– No it has nothing to do with more Art Supplies
( this post may contain affiliate links – what does that mean? if you decide to purchase something through clicking my link I will get a small little percentage. This does NOT come at any cost for you – it is more that Amazon rewards me for spreading the word 😉 )
HAHA I know you don’t need that kind of negativity with anyone saying you don’t need more Art Supplies! But let me be that person for a while.A lot of artists use Facebook wrong (I will explain this in another Article) and use their whole online-time in art groups. And this is what I can see there each and every day:
Many are chasing shiny objects, or are trapped in FOMO (fear of missing out) – what if thaaaat brand of pencils is THE SECRET to improve your drawing skills?
This is a typical development:
- Seeing great colored pencil art
- buying 1st set of pencils
- trying them out, but the result is not as stunning in comparison to others
- asking in FB Groups for suggestions on Pencils and Papers (because obviously they are using the wrong ones)
- buying 2nd set of pencils
- trying them out, but the result are still not as desired
- … repeating these steps until they have tried out all pencils and papers there are
Can you identify yourself with this? Then this is what to do:
If you have one set of Artist Grade Colored Pencils you have all you need! Stop buying more and start Practicing.
– I used my first set (Polychromos – read how I felt when my first set of Pencils arrived) for 2 years until I introduced another set of pencils (Prismacolor). And it was not until the DRAWember Challenge 2016 that I bought my 3rd Set (Luminance by Caran D’ache). In the meantime I did practice and practice and practiced even more – to the point that I was happy with the result.
PRACTICE is the first step to improve your drawing skills
But practice is not everything. The key factor that determines if you make progress while practicing is: YOUR MINDSET Click To Tweet
I really believe that everyone can draw. You just have to really want to. I mean we all succeeded with walking.
Or do you know a baby refusing to take the first step saying: NO Mommy and Daddy are way better walkers, I tried it but could barely stand, so this is leading nowhere. I can’t remember back to that time but I don’t think prior to practicing walking we would say to ourselves: this is meaningless, I will never be as good as! I have accompanied 2 gorgeous little ladies through this stage in their life and I saw something totally different: confidence and a strong will. They wanted to be able to walk. They wanted to succeed. And even after falling on their butts the next second they would try even harder.
Now translate this to your drawing. Are you really open minded and determined to PRACTICE TO IMPROVE?
Tell yourself that you can do this! And really mean it.
So instead of chasing the next or better pencil or paper get familiar with what you have. Get to know your tools and how to use them right. When someone asks me what I would suggest for a beginner my answer is usually: Make my color chart. It is a little bit different than those you can find when you search on Google and I came up with them for exactly the same reason:
you get a feel for your tools
see what colors you have
you practice different pressures
Now I leave you with that color chart and don’t forget to tell me in the comments how this has worked for you.
Happy Drawing
Exactly. The only way to improve drawing skills is practice.If one is willing to draw with enthusiasm, pencils won’t make a much difference to it. When I started drawing, I used decent quality pencils and never bothered about them. Later when I matured, I started using Caran d’ ache which made me realize the difference. The only important thing is to practice and be least bothered by the material being used. Good one mary jane!
You are so right! If you want, really want to draw and improve, you will have to practice. And you will like to practice, even when many drawings didn’t turn out as you hoped! I think talent is interest+practice. Nevertheless I am a pencil junkie, I loved pencils (and paper ..) since childhood, no birthday gift was better than a box of pencils, a coloring book, a drawing pad. So I have two full sets, Polychromos and Prismacolor and about half Luminance. And a full set of Tombow Irijiten, and I am drawing only about a year and half. I use them all! I think it is important to have good tools if you are doing something, learning to play the piano on a out-of-tune piano isn’t that inspiring. So buy some good pencils when you start drawing.
Hej Margo, thanks for taking your time for commenting.
I totally AGREE with you. There is nothing wrong with having/buying every pencil out there. It starts to get wrong, when you buy those pencils and believe that your skills will magically improve only by using those pencils. Practicing with the right tools is improving. Funny you mention it. Whenever I read in some Facebook groups: Start practicing with student grade pencils and only after you can do that buy the expensive ones I think: Well I didn’t learn driving on a bobby car 😀