Welcome to how to be a bad artist
September 14, 2007 9:01 pm generalWelcome to the blog for how-to-be-a-bad-artist.com, an addition to my website where I share art, craft and selling techniques for the hell of it.
I created this site after reading many art techniques books, attending many art courses (including a degree course at Chelsea) and painting and drawing for many years with varying degrees of success. I got a little sick of slick textbooks showing you in ten steps how incredibly easy it is to create an artwork, making everything look perfect when in fact creating anything arty crafty is tricky and sometimes frustrating. Listening to others criticism (or even derision) can be even harder.
You won’t find any descriptions of me wandering in poppy fields, whipping out a set of watercolours, paper and an easel and creating an amazing work of art in ten seconds. I doubt that any artist does that. No, instead I will tell you how it is, what difficulties I’ve encountered, my experiences of selling and exhibitions, and where to find inspiring places for artists to visit.
Here are my simple steps to becoming a bad artist:
Step one: Start thinking of yourself as a creative person. In your head you are an artist, whether it’s music, drawing, painting, writing, woodwork, ice sculptures or whatever you’re interested in.
Two: Forget niggling worries or doubt. This includes those “I can’t draw” thoughts and negative comments you remember from your art teacher, such as “You can’t draw”.
Three: Plug your ears against unconstructive criticism. This includes tuts and sniggers from partners, friends, children, parents and pets (yes it can seem that even the cat can have a quiet opinion at times).
Four: Treat yourself to those art materials you’ve always fancied trying out. Hell, why not try “painting by numbers” if that is what you really want to do.
Five: Read some of the tips on my website, completely ignore everything I’ve said and give it a go.
Tip for the week
Did you know?…You can install a blog on your own website. This is incredibly advantageous in terms of marketing your site as any interest in your blog will be directed towards your website and not a host blog site. As you can see I’ve installed Wordpress. They let you download their software and use it for free. If you are not a techy, they also offer a service of installing their software on your site for free!
Susan S. Cheung :
Date: September 15, 2007 @ 10:47 pm
Diane,
Congratulations on your hard work and creating a useful and colourful website for artists. If I were starting out as an artist, I definitely like the idea of step-by-step advice, and the name of the blog/website gives it the right note of humour so people aren’t intimidated to use the site.
A suggestion– it wasn’t obvious where to post my comments. Maybe you should put the link for comments after each blog piece or make it bigger and more obvious.
Good luck with this new venture.
Diane :
Date: September 16, 2007 @ 12:00 am
Thanks for your suggestions and feedback. The idea is that anyone can get something from the site, not just artists. You are right about the comments, but I am unable to change the design of the page so can’t make it bigger.
Geoff Fletcher :
Date: September 16, 2007 @ 6:43 am
I am not a blog reader normally,nor do I visit other peoples sites usually…but found the experience interesting and may return!
geoff
Diane :
Date: September 16, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Geoff,
Thanks that’s what I like to hear! I am glad I’m not just talking to myself and it would be good to get some feedback on what I’ve said now and then.
jeannie zelos :
Date: September 17, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
Hi diane - this looks fun, I’ll be reading to see whats happening.
I agree so much with your step 1-5 self believe is what counts - not what friends family etc think. If you want to do it - go for it and don’t be afraid. Art isn’t scary and its wrong of those who pretend it’s only for a select few. Well done for encouraging people to try.
Paula504 :
Date: September 23, 2007 @ 6:50 pm
Cool, I really like the blog tie-in. As one of those who was categorically told at school never to darken the door of the art world ever again, I might quite like hanging out here! Doing quite a bit of photography at the moment, and considering some vaguely arty things I might do with the results… so thanks for the inspiration!