnie Coleman said it better, "everybody wants to be a body builder, but don't nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights."
echoing another response:
> If you can make art and be happy, you're done.
Step 1: make art. Step 2: find other people who make art. Step 3: look at their art. Step 4: show them your art. You can do these in any order, but the most important is the making.
There is no magic formula. There is no formula that all successful artists follow. Art education is irrelevant to success, but it's great for technical skills and forcing you to practice.
Like with any other creative act the two best things you can do for yourself are figure out what you can tolerate engaging with in repetition for the rest of your life and then repeat it.
Good luck!
You are right. What I am trying to do here is to understand how the art world works. Yes, I can "do art" by myself, without showing anything to anyone. But I'd also like to understand what happens if you want to put your art "out there".
My preference is just to do shows in local spaces. Then you don't have to deal with any nonsense - you just write an email to the guys that run the space, then if they like it, good, you go do the show, if not, also fine.
Grandfather comment absolutely nails it about the whole thing of making vs being but I think there's a flipside: if you spend your whole life making contemporary art without doing shows, you're never going to get any kind of feedback other than people saying 'is that art'? and thinking they're being clever. You need to meet people who are also doing contemporary art, otherwise it gets pretty depressing pretty fast.
I would add one more step, and it MUST be step 1.
1) Allow yourself to fail.
The biggest detriment to your ability to create art is yourself. you'll always be your harshest critic. Failure is good, you never learn faster than when you fail. So fail lots and lots and lots.
I completely and unequivocally disagree. This is one of the most misleading books IMO. It gets you to the point where you can draw and feel pretty good about it. It’s easy to verify how people are deluded by this book - the litmus test is as follows: Ask them to draw the same thing but now from a different perspective, say rotate the object about some axis by 30 degrees. They’ll fail. The way to learn drawing, if you want to be taken seriously is to internalize the 3D geometry and be able to modify it without much struggle. This is why good teachers start with basic shapes such as Cube and Cones. I would strongly discourage anyone from using this book unless you’re doing it for fun and as a hobby.
There are many good sources, search for Sycra on YT or take a course from Jeffrey Watts on basics of drawing.
That is, the ability to draw rotated geometric primitives without reference is not on the critical path to be taken seriously as an artist.
Drawing forms in perspective is a large hurdle, and it is important if you want to work quickly on a variety of projects with little reference(a common need in professional illustration) but also not the defining thing of "drawing". The huge number of artists that define themselves in a completely flat style should signal as much.
I found it was more important in my studies to prioritize proportion. Proportion rules over and interacts with everything else - it is unavoidable, and there are many proportioning tricks and strategies out there. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is fine at guiding this basic principle. The other things can be done with a bit of reference and specific techniques:
If you understand the proportions correctly in an orthographic side, front and top view, you can already create character turnarounds: just rotate the top view in 2D and then draw guidelines downwards, and you have the horizontal location of everything after rotation, which can subsequently be matched with the vertical from front and side. It is a major labor to do this because you will most likely not have perfect proportions in your original views if you drew them from scratch, but the process itself is intuitive and accurate, and involves no cubes or cones.
Form in perspective is likewise mostly reducible to knowing the location of the horizon line and then informally distorting proportions according to the rule: "above horizon=looking up, below horizon=looking down". And then doing studies of the perpendicular cross-section to internalize the detailed form of real objects. Again, cubes and cones are not a priority. They are a method of simplifying, which helps when you aim towards arbitrary constructions from imagination, but the drawing assignments I've undertaken are achieved with most accuracy by starting from either using a maximum detail reference image to set proportions, or first working in orthographic views to simplify understanding.
The emphasis on primitives is primarily a yesteryear's art education phenomenon, because it was much, much harder to get accurate references then. Artists were known for possessing giant stacks of source material. We're in a world defined by digital processes, and the stacks are disappearing accordingly. You can easily tell the computer to make an accurate cube and then trace over that, and if you need more details you snap a quick photo on your camera. You can build up exactly the reference you need via photobashing. The process is a giant shortcut that doesn't give the same results, but when pushed hard to be stylized, it still leads back to the traditional skills of observation, and eventually to drawing cubes.
You mention "launching", getting recognition, being invited to shows. This is the social/status part of things and is not specific to art. Basically, you have to start. Researchers who get grants get even more grants, artists who do shows get invited to shows. You don't have to do shows or get recognition, however, to be an artist. There is no institution that gives you a badge with "artist" on it.
What is helpful, however, is to find like-minded people. You get inspired by seeing other people work on similar topics. You get the best feedback from those engrossed in the same quest. This is what art schools are good for, and this will be the hard part if you are starting on your own.
If you want to have the experience of being in a show, search for local "Call for Artists", and you'll find small shows taking in local artist's work. If it is a juried show, it means they'll choose which artwork makes it into the show. Non-juried shows means if you drop it off, it is in. Most shows let you set a price at which you'll sell the displayed works, and take a cut of that sale.
It is really that simple - The galleries and museums put out calls to artists, and artists respond. Different shows will have different preferences for skill level and styles. Over time, you'll figure out which shows are best for your own art. You'll also get to know the people running the shows, and get to know the local community.
What are your favorite galleries? Which shows stick with you, make you see the world differently? Are you more interested in formal work - visually appealing/ materially interesting work? Or are you more interested in conceptual work, art that is more overtly imbued with new ideas? Or all of the above/ something else....
Your studio practice activates by seeing lots of shows and introducing yourself to artists and gallerists who put on shows you resonate with. Art is a language we all share. So even though you are one artist making stuff, you are also part of a larger dialogue. Engaging in this conversation is how you get invited to show.
To get recognition for doing a thing, you have to begin with doing the thing. And you're not going to make a mark in any field without being aware of what other people are doing.
Additionaly, if it's one thing that a BFA (design and technology) has taught me it's that concept is everything (self and peer critique are close seconds).
Foundations in drawing, color, light, space, form, etc are highly recommended not just for execution, but also for your way of thinking about how you perceive your environments.
After going through the foundations, it's about how to formulate and refine your concepts. What do you have to express? What do you care about? Why does it matter to you and/or the world at large? Does it even matter or is it even worth people hearing? What does it address? How is your perspective different from precedents set by others who've created works regarding your topic of choice? The list goes on.
Only once you've answered those questions and more should you start to consider the medium for execution. From there it becomes an iterative process of creating prototypes/drafts, repeating those steps mentioned, and receiving as objective constructive criticisms from others in order to refine and come up with a final piece.
All in all, you may not get any attention for what you've created, but you will feel fulfilled. Seeking attention is what marketing is for and attention seeking has little to nothing to do with creating.
There are light years of difference between getting a slot in a small-town gallery or show (not hard...), getting a slot in a Beverly Hills gallery (much harder, but not necessarily dependent on quality) to becoming a name on the mainstream NY/London circuit (needs insanely good contact management and party skills, and an ability to write/speak art bullshit with a straight face).
You can also be a successful niche artist who panders to a popular audience (Kinkade, Vettriano), a full-time Etsy pro, a full-time Deviant Art pro, someone known locally for pet portraits, and so on.
For the top gallery scene I'd suggest books like Art of the Deal by Horowitz and Dark Side of the Boom by Adams.
For art in general try Grayson Perry's Playing to the Gallery.
For an inside view of the top go to as many big art fairs as you can - Art Basel (Miama, Basel), Frieze (London), the Armory Show (NY), Scope (NY, London, Basel) - and ask gallery staff how the system works. Tell them you're doing a research project or something like that.
Do not try to sell them art.
Don't be surprised if some laugh at you or cut you dead, but a few may take an interest.
Also, don't underestimate how good the best artists are. There's plenty of bullshit, but there's also plenty of solid talent - not so much basic drawing (although it can help), but a kind of abstract visual intelligence and feel for composition which not everyone has.
Look at a lot of art, and try to understand visual metaphors, shape and use of space, dynamics and movement, social references, and other abstract features.
Representational skill is the least interesting part of it.
Not to sound harsh but you are not interested in becoming an artist, at all, if it is the kind of thing you are asking here, you are interested in becoming a socialite, which doesn't require any form of artistic skill other than the gift of gab.
This isn't about art here, but marketing.
You might be right. But this is the part that I understand the least, and I'd like to know how these things happen for artists.
You get a professional who's job is to market whatever product you're selling, in the art market, it's called an agent.
Make art. Dont worry about anything else. Once you have stacks of kick ass work, promoto online and if you want to be at the top of commercial circles, move to where the artist are and start attending openings, visiting local up and coming galleries.
If your work is good and you are in the community where "things are happening".. say Manhattan 10 years ago, Berlin, etc. Then you still will likely need another gig to eat and pay rent and only be recognized after your dead :) but that is your best chance.
Recognition and shows usually come from connections, many of which are formed over a four year liberal arts education. Indeed, college and university art programs put on multiple shows a year, and a local community college art class can be a very cheap way to enter into a small but passionate art world. Many of the fine artists/illustrators from my school's art program ended up working for commissions in one form or another, promoting their work and socializing with other artists constantly on Instagram and social media.
There are tons of small coffee shops running small sales and shows of art all over: it doesn't take college connections to show art here per se, just a certain amount of charisma and a good portfolio.
If you are interested in becoming an artist, I'd encourage a HN reader to keep a few analytical and rational practices when approaching the art world, but to throw away the engineer's notions of done, perfect, and exact. One should gravitate towards art they love and imitate it until they are enjoying their artistic process.
https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/jerry-saltz-how-to-be-an-art...
I'd like to see it. Good luck!
What was it? Can you link to it?
(If you scroll to the very bottom of the page, there's a search box.)
(I agree that the criticism was justified.)
For more ground level practicality, try What They Didn't Teach You In Art School, by Rosalind Davis or I'd Rather Be In The Studio by Alyson Stanfield.
To start gaining recognition, you need to start producing a ton of work, a ton. You also have to think critically about your work and constantly look to improve. Look at a ton of art for inspiration. Basically look at a lot of art, and produce a lot of art.
Then you need to start showing off your best work everywhere, be active in all the social media, create a Website, etc.
If your stuff is good enough, you will start getting recognition. It won't be overnight. These days, especially with social media, there are tons of work of every kind. You need to have both quantity and quality (maybe even gimmicky) to stand out.
Also, start networking with other people in the industry. In my genre, I reached out to makeup artists, stylists, models, other photographers, etc.
My advice, admittedly cynical and maybe unpopular, is that you either ”have it or you don’t”*. The asterisk being that you might have an underdeveloped “it” and not even know it. There’s no substitute for practice.
If we looked at reading the way we treat creativity, we would all be illiterate.
I agree with what you're saying though, most people who want to "make it in art" have to find their own path which is ultimately entrepreneurship, but there's not really an answer to "what works", is there?
My observations lead me to conclude that the greatest artists and musicians of the world are, like my dad, totally anonymous. Becoming successful in the way you describe requires a dedication to business, PR, sales and marketing. You often need to be a shameless self publicist, or extremely lucky, Van Gough died poor and unknown. Practising the skills required to become popular and "successful" diminishes the time available to practice your art skills. Even though you said you don't care about making money, earning recognition in art means making money. You could refuse to sell your art, but then no galleries would take you on, and no auction houses will mobilise their PR machines to promote you.
To sum up, I would: 1) Go to night school drawing classes. 2) Practice, practice, practice. 3) Find a degree course with a good teacher. Who you learn from is way more important in art than where, or what you learn. 4) Make art
Then, if you want to become a commercial success and be invited to soirees: 1) Study business, sales, the art of persuasion, social skills, etc. 2) Use connections from your art school to promote yourself. 3) ??? 4) Profit.
I'm a musician. I play every day, I make music with other people, I play for money sometimes, I help people put out recordings.
None of that work is the same as the work we do to promote ourselves.
I also do a lot of pen and ink drawings. I don't sell them. It's fun.
Not what you're describing.
If you wanna do that as a hobby, just become an "Instagram influence" or something and try to figure out how to get stuff that get popular and shared. You don't even really need content.
It's impossible to give a blanket answer since everyone takes their own path!
But this might be helpful. One piece of conventional advice for writers is to submit your work to as many journals, publishers, etc. as you can, to build up some name recognition and a publication history. As the thinking goes, if you're persistent and lucky enough, eventually you'll become "known."
The problem there is that you're putting yourself at the mercy of other people's gatekeeping.
Maybe you could do what I did, only for visual art (assuming you're interested in visual art) - start an online art review magazine. Grab a domain name and a site template, pick a free or at least cheap hosting provider, get Submittable / Duosuma accounts, then start publishing stuff from other artists while you work on your own.
The benefit of this approach is that it turns the tables on some of the barriers to entry and also acts as a fantastic networking mechanism. People love, absolutely love, having their stuff published, even in new and untried magazines and journals. It's the quickest way I know of to meet dozens of like-minded people in a very short time.
Hope that helps.
Honestly, my advice for you is spend at least a year or two playing with different mediums and subjects, and see what sparks joy for you personally. Art these days is supremely cool because there's such a staggering variety out there from physical mediums such as guache, oils, acrylic, colored pencils, mixed media, to digital art which is even more broad than anything.
Drawing still life work (drawing what you see around you) is recommended to slowly pick up fundamentals of lighting and color and shape (same with figure drawing and anatomy), but I wouldn't limit yourself to just that - play with characters, play with drawing mechs, fantasy, surreal work ... sky's the limit.
I'd also start collecting/saving pictures of art that resonate with you and save it in an inspiration folder so that way you can look back and see if there's a common thread to what vibes with you. Is it colors? A feeling that is evoked? A story in the images? etc.
One last thing: I'd sign up to an art-specific site like deviantART which has historically been very friendly to artists of all stripes (versus twitter), and isn't treated as a professional "portfolio" (versus artstation) as much as a cool landing page to see all of your works. At the end of the year if you want to get more serious, then I'd suggest building a personal site - but wouldn't jump in it immediately.
Good luck!
My parents ran a non-profit arts organization that ran festivals and created all kinds of opportunities for artists and musicians. Growing up in that environment, you see that there are definitely some people who are just totally wired for a deep compulsion to create stuff. It's like a habit, an itch that has to be scratched. If you make things, keep following that compulsion.
As for a career in art, that's just a gamble and seeking out opportunities like local arts organizations. There are a lot of dimensions and niches to explore. 1st and foremost, make things for yourself, because of everything that brought you to that moment. Others may not give a crap about what you made, and you have to accept that, but you know what you have brought into this world, and you'll be glad you did it. Scratch the itch.
Personally, I'm 50 years old and just getting started with my own art. Having grown up in an arts world, served many years on the board of directors of a local arts organization, and I still feel lost all the time. It don't matter. Just make.
If you want to be a famous, recognized artist whose works are displayed in galleries and sell for millions etc. then start with step 1, get really good at it, hang out in the right circles, and get very lucky.
You can also try selling pictures of apes online.
[1] https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/jerry-saltz-how-to-be-an-art...
>The XY problem is a communication problem encountered in help desk and similar situations in which the person asking for help obscures the real issue, X, because instead of asking directly about issue X, they ask how to solve a secondary issue, Y, which they believe will allow them to resolve issue X on their own. However, resolving issue Y often does not resolve issue X, or is a poor way to resolve it, and the obscuring of the real issue and the introduction of the potentially strange secondary issue can lead to the person trying to help having unnecessary difficulties in communication and/or offering poor solutions.
Do you want to:
- Make art (express yourself, indulge in activities to create things that capture, or free, a part of yourself, etc.)
- Understand the system: production, promotion, prizes, dynamics, trends, notoriety, the business of art, communication, graph of influences, taxonomies and ontologies, history, etc.
- Have what you consider to be the life of people you consider "artists" (going to parties, being liked, being admired)
- (all of the above)
Which?
To become museum art, your stuff needs an interpretation that places it within art history and more precisely at the front of art history. E.g. it can’t be something that’s already done.
I really recommend that you talk to or informally interview some local artists. They can give you solid advice and probably tell you what you need to do next. They may even offer to review your progress.
If you're doing this as a hobby, I think I would really ask yourself what kind of publicity you need for this to be worth it to you.
If you can make art and be happy, you're done. Publicity adds all kinds of drama, expense, politics, especially the more you focus on it. I have some artist friends who paid to play and got lots of publicity, and then lost it as soon as they stopped paying.
Personally I have some ribbons but I don't find publicity that helpful in being the kind of artist I want to be. Everybody's different. Good luck to you.
As an artist myself I fully share your thoughts on this one. I create art (paint) for my own pleasure and don't have any desire to show it to the world exactly because I don't have the energy to deal with all the drama it brings about. I also feel that any external attention would probably take my attention away from the actual practice. Meanwhile I just go to my shared studio when nobody is there and spend 8 to 10 hours on sessions and that simply gives me the greatest satisfaction. One thing I came to cherish is spending time in the flow state. At this point I have hundreds of works that are quite interesting and born from that state. It's a beautiful experience and great therapy too. I feel like things go through me but they're coming from a different realm, as if I'm there as a medium to communicate and just adjust small things but not perturb the movement with hard decisions while in that state. My thoughts meander along, different things pop up from time to time but in a very gentle way. I just love this and it is one of the things that I discovered accidentally, though I have to admit that I've been looking around for most of my life.
At some point I may show them to the world but only if I find a solution that is completely effortless to me. Why perturb the practice if I get most benefits out of it already?
I just try to not fall into these traps. For example, I work small and stackable and work on 5 to 10 works at a time. I've got friends whose houses are filled with their past work or paying for storage to just keep their crap around. That would definitely stop me in my tracks. I decided it's all crap in the end, crap that we don't want to burden ourselves or our families with. This personal philosophy enabled me to not attach to my works at all. There are still some people who see my works from time to time and if I see that they're communicating or my works communicate with them I just give them away for free or donation. There is a feeling of slight regret when I give something away but the idea that my work may touch someone else compensates for that.
Money, yes, I'd love to be able to dedicate my time fully to my practice but again, trying to 'make it' in the art world and get paid enough money to quit my regular job is likely to ruin it all for me. I'm extremely grateful that I found my thing, had been feeling lost for a while before this came around.
It's frankly a depressing grind more often than not. I've been a hobby artist for about 5 years now, and I have ~6k followers on two platforms. About 60% of that came in the last 2 years. It kind of snowballs the longer you keep at it. Consistency is incredibly important!
There are also local groups for most art forms, hooking into those communities can be helpful for getting feedback and growing your network.
Sculpture? What kind of sculpture? Metal? What kind of metal sculpture? Painting? What medium? Acrylic? Oil? Water colour? What format? Portrait? Landscape? What scale? Larger than life? Tiny? What subject matter? Pop culture? Anatomical? Foudn objects? Action? Portraits? Humans? Pets? Farm animals? What level of realism? Abstract? Hyper real?
Art isn't one thing, it's a nest hierarchy of rabbit holes.
The best, well recognized artists are hyper specific.
Those other things you're talking about require marketing, nothing else. The thing being marketed is immaterial.
IMHO you're asking this question tells me you're likely lower on the obsessiveness and openness-to-experience scale. It's not a personal failing, it's more of a personality / constitution thing.
https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Openness_to_experience
My question though is, "Why?"
Personally I've seen more than a few friends in similar position (not already artists) exclaim their desire to take up a specific craft because they recently enjoyed a certain piece of art themselves. That's fine, that's great actually. But it's fading.
Art for art's sake is usually a compulsive and life long pursuit. Barring brain damage.
https://people.com/health/mary-steenburgen-brain-became-musi...
p.s. That 'brain damage' comment was supposed to be funny. Life as a creative isn't always easy. Especially if you have confounding personality aspects like high neuroticism or low conscientiousness. Here's a little less than an hour about it. If you're thinking about it it'll be more than worth your time to investigate yourself about it.
So, make artifacts or performances that impart feelings, every day.
Your output will be trash at first, but that’s expected. What matters is that you do your reps, every day.
When the going gets tough, read The War of Art.
But let's try to answer your other questions.
Making money - look up the 1000 true fans article, that's the core of it. With this there are many routes like having a storefront online, money from ads on YouTube, creating products (like a coffee table book or a card deck with art on it, or a coloring book, or others), but as for getting into galleries that requires being somewhat known in that local community, for that you have to do competitions, go to shows, and participate at the local level, basically focused networking.
Getting Known - Besides that you'll be doing what most marketing people do for yourself an your art, lots of social media posting(probably daily multiple times a day even - see successful Instagram campaigns), joining and building communities interacting with them and tailoring/catering to them. Ideas for content include 1.showing the art, 2.my process commentary, 3.speed painting, 4.tricks & techniques, 5.reverse engineering another artist's work, 6.inspiration and references - these matter as artists are a big part of the audience themselves.
Shows - once one has talent, network/community and awards then they get invited to shows and galleries. It would probably be best if you asked someone that works at a local gallery how they do it and what they look for, and what they know.
But all of that said the first steps is to get good, for that I recommend "Draw a Box" or college courses - professors are a good source of networking too, after that the local community is where it's at, go to art meetups, figure out where they hang out, some communities even have studio space to rent or live in things like that. It pretty quickly becomes a small world, so careful who's toes get stepped on along the way.
If I were a cynic, I'd be wondering if this question, in this forum, is from someone who wants to jump on the NFT bandwagon. Oh wait, I am a cynic!