Why it takes so long to get good at art

It took me 26 YEARS to make this painting. No really. Everything you do and learn up until now has influenced your skills and intrests as an artist.

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[sinixdesign]

If no one on this planet did art, it would only take a week to become the greatest artist in the world. So, what I'm trying to say is... please stop doing art everyone.

[leah]

Being an artist is like learning absolutely everything to do one thing.

[galenpemberton]

I practice at least 4 hours a day. Usually more. Even inbetween lunch breaks at work. I have seen myself improve to a point I previously would have marveled at. But now that I'm there I see that the Mountain is taller than before despite my climbing. The summit forever stretches into the sky.

[magnanimus]

Side note: the "jack of all trades" figure of speech has an interesting history. Initially (16th century) it was used as a dismissive remark to Shakespeare (it was the first published mention of him), but later evolved to be a complement to describe someone who was skillfully well-rounded. Later (17th century), the "master of none" part was added to restore the dismissive intent of the original. Later still (21st century), the "though often better than a master of one" was added to turn it into a flattering statement again. So the full modern phrase is "jack of all trades, master of none, though often better than a master of one".

[Whalesmouthstudios]

It never should end. One of the beautiful things about art is that there is always more room for you to improve. If you fully mastered it, then they’re would be no reason to practice or even make art. It would become boring and meaningless.

[snokalo]

As much as this makes art sound incredibly intimidating, it’s also part of the reason why I’m drawn to it. I’m a very eclectic person, I just love learning about everything and anything

[DarkRose]

as someone who is a writer as well and is kinda first a writer, an artist second. the amount of knowledge you build just because you want to communicate something is very overwhelming. Having "show don't tell" beat into my head since I was a kid I feel has given me this boost in art skill despite my technical skill being lower. Also I gotta say dabbling in different mediums will always help in figuring out just how much knowledge of something you REALLY need.

[arcadia]

The ending of this video made me cry. I remember how I loved doing art as a kid and as I get more ambitious, it becomes more and more daunting. Remembering the joy it gave me as a kid makes me want to keep going now despite the fact I’m terrified of never being where I want to. I hope my practice pays off, I want nothing more.

[mangagnome]

Josh, you're like art superman. My art jedi master. You always drop a video I really need to see/hear. Can never thank you enough.

[khmatrix]

This is basically me, I haven’t drawn in years because I hate that I’m not where I wanna be followed by fear of failure. And as someone with ADHD it’s even harder to begin. Right now all I do is play games because it’s the one thing that takes my focus and gives me that gratification and dopamine rush I crave. I remember drawing so much ever since I was a kid all the way to high school. But now? Just barely. I watch videos like this and buy art books or art supplies and thats not even enough to motivate me 100%. And I think its that ADHD brain of mine that just won’t let anything else in the way. I know all this yet I haven’t done much about it. I think doing this alone is what prob kills me and I need someone behind my back to help me, so I been looking for online courses. This video really made me vent and think over what I’m doing yet I am not sure if ill still actually do anything about what I want.

[duncanidaho]

Thanks for pointing this out. Like you said, artists have to know everything about everything, therefore curiosity is crucial.
I'm actually learning basics (how lights and shadows work, perspective etc...) And I find myself way more curious since I started this journey. In fact if I truly want to be a good artist I have to be curious !
I'm observing daily things much more (people, objects, lights and shadows) since I learned these things and I believe it improves my art because I have a better understanding of these simple things.

[YellowRavenInk]

I gave up drawing for about 10 years. I began to think I was glad I stopped, exploring the possibility of being a different person and not do the one thing I thought I would do my whole life. I dunno what happened a few days ago, I kinda got that spark back by watching some shows I liked, wondering over the dream to work at Disney because I was so in love with Fantasia and realizing how much off-trail I had gotten over the years. Of course any failure is heavy to bear but it is never useless when you learn from it. I feel like I wasted so much time giving up but I wanna get back up now. In my own way, with my own vision and my own strenght. So thank you for your videos, they really give me that little extra push and the courage to get going.

[Ransome]

I was already stressed out about this way before even watching the video, just learning the basics like light, perspective, figure drawing and faces anatomy already had me in a bind several years ago when I started picking art back up and trying to take it seriously, I can't tell you how many drawings I've started where I ended up shelving it because each time i'd find out that there's a particular something I didn't know to actually finish it effectively, rather it was facial or bodily anatomy, shading, the affects of drapery on a person and how folds form, how to draw things from a foreshortened view which goes back to perspective. Then there's the whole issue of studying the right way which took me four years just to figure out.

I use to blank out mindlessly trying to draw a certain part of the picture over and over again (usually the face) zoning out to music until I just somehow got something that I was sort of happy with instead of thinking about what was actually going wrong, it wasn't until last year that I figured out that it's probably a good idea to actually start reading books, looking at videos and thinking about what your drawing instead of just throwing stuff down praying it works.

Then the whole "be loose" where you have the confidence to draw whatever you see in any context no matter where it is, there are some people who can draw perfectly fine when they're close up looking at a photo reference, but can you draw the same thing from life? a face, a vase, or a piece of watted paper from a distance where you have to deal with actual 3d dimension and not a fixed print out that's taken care of things like 3d distortions for you? For years I have heard people use this terminology saying "draw what you see, not what you think you see" but I'd like to use a quote from one of the online courses that I use to study from which is to draw what you know.

Sure you may be able to draw that thing from a photo reference or even from life just by looking at it over and over, but if someone challenged you could you draw it again? and again, and again, and...(you get the picture) that is where the technical knowledge of Anatomy, Perspective, lighting, color, etc comes into play, to have the understanding of what your doing which naturally builds up confidence and loosens you up when drawing anyway. it took me 4 years just to even begin to understand these things and start applying it, I'm 28 yrs old now, still nowhere where I want to be and still have a long way to go, but I can most certainly tell you that it's helped me improve if just a little, but as long as i'm improving then there's still hope for something good to come out of this I guess, better late then never eh?

[Anna-gpbk]

The video really came at the right time currently going through art burnout 😭

[siphosimwanza]

It's amazing that despite being reminded how insurmountable the journey to being an artist is, how stressful and frustrating it's going to get, I still want to go through with it. Just amazing.

[cydney]

this was actually really inspiring. By being an artist and understanding anatomy, architecture, and all the other things it takes to be an artist I am opening so many doors and possible career paths. It gives me useful skills that could benefit me not only in art but other aspects in my life.

[wallakfir]

This video came just in the right time for me. I've picked up art close to 3 years ago and even today my art is still pretty much comparable to that of a child. I was drawing aimlessly for something like 2.5 years and I did not understand why I didn't get better. Only very recently I started to get an idea of what I'm actually supposed to learn and started studying the basic art fundamentals. It's been a very painful journey but this video makes me feel better about my lack of skill. It really is an overwhelming amount of stuff to learn. Maybe one day I'll actually be able to draw the things that I want to draw, the way that I see them in my mind...

[Deron]

Josh always uploads when im having existential crisis on why I do art, I love it

[purizumuart]

There's always something to learn, there's always something I didn't know before, there's always something new. That's the best part about art, you can never stop learning, no matter how hard it gets...

[mathisverycool]

To anyone who sees this I challenge you to learn to draw all the objects in your room from any angle.


I'm willing to bet that by the time your done with this challenge you will be able to construct any kind of object and understand how to create the illusion of 3rd.

Get to the point were it feels like you are building in a 3rd space.


With this skill, I took me less than a year know how to draw the human figure from any angle because I got the hardest part out of the way: construction.

Once you move on to anatomy I suggest learning as many muscles and bones as you can. You should be able to draw the form of individual muscles with you new skill.

Look at a nude references and try to point out the muscles you see. Since you know the 3d form of the muscle you should be able to notice its influence on the surface.
Ex: the vastus lateralus looked like a foward facing taco to me(yes I know that's weird but just bear with me)
So if on the lateral side of the leg I kinda see the form i'll know what muscle that is.


Over time visualizing the human body will become a lot easier
thus making construction of the body easier rather or not you are drawing from imagination.



Finally invent some shorthand techniques for inventing the figure.
Since you can create and manipulate form on paper as if you were building in 3d space this should be pretty easy.

Look at some of your favorite YouTubers for inspiration. Look at robots and figure drawing on the internet.


But it all starts with construction

Well, that and perserverence. You just try again and again till you get it right. Take breaks and know that you WILL succeed.


Hope this helped


Sincerely, some random artist