Pretty Sketchy: Tips For Beginners
Hey y'all let's see what's up today! I am a traditionally taught artist, meaning that I primarily had a mentor while I was learning and figuring out what I wanted to do and they taught me most of the skills that I needed to move on up the ladder, though I chose not to finish art school. Unfortunately, I'm not the type of person that is content with doing just one type of artwork, I want to do a little of everything and I do! I make jewelry, draw both digitally and traditionally, crochet, sew, embroider, and a whole bunch of other things! It's safe to say, I have some experience.
I don't want this post to be like super focused on one medium, because there are a lot of different mediums to try. However, there are also a lot of people out there that want to take your money as well and therefore they will try to sell lessons and expensive supplies and that's just not necessary, so I am hoping to be a little guide for you guys with this section. That being said, lets dive on in:
What Do You Want to Do?
Deciding what type of art you want to do can be really difficult sometimes, I personally would advise experimenting with various mediums, or even watching people online that maybe post content that aligns with the mediums you want to work with. I will link some YouTube Channels that I watched when I was just starting out that helped me to hone in some skills or at the very least gave me some inspiration to start trying things out (not that my mentors didn't do a very good job, I just got out of habit for most things when I went to college)
DrawingWiffWaffles: I've been following this channel for a long time, and she was one of my introductions to original character design and she also introduced me to a lot of products that I still use to this day such as Illo sketchbooks. The video that I linked is one that I think is great for any beginner illustrator because it gives you some ideas for warm ups or prompts for drawing.
HookedbyRobin: This was the first crochet tutorial that I ever followed, and I actually quite like this pattern because it is a quick and easy pattern to follow, and it makes such a cute gift to give to friends, it's very non-expensive if you use a thinner weight yarn, and you can make some beautiful shawls with it.
Ninja Bunny Crochet: This is another one of the first video resources that I used for crochet. My great grandmother had taught me to crochet when I was younger, and while I enjoyed it unfortunately we did not get enough time together for her to teach me anything beyond basics. So I turned to YouTube, and videos like these were my lifeline starting out!
Heather Boyd Wire: Much like with crochet, my grandfather taught me to make jewelry and while I knew the basics much more interesting pieces seemed so far out of my reach, but videos like this helped me along in the process as opposed to just reading a pattern and trying to tough it out.
There are many more out there that you can find, I unfortunately can't link them all here, but searching YouTube is never a bad thing and it is a great way to connect to a larger craft community!
What Do You Need?
I cannot stress this enough, because I made this mistake when I was first starting out, DO NOT buy everything on the aisle for your art medium of choice when you're just starting out. I made this mistake as a beginner and I have things that I ended up donating because they just never got used.
What I would recommend drastically differs based on the medium that I'm using but I'll provide a short list:
Crochet: Yarn/fabric scissors, yarn (most patterns will tell you what weight to use, then simply use the labels to guide you), a yarn needle, stitch markers, a cheap stitch counter and for beginners I suggest a G,H,I,J,K and N hook.
Sewing: Sewing needles, thread, basic fabric, some cheap polyfill stuffing, buttons (you can buy large jars at craft stores and often times at antique stores as well), sewing scissors, pins, and a sewing box to store it all in.
Embroidery: Embroidery needles, cheese cloth, an embroidery hoop, embroidery thread, embroidery scissors, and thimbles.
Drawing: A mixed media sketchbook (really just any sketchbook with thick paper), 0.5mm 0.7mm and 0.9mm pencils along with some backup lead refills, a polymer eraser, a kneaded eraser, a multi-pack of pens (any craft store should sell a variety pack with different sized nibs), and some cheap colored pencils.
I want to preface that I started out sewing by hand stitching, so if you have a sewing machine, I would suggest just using what the machine came with or getting a multi-pack of bobbins and thread. I also want to add that I tend to just buy really cheap sketchbooks, because I use them for brainstorming illustrations mostly, then I have a second sketchbook for the actual sketches, and then I use a good quality card stock paper for my illustrations. This is just what works for me, so experiment a bit and find what works for you!
Failing is Normal
This is the hardest thing that I've had to accept as an artist. Even doing what I do for as long as I have, I'm still learning, I'm still developing skills, and that is perfectly okay. We as artists are so focused on looking at our mistakes that we forget we're human, we aren't going to make machine perfect artwork every single time. Failure is normal, and it can highlight areas that we need to focus on to improve our skills and become a better artist. Looking back on my old artwork is enough to make me cringe, as it is for just about every artist, but seeing where I've ended up through practice and hard work? That's a sort of pride that is absolutely indescribable.
Another thing that I think tends to get into everryone's heads and it makes them look down on their work, we expect perfection. Every artist does it, we look at a blank space and we see potential, we get these perfect ideas in our heads and then our current skill level knocks us down a peg or three. We could create something that we think is awful, and then we receive
Closing
That's all that I have for you guys right now, I'm so sorry this took a minute I have not been the greatest at emptying my drafts this month like I planned. If you want to see more from me feel free to click the link below where you can find my other socials. Y'all take care, and thanks for stopping by!
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