Last Year we put out a short PDF on the 10 things we’ve seen successful artists do. It's a list of suggested actions that we know, if implemented, help artists make more money from their work. It's been really well received with numerous downloads by artists looking to further their creative career. It's still available now if you are looking for some inspiration so follow this link to download it yourself if you haven’t already.
However, for many artists, making money from your artwork isn’t the only important thing and some of the feedback we got after putting out the last PDF echoed this. Many artists don’t get into making art professionally for the money, and there are so many other things to be gained from pursuing a creative lifestyle.
I wanted to highlight some of the actions you can take that aren’t all focused on the financial side and more about bettering yourself and improving as an artist in a more well-rounded way. I hope it will give many of you reading this the confidence to make more art and get it seen by others.
ACTIONABLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO DEVELOP YOUR PRACTICE
Chatting to artists at the gallery I’ve discovered many want a few actionable things they can introduce to their creative process to help improve their work and get more out of the limited time many of us get to focus on our artwork.
I’ve developed a list below of some key actions I have found particularly useful within my work, either leading up to an exhibition at a Gallery or developing my work further as my career, style and practice develops.
MAKE MORE WORK!
The first action is one I have definitely highlighted before, and it is to make more work. Lots more!
So many of the artists and visitors we speak to at the gallery underestimate the amount of time needed to create good artwork. The greatest and most influential action you can take as a creative person is to practice your craft. Improvement comes through repetition and the more work you make, good or bad, goes towards improving your next piece.
I understand through my own experience that creativity isn’t a tap you can turn on and off at will and in our busy lives it's often hard to justify the time needed to get work finished. However, finding the time to make work just for yourself, little and often, will lead to huge improvements over time.
You get better at knowing where to make the marks on the page and faster at making decisions on what will work and what won't. You learn a huge amount about what you like about your own work and what you want to improve upon as your work and personal style develops
And the work doesn’t need to be perfect!
There is a story that we’ve often told to artists we meet, about a photography tutor and their class.
The tutor decided to split the class into two groups with the final grade for the year being judged differently for each of the two groups. The first would be judged on the sheer number of photos taken, the more the better, with top marks going to the student who captured the most images. The second group would be graded on just one single image, judged on composition, light and subject matter and students were encouraged to study up to make sure their final works looked perfect.
When it came to grading each of the students the tutor found that the best work ended up coming from the students who made the most work. The practice they put in led to them learning so much about the camera itself and about the work they wanted to make. They were able to make all the mistakes new artists make when it didn’t matter.
Remembering this approach has helped me hugely in my own work, it has led to new ideas and interesting techniques when unexpected results happen during the making process. I make lots of sketches and get down as many ideas as I can. If I find myself with an hour or so in the evenings it's a perfect time to quickly get down some ideas or test out a new technique. You never know what might come out of it.
If nothing else it gives you a true understanding of how much time is needed to make good work and when you do, you realise it's worth the investment.
EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR MATERIALS
We’ve spoken to so many artists who end up using materials like acrylic paint because they are often cheaper, accessible and easy to use. They put paint on canvas to make work quickly, but don’t spend enough time learning the benefits and limitations of the materials they use resulting in underwhelming artwork that looks and feels like everything else out there.
Don’t get me wrong, acrylic artworks can be incredible and some of the best artists in the world use these materials but they have settled on this medium after years of practice and experimentation, diving deep into how and why the medium works.
We know first-hand that Art supplies are expensive but so much can be learned by taking the time to understand the materials and tools you use as an artist. Experimenting and analysing what is it that you like and don’t like about these materials, gives such an important insight into the benefits rather than the convenience of the tools at hand.
How does the paint layer? What tones can you achieve through mixing? What kind of marks can you make and with what tools? What does this look like on one surface vs the next?
Try everything.
It might seem like you are wasting materials and time that could both be better spent on an actual finished piece but I promise you it's worth taking the time to get used to how the material feels and behaves when you use them. You might discover a new technique, way of mark-making or colour combination that you could push forward. You might end up settling on a new material altogether after realising there could be something else out there that might help you create the effects and finish you are after in your work.
Either way, using some of your good materials now, to understand them better, will end up saving you time and money later down the line.
GET YOUR WORK OUT THERE
We’ve emphasised this many times before but getting your work out in the world and asking for feedback from the often unforgiving public is so beneficial to your practice as an artist.
Showing others your artwork is like putting a piece of yourself on display, which we know can be tough. It’s nerve-wracking, especially early on in your career, when you think the work you are making isn’t as good as you want it to be, but the positives always outweigh the negatives in the end.
You have to be willing to open yourself up to criticism either to look for improvements or to defend the decisions you make to gain a better understanding of what you create.
When we opened the gallery, Andy and Myself, both took two weeks to host our own solo exhibitions.
It was a steep learning curve, collecting the right work together, curating the space and learning to speak to visitors about yourself and the art on display. But doing so gave us such a huge insight into what’s needed to host an exhibition and we both took away so much about what we liked and disliked about our work after hearing the comments from members of the public. It has gone on to greatly influence my work going forward.
If nothing else, there is an additional benefit to getting your work seen by others and that is that you get to raise your profile as an artist. People get to hear about you and your work and the more people that see it, the greater chance you will have of finding someone who loves it too.
Social media is great for this in terms of immediate gratification from the number of “likes” a piece gets but meeting individuals in person or finding a platform that allows you to build a meaningful connection with your audience and peers, such as a physical gallery or social art group, is unparalleled.
PRIZES, COMPETITIONS AND OPEN EXHIBITIONS
Another great way we’ve seen artists get their names out there and get some immediate feedback is through competitions and art prizes. Every year there are numerous opportunities for amateur and professional artists alike to submit artwork for critique by their peers or industry experts.
The prizes can be fantastic, but often, even submitting work can have huge positives. Just creating work for an upcoming competition deadline can frequently give you the much-needed push over the finish line, forcing you to make the decisions needed to get the work done.
Similarly many prizes host exhibitions of all the artwork entered allowing your work to be seen by a whole new Audience. This, along with numerous open exhibitions around the country can both be brilliant ways to get work on show and seen by more people.
The feedback gained can occasionally be humbling, (I’ve had my fair share of rejected pieces!) but if you are always looking to improve your work getting to understand why a piece works and why another doesn’t is always useful. But you never know who might see the work you put out there.
Winning a prize can feel incredible but just getting nominated for a prize can put you and your work in the spotlight too. It can often lead to new opportunities for commissions or collaborations on future projects with other artists and art directors who follow these competitions.
You might not love a particular piece of work you enter, but someone else might! Getting it on display helps find those people. We spend so much of our time looking at our work that we often see all the faults, mistakes and parts we wish to improve. You never know, those bits you think require improvement might be something a judge falls in love with. It might become the thing that sets your work apart from the rest and the bit you end up enjoying creating going forward.
Ellie compiles a list of upcoming dates on our hub, you can check it out here. Sign up for a few! You never know where the opportunities might lead.
So that's all for part one of things you can do to improve as an artist.
They have all helped me develop my own work over the years and hopefully, there are one or two that might help develop your own.
Arthur
If you found this helpful here are some questions for you to ask yourself and think about. Feel free to drop some answers in the comments, we love to share ideas with our community!
Questions
What useful creative or mental techniques do you pursue as an artist to get better at your craft?
What advice would you give your younger self starting out in a creative career?
What subjects do you want us to talk about in the future?
I enjoyed that and agree with everything you say.
Useful creative/mental techniques for me are partly about looking, at the world around me and at other people's work (physical, not online). Then trying to convey the emotional response to an experience in paint (usually for me, colour is the stimulus). Away from the studio, waking in the morning thinking about the painting, remembering any problems I had with it and solving them in my head before I get back to the studio.
Advice to younger self: no regrets about going into primary teaching and saving painting till I was retired and had time and did not need art to make a living (i.e. no pressure!)
Subjects: Which kind of paintings…