Becoming a professional artist requires talent, discipline, effort and a willingness to sacrifice. You will need to develop skills and a certain consistency in drawing, conceptualization and direct observation.
Steps
Step 1. Get the right training
Even though you are a person who has received the gift of natural abilities, you still have the opportunity to grow and mature these talents.
Step 2. Identify your weaknesses and attack them in full by gaining more knowledge, until you overcome them! For example, if you are a classic portrait painter who cannot draw feet, then you will probably have to draw them ad nauseam in order to truly be able to do so
Step 3. Research your subject
Even an imagined piece must be developed through observational memory and knowledge. A scientific and structural approach is vital to create an illusion of success.
Step 4. Research the style
Before you start creating a piece of art, make sure you understand which elements of the style will be manipulated, and how. Everything you produce must appear intentional.
Step 5. Begin in a loose way and with gestural drawing; so much so that, at the beginning, what you do is create simple shapes within the boundaries of the composition (these limits should emulate the proportions of the final piece)
There should be several drawings before a final and definitive piece is made.
Step 6. Warm up
Before you can produce a good piece of art, you need to warm up! Your first drawing may not be as good as your last. You have to gradually enter the opera!
Step 7. Pay some attention to your composition, the sketch stage serves for this purpose
Make sure that the edges of the image are not distracting and that viewers' eyes only go where you want them to go.
Step 8. Make good colors
Learn about the nature of sight and the science of light. Look at the photographs, but don't copy them. Understand the concept of color temperature and shadow theory. Study the theory of colors!
Step 9. Dwell on the quality of your materials
While a good artist can make sure that any material used guarantees quality work, you should treat yourself to the best and most comfortable (sadly, often the most expensive) art equipment. After all, what you want is to be a professional, right? And wouldn't a professional use the best of the best?
Step 10. Select and use only the details you need, the rest of the aggregate ornaments are just a distraction and wasted time
Use detail differentiation to add emphasis to your pieces.
Step 11. The more preliminary pieces and sketches you make, the better the final work will be
Step 12. If it's a good job, make sure people know who did it
Did it turn out badly? Set it aside. The true quantity of good art pieces produced by a professional is quite low when compared to the considerable volume of bad works that have emerged in the course of the process. Never throw away old or bad jobs - they give you good motivation for the future. Store everything neatly so that you can come back to it later and understand that you have made a lot of progress. This is very useful if you are out of sorts and, if you can't get out of your depressed mood (which, inevitably, all artists face, it's a complex we all have), then you will never become a pro.
Step 13. Experiment and express yourself
An artist who sells a piece of art ultimately sells a part of himself. Let the brush, the colors and all your equipment blend, mix and flow in the way that makes you feel better and trust your talents and instincts.
Method 1 of 4: Paint
Step 1. Find your medium to express yourself
Professional artists work with dozens of mediums and finding the one that is salable and fits your style will be your first priority. Here are some examples:
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Oil painting. For talented painters who create original paintings for an audience and sell them at exhibitions or galleries, this is probably the oldest medium, but never gone out of style. There are many things to consider in becoming a painter of this type, such as choosing a preferred technique, style and subject, but you should do research to understand which styles and subjects are salable in order to be successful and not live in a condition. of poverty. Here are some individuals who may offer some hope of pursuing a successful career:
- Portraits. Some institutions commission portraits of their benefactors or previous executives and significant persons in the company's history; oil painting tends to create works worthy for this purpose.
- Land and sea landscapes. These pieces are sought after by interior decorators and collectors to make good investments or, simply, to decorate the interiors. The size and quality of an individual work, and above all the artist's reputation, help determine the value of the work.
- Still life. Very similar to landscapes, these paintings are generally sought for decorative purposes and potential clients could be collectors or professionals who want to use them to decorate the waiting areas of their offices.
- Abstract paintings. These paintings are probably sought after by people with more discriminating tastes or Art Nouveau ideas, and the market may not be so open to them, as you need to be a true connoisseur to appreciate well-crafted abstract art.
- Acrylic paint. Essentially it has the same characteristics as oil paint, except that the materials are water based, tend to be cheaper and dry faster, allowing you to complete a job in less time. The subjects for acrylic painting are similar to those for oil painting.
- Watercolors. This is the fastest means of execution, and when mastered well, it gives excellent results. These colors can allow you to cover large areas faster than brush strokes, and the paint dries quickly. Because of the relative ease of creating a finished painting based on watercolors, works of this genre are commonly sold in places such as shops with sidewalk windows displaying their own paintings, souvenir outlets in holiday destinations, galleries with goods on consignment and art exhibitions. They can be created and sold at a lower price than oil or acrylic paintings and are therefore considered to belong to a more accessible category of fine art.
Step 2. Find out about your medium, from the basics of mixing colors to stretching the canvas, from working a palette to finishing a completed work
Framing can be done by a professional, but remember that this significantly raises the cost of your work, and this will affect your success in selling the work.
Step 3. Use your skills to produce a portfolio to be progressively updated with your best works and to make appointments to show your works to art dealers and people who may be willing to showcase your pieces for you
Libraries, restaurants, hotels and other public places and businesses will often be happy to showcase your work, provided the quality is sufficient and it is suitable for the atmosphere and climate of the place where it is displayed.
Step 4. Look for public exhibitions and events that involve a jury to showcase your work and participate in first person
Print a brochure with illustrations of your works, your contact details and other useful information for interested people.
Step 5. Take note of requests from people who see your work
Professional artists often find that a commissioned work is more reliable for revenue, and some successful commission opens the door in many cases, as the person who commissioned the work usually puts it on display, which is advertising for you., the artist.
Method 2 of 4: Computer Art
Step 1. Find out about educational opportunities, research the possibilities that exist for taking a digital art course
It is an emerging field in the art world. Using sophisticated software and modern computers, digital images can be created, stored and transmitted with relative ease when compared to paintings. These images are used on a wide variety of occasions, including:
- Advertising. Products can be promoted with digital art techniques to catch the consumer's gaze, helping to build a successful marketing campaign for a given product at a minimal cost, lowering expenses such as travel, modeling and location expenses..
- Illustrations for publications. Many businesses depend on online marketing and printed brochures to show examples of their products or business offerings. Magazines use digital images to illustrate conceptual ideas for which photography cannot successfully accomplish this task.
- Making of films. With the increase of special effects in films, which continue to push us towards an ever-innovative threshold in the production of a film, often the only limit is the ability of the digital graphic artist to create realistic elements. for the movie.
Step 2. Working in this industry requires extensive professional training, or long hours of self-study, an investment in hardware and software, and a penchant for product saleability
Step 3. Identify successful people in the field and talk to them about the steps they took to establish themselves in the industry
They may be looking for employees to work on projects and, in addition to receiving a regular salary, you will participate personally to do the real work needed in order to be successful in this art field.
Method 3 of 4: Sculpture
Step 1. Evaluate the field of sculpture, this is also an art form that you could dwell on
As in concrete art based on painting and digital art, there are different ways to sell your work if you are a talented sculptor. You will need to learn the techniques and develop your skills to successfully plan and create salable works of art in this field, just as you have been described regarding other mediums. Here are some examples of professional opportunities in sculpture:
- Pieces on commission. Here comes the good old errand. It is the backbone of sculpture, as it often involves huge amounts of investment in materials, design and planning and work. You will find it very difficult to develop a portfolio of work that is valid in most disciplines of sculpture, with the exception of ceramics or the specialization in small pieces.
- Craft work. It might seem like it has little to do with fine arts and their world, but there are fully specialized craft exhibitions and galleries in this low-cost market. This includes ceramics, carved wood and creations for example made with metal. Here are some areas where sales opportunities exist for this field.
- Craft exhibitions. This possibility is obvious, and with the many communities celebrating various traditional festivals and events, the concept of selling in a booth is paying off for artists capable of producing large quantities of work at a reasonable price.
- Exhibitions involving the intervention of a jury. They are becoming more and more common as craftsmanship is increasingly recognized as a legitimate art form. The cash prize of these events will not be enough for the artist to live, but will help him build a reputation and get word of mouth publicity.
- Develop meaning in your works, try to tell a story, surprise others.
- Art serves the intellectual needs, offers the pleasure of contemplation.
- Take note of what you love about the art you have seen.
- Consider your market carefully before investing time and money to create a piece.
- Warm colors appear closer, cold colors further away.
- Look for unique places to exhibit and sell your works.
- High contrast appears closer, tones muted and grays farther away.
- Bright colors appear closer, dark ones further away.
- Don't be one of those modern “artists” who take a plain canvas and just draw one line. Nor should it be considered that art is like that of Vincent Van Gogh, cutting out images from colors.
- When you draw and paint, a warm light scene needs cold shadows and a cold light scene needs warm shadows.
- The more different styles, shapes and mediums you know, the more benefits you will have.
- Use divisions of five to quickly develop compositions!
- Find some old books (a lot of the good ones are out of print) about perspective, there is a lot of old information that is no longer propagated due to the laziness of the artists.
- Study anatomy. People always know when a person's drawing is bad, and the easiest way to make a bad drawing of a person is to not understand its basics.
- Be aware of your weaknesses. Keep a list of people to send a client to if your skills aren't appropriate for the job.
- Don't show unsuccessful artwork to others! A potential employer will launch your portfolio from the window as soon as they see one.
- Learn how observational art is made. If you don't know how to draw something, you absolutely must try to understand how to do it with direct observation.
- Study those who are successful, they are very dynamic in overcoming adversity.
Method 4 of 4: More Options
Step 1. Teach
This is a word that a self-respecting artist hates to hear, but the reality is that many artists fail to achieve success in life, and many historical artists were broke at the time of their death.
Step 2. Make art a hobby
Again the idea seems like an insult on the surface, but unless you make money from your works or get support from a generous foundation, you'd better find a day job and create your art in your spare time indoors. of your studio for years, until you are found by success.
