"Practice makes perfect." Is this enough practice for me to improve my skills over time?

Question

I draw a full portrait of a person or object about once every one to two weeks, or even more than that, or less, sometimes. I usually don't research any new techniques. I just pick up the paper, pencils, listen to some music, and draw from photographs of people in my own, self-taught way.

By doing this continuosly as I do already, will I continue to get better at drawing as time goes by? Even though I am only learning self-taught and no actual new techniques from lessons? I am fourteen now, and I think I'm a very good artist, but not as good as I'd like to be yet. I haven't ever taken classes in drawing.
Just wondering if I am actually getting anywhere with this. I enjoy it, but do I need a little more to improve my skills than simple practice?

Answer 1

I'm 16, no longer do art at school, but i do what you do in my spare time because i adore art.

Looking at my drawings from when i was a year or two younger i would say there is a vast improvement in them now. I use techniques I have come up with myself. You pick up your own little tricks for making a really good drawing by making mistakes and correcting them. It is all about trial and error, you are never going to be absolutely perfect right off. Being a true artist is all about learning from your mistakes and other people, so look up other artists, not necessarily well known ones, and study their drawings, see what you can pick up from that alone.

Don't turn it into something you dread, make sure you keep enjoying it, theres no pressure for you to be perfect, you don't need to have a teacher to learn.

Most importantly keep a sense of yourself in your pieces, you know when you can look at a painting or drawing and just know who's done it from the style of the drawing? That would really be something.

Take a look at some of my work if you can

LINK vvvv

Answer 2

Practice makes perfect is fine in theory, but sometimes it's the little mistakes here and there that make a drawing or painting interesting. It sounds like you are doing some drawing practice, but if you want to go into this professionally, you will need to practise more. Ideally, you should practise every day. Some lessons to give you the basics would be good as well, but you can learn a lot by reading some good books on drawing available at your local library. You might want to show an art teacher some of your finished works and get this teacher to critique your work and make some suggestions on areas that could use some improvement. I'm not saying that you aren't a good artist already, what I am saying that everyone can learn something new no matter how long they have been drawing. It would also be a good idea to carry a sketchbook with you all the time to work in when you have a few minutes to spare when waiting for an appointment or while you are on public transit. Try to draw a wide range of subjects. It's great that you are doing portraits, but you don't want to narrow your field at this point. Try drawing anything and everything in order to further develop your talent. You may find that you want to start working some colour into your pictures and that might get you interested in colour theory and so on. There is no limit to what you can learn on your own and then supplement this with some classes so that you have a professional showing you some other techniques or helping you to perfect a particular technique. If you increase your practise time, you will definitely improve and more importantly, you will see if you really want to have a job in the visual arts and maybe determine what area of the visual arts interests you the most. You're on the right path and with a little more effort, you'll be able to see the whole field open up for you and offer you more things to learn and work at. That's the wonderful thing about art, there's always something you want to learn and techniques you want to try out. There just isn't enough time in a day to do everything that you want to do. When you feel that way in a positive sense, not in the sense of being overwhelmed, then you will know that you are looking down the area of art that matches your talents and possibly find employment in that area. But, for now and really, always, do it because you enjoy doing it. Once you lose that pleasure when you pick up a new sketchbook or feel the texture of paper and look longingly at paints, coloured pencils and so on, then it's time to re-evaluate what you're doing and see if you're pursuing the right area of art that will bring you the initial enjoyment that you started off with.

Answer 3

Destry,

Look over your past work. Do you see improvement? If it seems to be staying the same, it's time to pick up a book from the library, a DVD from an online art materials warehouse, or take an art class.



Now, if you do see improvement, you are leading yourself in the right direction. I do, however, suggest you get some more input for your work. Sometimes you need some hints from people who are professional artists or teachers and can see some things you should be doing, but aren't.



As for the time you are putting in, it sounds good for a hobby-level artist. At your age you must have so many activities it would be hard to put in more time. But if you do have that time, then go ahead and do more.



If you are considering art in college, you might want to plan to do more practice now. The sooner you improve your techniques, the further you can develop in college. Go to galleries and museums and see as much art as you can. Read books about artists you love. That's a great technique for advancing your abilities. If you have further questions, feel free to email me through my profile here at Yahoo! Answers.

Answer 4

It's enough to make you improve, but only by small margins. Artists continually discover new ways to see the world, and your style will change over time. Constant practice is the best way to improve rapidly - doodling in the margins is highly encouraged. Producing a finished piece of work at your current pace is a good start, but don't be hesitant to go to the library and check out a book on drawing from time to time - you'll still maintain your self-taught style, but you'll learn how to incorporate little effects in a variety of media that will add to your finished product. In the end, it's what makes you happiest, and being an artist myself, I can say that exploring your craft is a fast and easy way to improving your skills and embracing your talent.

Answer 5

Drawing the human body is hard - so it is great practice. As humans ourselves we instinctively know when something looks wrong = bad proportion, too stiff, lack 'weight' etc- so if you get to the point where you can draw convincing expressive humans you will have learned some valuable skills.



Everyone is different. I got to see an artist named Stephen Silver http://stephensilver.blogspot.com/ and if remember right he said he often fills a page with figure eights and truns them into faces and figures as a way of practicing. I know another artist who does something similar with circles every day -random ovals and turns them into critters.



Try to draw people, try to draw perspective, do some drawings where you focus on shading rather than form (charcoal is fun for this), take your pad to the zoo, to the museum, to the botanical gardens, to the mall and draw draw draw.

Answer 6

You should go by "Perfect practice makes perfect".



Meaning, you can practice and practice, but if you're practicing wrong techniques, you'll only reinforce those wrong techniques.

You should go ahead and take classes, learn new techniques....then build off of what you learned in the classes, along with what you already self-taught yourself.



It's nice that you can self teach yourself, but eventually, you'll hit a "ceiling" of what you can do on your own. It's always good to learn from others and learn new techniques. It can only help.

Answer 7

E. All of the above and playing the piano I like baked chicken better. I'm not really a fan of deep fried things.

Answer 8

You will get better, but I think you should practice more often.