Start Making Art Today - E-book - ePub

Anyone can be an artist. You can be an artist!This positive and friendly guide is aimed at beginners who want to be able to use their own ideas to make art but don't know where to start. It encourages the reader to bring art making into their life, form good making habits and helps them find ways to overcome perceived obstacles and build their skills as they go. It has a great focus on the fact that anyone can make art and can begin now.
It is not a 'how to' for a specific medium but rather an invitation to welcome art making into one's life. People have preconceived ideas about who can be an artist, they think it's only someone cool living in New York, or Paris, not just an ordinary person living in a small town or a little city, but anyone can make art. You don't have to be cool or live somewhere amazing or have lot of money. An ordinary person can make extraordinary art if they choose to welcome art into their life.
The only thing that defines being an artist is being a person who makes art. Many of us are filled with self-doubt. Am I good enough to be an artist? Will people think I'm being silly? Don't you have to go to art school to be an artist? The information in this book will fill you with the knowledge to begin and overcome your doubts. You are good enough to start now. People make excuses about why they can't make art, they don't have the time, the money, or the space, but in fact starting at the kitchen table, you only need a little bit of time, maybe ten minutes a day and very simple supplies to start.
We don't need a special time and place to make art: you just need to welcome art making into your life. Open the door and say hello beautiful. The hardest part of making art can be sitting there facing that blank piece of paper or that lump of clay wondering what to make. This book will show you how to get ready for that moment, armed full of ideas and the confidence to begin. Do you believe that having ideas for art is difficult and that ideas are rare, like gemstones? Start Making Art Today was born out of a desire to help people understand how easy it is to have ideas to make art, to see that ideas are everywhere, you just have to notice them, little glimmers of gold in the sand.
Ideas for artworks start out really tiny and you build upon them to make art that reflects you and your unique way of seeing the world. Many art books tell you what to make and how to make it. The ideas suggested in many of these books are kind of cute, but they don't have any depth to them. The ideas are unconnected to who you really are as an artist. This book will help you to learn how to develop your own ideas, how to add depth and more meaning, and help you figure out what you are trying to say with your art making.
You don't need to have mad art making skills or be good at drawing before you begin, you are art ready now and will gather skills and techniques as you make. Don't put off your journey as an artist while you wait for that perfect time. That time is now. Art making should be fun but often when we learn techniques the focus is on 'getting it right', and not about enjoying the time and the process. We try to make work that someone else approves of, or says yes this is correct, whether its painting, drawing or even just enjoying crafts like knitting or sewing.
The focus is upon what bits we need to 'fix', what bits aren't conforming to what the world thinks art or craft should look like. This does art a great disservice. Art making is a beautiful open-ended question with no one correct answer. Its about exploration and adventure. Sometimes things will go wrong but that's ok, its all part of the journey. You are part of something bigger when you become an artist.
Someone who creates becomes part of an unseen but real community. I'm going to show you in this book that making art is about bringing joy and satisfaction, connection and meaning into your life.