art tips!

I have one, but it might be a litttttle controversial. I say it’s ok to trace. Tracing helped me learn very important aspects of art,and it even helped me grow my own art style at an early age. Use references and inspiration, It’s completely ok to do so! 

Most importantly, have fun with your art. In my opinion, art shouldn’t be something to stress over, it should be a form of free and enjoyable expression! 

1. as someone said before, it's okay to trace when learning! It's also important to be transparent when you heavily reference/trace something if you publish it! Many artists post their studies along with the original picture. As long as the transparency is there it's usually fine :)
   For the record, in many occasions in this industry you'll be directly asked to trace/alter from a work of an artist in the same company. This is seen as okay especially because even if the authorship is yours and the other artist's, the copyright belongs to the company itself. So it's as if you're just using the same blob of content.
   Tracing is only not okay when you trace from a work from another artist (be it a drawing, painting or photography) and post it online without giving them credit. Please make sure to collect consent to trace their work if you're posting your study online. It's best to train from real life anyway, so you'll most likely be using resources like nature photography, stock picture models, and 3D models.
   I personally take pictures of my own hands and trace over then when I'm having trouble with hand poses!
   
   
2. Other than tracing, it's even better to reference!
   Drawing from life or from pictures by creating shapes to break down what you see is the best form of learning. This will help you memorize the smaller shapes, and you'll be able to completely draw from your head.
   
   
3. I say this a lot, but sketch with ballpoint pens or with things that can't be erased.
   If a drawing comes off bad, leave it be and move to the next.
   Erasing only enables the fear of failure. And in art you have to fail. Many, many times. But failures aren't something to be ashamed about, you have to "hit your head against the wall" enough times to get it right. Be forgiving of yourself. Because otherwise, you'll be too paralyzed with fear to improve.
   
   
4. Avoid comparing yourself to others in regards to their age (i.e. "oh they're 10 years younger than me and draw so much better"). That's useless and only serves to demotivate you and paralyze you further.
   Instead, celebrate when others win. A mindset of celebrating greatness rather than feeding jealousy is much better for your growth as an artist. Be curious as to how to they did that. Share knowledge.
   

I'm hoping this helps!

Try out different mediums and styles! If you're usually a painter, maybe work with clay. If you work with clay, work with animation. Or maybe try a more surreal feel, or only use one color! You may never know; some of the craziest (impressive) things are made from the wackiest materials!!

I heard this advice somewhere on Tumblr and it was something along the lines of: “You can draw every single day and not improve one bit if all you draw is the same thing over and over again. You don’t have to force yourself to draw every single day in order to improve because the most important thing is that when you do draw, you use that time to learn and practice new objects/skills.”

I mean, I only do art as a hobby so improvement isn’t necessarily a thing I prioritize and, even if it was, I don’t think anything would stop me from forever drawing Omori fanart lmao

However, if improvement truly is something one wants to achieve, that advice holds truth to it. If you want to get better, you’re gonna have to stray from your comfort zone and try out new things, whether that’s learning how to draw hands or drawing various expressions other than the basic emotions. This applies to a lot of things outside of art lol but I remembered a time when art vids on YouTube would always stress that one should draw every day even if they didn’t feel like it and as an artist who very much couldn’t draw every day, that kinda made me sad so this specific piece of advice always stuck to my head