Your dream of becoming a famous artist may not be as absurd as it sounds: Child prodigy Sir John Everett Millais was one of the founders of the Pre-Rafaelita movement, and won a Society of Arts silver medal at the age of nine years. Pablo Picasso, co-founder of Cubism, was considered a brilliant boy. Even today, young artists like Akiane Kramarik are celebrated as prodigies. If you have what it takes, your name can be destined to be remembered for years. Ready to know how? Keep reading!
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Part One: Developing Your Skills
Step 1. Practice
Getting inspiration from the muses is a wonderful thing, but without the technical skills to realize your vision, you won't get good results. Whatever your medium of artistic expression, become an expert in every aspect.
- Reserve an hour or more a day just for practicing the technique.
- Focus especially on your weaknesses, but don't neglect your strengths.
- Take advantage of the communities and resources you can find. Artist supply manufacturers and art stores themselves often offer free books, tutorials, or videos, and have websites full of tips, techniques, and more.
- Some shops also offer courses, where you can learn new techniques and meet other artists.
Step 2. Work on the things you love
Choose a subject that is meaningful to you and that you want to be able to draw well.
- Start with a still life, or photo you own, in the public domain or have permission to use. Draw or paint that same image many times, using different approaches - paint, pencil, abstract, realism - whatever inspires you.
- Start with simple objects like a rubber ball or a rectangular block and move on to more complicated and difficult ones, like a rose, a transparent glass marble or a sparkling metal bowl, and try to capture the details: the curves of the petals, the transparency of the glass, or reflections so realistic as to impress Escher! All of these paintings will improve your overall drawing ability.
- Practice drawing while respecting a stopwatch. Choose your subject, set the timer for two or three minutes, start drawing, and then stop when the time is up, even if the drawing isn't finished.
- Set the timer again and start over. Doing three ten-minute paintings will make you better than painting one thing for half an hour in detail.
Step 3. Vary the tools you use
Start with a pencil, then move on to charcoal, colored pencils, pastels, gouache and everything else that interests you. Never be afraid to try new tools or techniques.
- When you want to try out an expensive new canvas, try to have samples sent to you by the art supply suppliers.
- This way you will have the chance to try them on before deciding whether to buy them. Try on more than one brand - the swatches won't usually be the same color, and you can find out which brand suits your style best.
Step 4. Get criticized by family and friends
Make it clear you want a true opinion, not just "I love you and everything you do for me is beautiful." If they think it's a beautiful piece of work, you are on the right track! If they don't think so, you are still on the right track: if many people think your technique is great, but your subjects leave something to be desired, take the opportunity to reflect on yourself and learn something.
Don't confuse artistic criticism with personal criticism, especially if the critic is someone who has no interest in seeing you become an artist
Step 5. Look for opinions outside your circle
Hear criticism from people who can draw better than you. Use the internet to befriend real artists whose works you love. Give them your compliments and ask smart questions about their technique. You will soon find that many artists love teaching beginners and will be happy to share what they have learned with you.
When you are more experienced, compare yourself with novice artists. You will learn more each time you explain and show what you already know. It is not uncommon for teachers to learn from their students
Step 6. Learn to accept compliments gracefully
When friends and family appreciate everything you paint, enjoy their support.
- The better you become at your art, the more compliments you will receive for your talent.
- Compliments can in some cases be critical, which are very important. If an artist whose works you appreciate would pay you a compliment such as "I love the colors in this painting", it would mean that they have taken the time to understand and appreciate the choices you have made.
Step 7. Develop a strong personal style
Do this by learning to paint and draw your favorite subjects in all the ways used by your favorite painters. The more techniques you learn and the more you understand your passions, the more your style will emerge.
- Having a personal style is a combination of learning the techniques to draw and paint well on your favorite medium and paying attention to your favorite subjects.
- You will become a specialist when you have reached an intermediate level of competence. Mastering a subject and a medium will take more time, and at that point you will be able to draw easily without thinking, and achieve exceptional results.
Step 8. Be prolific
To enter a gallery, you should have a book of at least twelve of your best works, which must have something in common, be it the subject, the style, the overall dimensions and the level of technical skill.
Make your work available in as many formats as possible, so there are no barriers for art galleries and exhibitors to showcase your work
Method 2 of 2: Part Two: Advertise Yourself
Step 1. Publish your work
The best way to become famous is to make yourself known! The internet offers many ways to get seen and promote art, and in the information age, it's important to use all the tools at your disposal to make a name for yourself and a reputation.
- Write a blog about your works that you will update daily, and include images that showcase your creative process and a gallery to display (and sell) your finished works.
- Visit all the galleries in your area, and get to know the owners. If you are old enough, attend as many shows and exhibitions as possible, not to promote your work - there will be enough time for that later - but to become a well-known artist in the community.
- Create a Facebook page for your art, and encourage people to visit and "like" it. Contact other artists through Facebook. As well as visiting galleries, this will help you find a place in the community, and Facebook will allow you to extend your network far beyond your neighborhood.
- Regularly tweet about art. Your art, classical art, pop art or any art. The more you know about art, the more you will be considered a person worthy of attention. At the same time, follow artists and galleries, and reply to their tweets. This will encourage more people - including gallery owners - to follow you.
- Create an account on Flickr and publish images of your works. It's an active community, and even if you don't get a lot of constructive criticism on Flickr, you'll get your name out there, and you may get in touch with talented artists.
Step 2. Join art societies and enter contests
Start with student competitions and small local competitions.
- Teach courses. This will help you not only make yourself known as an artist, but also as an expert in your field.
- Develop your skills to the point of being able to participate in national and international competitions in your favorite medium.
- Attend art shows with jury. Making a painting chosen to participate in such a show is already a result to be written on the curriculum.
Step 3. Find a reputable agent
Find out about art agencies and contact other clients of the agent of your choice. Ask if they are happy with the treatment they received, or if they think they have been screwed. Agents will advertise you and your work, and will represent you when negotiating contracts. Make sure they have a lot of knowledge and are good at bargaining.
You may also want to work with a reputable lawyer who is experienced in the art world. Although an agent may know the laws, their job is promotion. The only task of the lawyer will be to know the laws in force
Step 4. Paint what is important to you
If you do not have feelings towards the subject, it will be understood in your work. Many artists fall in love with their subjects, be it a fruit basket or a model.
- If you love expressing dark and angry feelings, study dark painters. If you love abstract paintings and splashes of color, study them and paint those subjects - they require a particular technique and are not made by someone who has just randomly pulled paint on a canvas and called it art.
- If you love nature and the outdoors, bring a small painting kit with you and paint in your favorite places.
- Whatever your passion, find ways to capture that passion on canvas.
Step 5. Keep growing as an artist
Being a true artist is a lifelong pursuit. When you have reached the level of fame you aspire to, with money and recognition, you will still have to look forward and try to improve.
- Keep learning and innovating, even when you are famous, to stay on top and focus on the future.
- As your style matures and changes, your previous paintings will gain value. Collectors will be interested in the whole history of your works. Even the drawings you made as a child will become valuable: the drawing your mom hung in the fridge contains the seeds of your current success, so don't throw away your older works.
Advice
- As you learn to appreciate and enjoy the art of your favorite painters, you will understand that what you create brings the same joy to each of your buyers. As an artist, you know how to discover invisible treasures in the world. Even a stroke of an abstract painting about fury, joy or love will help someone understand, experience and vent their feelings.
- Make sure you want to be famous. Being one isn't always fun, so decide how famous you want to become. A locally known artist can earn a respectable amount without being known around the world, and still do the work he loves. Being the best artist in your school or art circle still means being famous; fame is the appreciation of people you don't know. How much fame it will take to make you happy is a life choice.
- Try to maintain privacy if your fame spreads beyond the boundaries you hoped for. Your fans will be interested in your work and some key details about your life. You will need to be able to talk about why you like to paint and why you paint what you paint. Mentioning the existence of family members and pets and maybe your place of birth is enough for a bio, it won't need to reveal what you eat for breakfast or what brand of shoes you prefer. The fame of an artist does not have to lead to the lifestyle of the "rich and famous" of the jet set - many famous artists are private people and let their paintings get all the attention. They could be much more sociable with relatives, artists, and people who share their hobby.
- Enjoy the art. When you learn to paint and draw better, you will observe the world with much more precision. If you seek beauty, you will find it in the ugliest, strangest and most unexpected places: the reflections of light on some broken glass on a concrete sidewalk, the folds of a leaf on a weed, or the smile on the face of an ugly old woman. which finds its beauty in the artist's vision.
- Learning to paint and draw will make you change and mature as a person. You will be using parts of the brain that many people ignore and, like a muscle, those brain functions improve and change permanently. You may become more intuitive and creative in other activities. You may become more expressive in other ways or very much oriented towards visual learning. Your attention to colors will influence your taste in fashion.
- Think of your works as real, valuable work that requires a long learning curve, such as medicine or law. It's not just the natural talent that kisses lucky people - even artists who seem to learn fast or learn from young people have worked hard to achieve their dream. Children have a physical advantage in learning, and if they learn when their brains are still growing, they can learn faster than adults.
Warnings
- Believe in yourself. You will also change your social identity, from how you saw yourself imagining yourself as an artist to that of actually becoming one. Some people will dislike this transformation and will try to hinder your path to art. They will say that you are foolish or irresponsible, they will insult your work and they will tell you that art does not pay the bills.
- Never pay an agent upfront. If they can't make you money, they don't deserve the money. If they ask for compensation, it is an important wake-up call and you shouldn't trust them. Do your research and contact only reputable agents.
- Relationships can become unstable if your partner is jealous of the attention, time, and emotions you devote to art. These may be more or less solvable conflicts. Try to be patient with your other half, but if you can't get things right, find someone who is more compatible with your artistic passion.
- Personal changes can be frightening. When powerful feelings and uncertainties take hold of you, you can use a painting to deal with fear and overcome it.
- Don't use your fame to live a life full of vices and immoral behaviors.
