⬆️ Steps to Level Up Your Art
How I made art that I'm proud of
Leveling up your artwork
A term we
-ers like to use is level up.We say it when someone makes a noticeable leap in their artwork. It’s when someone gets even better at their art, and it happens when something “clicks” after a lot of hard work.
Thinking back on times when we have all leveled up, I notice that it happens when we all do things that get us excited.
We find something we’re excited about, and then experiment and create bad drafts/sketches/finished art work.
We find out what doesn’t work.
Then we find what does work. And we do that thing again and again.
Then we level up.
It comes with a lot of practice, but it is always worth it! And it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many artists who are constantly refining their craft and getting better and better.
I’ll give you some examples:
- (who creates 3D felt characters) crafted characters again and again. Changing the facial expression on the physical puppet was challenging, so she found a way to do it digitally. Then she produced more and more work and more quickly and it just got better and better. Discovering how to alter the facial features was a huge level up!
- found that playing in her sketchbook with colored pencils was really fun (and she’s really good at it too!) So she kept sketching and sketching and sketching, and then when it was time for her next professional piece, she took what she learned and applied it to her artwork. The textures were similar to colored pencils and she captured that charm that comes from traditional media. Level up!
I started using traditional media, too. I kept practicing and practicing, and I slowly started to see my work include the textures that I always admired in others’ work. Level up! (I’ll tell you more about this below)
It’s easy to say “just practice and you’ll level up,” but what are you supposed to practice?
For me, a huge part of achieving the next level is believing my work is good enough. I haven’t always liked my work, and I have even illustrated whole books in a style that I don’t love that much… Evolving and growing is always going to be part of the process, so I try to embrace it. Because our art changes the more we practice and grow, I try to be intentional about what I’m currently working on.
I think this is easiest way to find out what you can practice is: study the artwork you find inspiring. There are infinite art styles and ways to make art, so set aside some time to truly study what you like.
About a year ago, I had been feeling a little stuck with my art and style, so I took a step back to look at art that I was drawn to. I began to see changes, and then I started to get really excited when the art I was creating was something I would actually buy if I saw it at a market or at a bookstore. In other words, I had leveled up. How did I get there?
I began with these steps:
Gather 3-5 books with artwork that you like.
Gather 3-5 prints or artwork from around the house. (art prints, clothing, a cool editorial piece in a magazine, etc… anything you have that has art you like.)
Answer these questions:
What colors do you see?
What is the style like? Graphic, painterly, commercial, etc…?
How was the artwork created? Digitally, traditionally, both?
Review your portfolio. Answer the same questions.
Compare the answers to pinpoint an area you’d like to work on!
Answering these questions helped me to level up, because I realized there was a obvious difference between my process and the process of artists I admired. I had been adding color digitally to my artwork, but after doing the steps above, I noticed that all my favorite art and books were colored with traditional material.
So I began to experiment with traditional materials. I knew that’s what I needed to do if I wanted to level up towards the artwork I liked.
What steps did I take to level up?
Practice!! I joined free instagram challenges and created new artwork with traditional materials.
I joined a paid class and created more artwork with paint and pencils.
After a bit of practice, I accepted commissions and worked in traditional media. I kept leveling up the stakes (free challenges, a paid class, and now paid work)
Writing! Writing helped me to really understand what it was that made certain artwork stand out to me. If you’re curious… I wrote about messy styles here, and I reflected on how I changed my coloring style here. And here I drew the same thing and colored it in two different ways (Scroll to the section “DTIYS - Lunar New Year”)
I found this strategy of studying to be really helpful because without setting a real goal, practice will be all over the place.
So if you’re feeling stuck like I had been feeling, I recommend gathering your favorite books and art prints and whatever other beautiful things you have laying around and getting inspired! Follow the steps above to find out what you want to practice.
And then you’ll be on your way to leveling up!
A few more thoughts
The biggest way these steps helped me to level up was by making my art more appealing to me. Now I feel proud of my art and my style. I enjoy the whole process of creating art this way, and I think it shows. Plus it’s easy to keep practicing and growing when you love what you’re doing, so take some time to figure out what it is that you love! :)
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and you’ll receive everyone’s responses in your inbox next week!This post is part of the monthly illoguild question. This month we focused on recommendations and inspiration.
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We hope to see you at our next illoguild live!
Mark your calendars for August 19 - 8 AM EDT / 1 PM GMT / 8PM MYT / 10 PM AEST.
We’ll be talking about leveling up our craft, such as how we set learning goals for growth, how we get better at our craft, and our favorite ways to improve our art and writing. We can’t wait to see you there!
We’d love to hear your questions for this topic, so feel free to drop them in the comments.
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