7 Signs that your Art is Improving!

Who said I can't draw men!??!?? Also my brushes are here lol :▶ www.ergojosh.com/brushes I used the volume brush quite a bit too.

1) When you finish a piece, it looks like someone else painted it 2) Art you previously thought was impossible, legendary, etc is less spectacular. 3) New artists/artwork starts to interest you, that you didn't notice before. 4) Your art is less professional overall, but gets more attention from professionals and peers. 5) It's much easier for you to know when a piece is finished. You can keep track of your progress. 6) You are more concerned with how your work is fulfilling it's purpose, rather than overall attention. 7) You feel the need to ask for critique when you feel "too" comfortable with your work.

thank you, i found the hardest part of being a self taught artist is just knowing if i'm going in the right direction. looking inward and thinking realistically on what ur work really is, is truly a skill in and of itself

I had an art teacher in college who pointed out to me that periods where you can’t stand your work or you feel like you’re coming short are usually followed up by a huge period of growth.

One of the few people that understand that the journey is the artwork. Great vid Josh!

I feel that one on the favorite artist because I almost cried the other day when one of my favorite artists acknowledged my improvement and complimented my recent piece

I stopped drawing half a year ago, I felt I didn’t improve despite trying my hardest to follow numbers of tutorials. I used to love drawing in anime style but it didn’t resonate with me like it use to, so I thought I was getting worse. 2 days ago, I picked up my Apple Pencil again, chose a brush I personally like, decided to draw whatever comes to mind and oh gosh, it felt like my brain connected with my hand! I felt the joy I once had a few years ago while drawing, I drew characters I’ve never drawn before. Just like you said, it was like looking at other artist’s art. It wasn’t complete anime style which was shocking to me because I’ve never thought of drawing other than said style. I thought,” woah, this really came from me” I felt proud and I want to explore more. I guess I was too dependent on references, cared too much what majority likes seeing, didn’t want to budge from my old ways and wanting to make everything perfect. I hope I can keep this up, improve and someday having a style I personally love!

I know I improve because can finish work faster, use les time but same quality.

I’ve been noticing some of these things with myself lately and it feels amazing, and I’ve noticed some of these things have been coming in cycles, stronger every time. For example, a year ago I was feeling pretty good in my art, and then I realized I had a ton to learn and was stuck in a low for a while, and just recently I’ve been feeling really good again and I’m so happy with my improvement - so much so I’ve started to tackle things like perspective and environment studies. It’s an incredible feeling, and to anyone out there who is struggling and feeling like they aren’t improving, trust me, keep at it and make the art you love and you’ll see yourself improve! I wish the best for you! And thanks for the amazing video Josh!

I’m definitely feeling like I’m nearing the stage of “knowing when it’s done”, although first I have to contend with a more prevalent issue: “am I done or am I just tired?” After I finished this video I was thinking about uploading a study that I’d spent the better part of the month (where free time from work allows) working on. I hit a point where I felt like I couldn’t really do much else for it and took a break. Looking at it now, I see that it can improve in some ways and may need an update to my process. So I guess that’s what I’ve learned so far: knowing when to take a break and when to come back.

Yes please, a "beginner's" procreate course would be 100% appreciated! I put beginner between quotation marks, mostly because with these kinds of programs (also photoshop etc.) it's usually quite easy to get started, work out the basics, and go from there, while missing out on all the tips that really make you work effectively and quite well (think layers and masks etc.) are less obvious simply because they're functionalities that don't exist in drawing on paper, and you really need to know what their purpose is before you can use them.

My journey is moving backwards and forwards; I could be progressing quite rapidly one day and lose all knowledge and skill the next(as if all that time studying and practicing never occurred). As my eyes improves in noticing mistakes, my hand lags behind by a tremendous amount. In fact, that’s how I’d describe my art journey: it’s lagging.

I love when art YouTubers make videos about “signs your art is improving” instead of “how to improve your art” that I’ve seen everywhere now 😭💕 One of the things I remind a few beginners is “look back once in a while.” You sometimes don’t know what you improved on until you look at your older art. Y’know how some artists would express disgust and cringe from looking at their older art? Try seeing that as a good thing, because it shows how far you’ve gotten. In looking back, you can also see some art you made that while the artstyle then is crude or not great in comparison, there’s some charm to it.

The paying attention to artists you overlooked before is happening so much to me rn!!! Recently I decided to greatly change my artstyle since its harming my ability to improve and grow as an aritst, and its so liberating to be free of this feeling of "I shouldn't take inspo from this artist because their artstyle is too different" and ever since that ive been improving faster than I ever did, in obsevation too

Whenever I finish an art piece, I become obsessed with that piece and grasp for ways to make it look better and that is critique, when I get critiqued I get addicted to it which gives me motivation to never stop improving.

usually something I do to encourage myself to draw is to mention it on my calender. I'll write a simple "Drew" with a checkmark beside it, and looking back at a month and being able to visually see how many times I practiced and worked throughout a month has a big impact. recently, I had just challenged myself to draw every day for as long as I could, but on the 20th day, I finally broke. it led to me feeling like a failure, and that I would never improve, but then after taking a week-long break and trying again, I drew something that really described what you said here in the video: "you feel like someone else drew what you just created", and it helped me to see that I WAS improving. what else has helped me see that is the way I draw my own characters; my approach to heads and torsos has become different and more focused on clearer, box-like shapes to maintain an understanding of depth, where before I was more inclined to fall into getting too confused by my own messy sketches. thank you for making this video, wish you all the best

Another thing I’ve noticed is I’ll have long periods of no art. Like a month or two it’ll just be very loose doodles of eyes or arms, but not much sketches that could be final pieces of art. But then, out of nowhere, I’ll get this surge of improvement where I stare at my art and be like “I DID THAT??” Best feeling in the world. So if you’re going through a massive block in anything, the best thing you can do (unless you’re on a deadline) is let it run its course, because then you’ll jump.

This video was really very informative. As a self-taught artist, I could notice some of the signs you've mentioned for improvement and to add on to it : Another sign of improvement I noticed is that I can now start to define my comfort zone & try to get out of it by doing studies & making artworks of concepts that I find to be outside my comfort zone, to challenge myself. The thrill & learning process of it all is so different compared to my previous works

I have this idea to try working with digital art to see how I draw my lines, curves angels and play around with the color pallet to see if that may help improve with my traditional art skills. I've always looked at how good traditional artists are because they pratice well with digital to help train the mind to see those areas that need improvement. Digital art looks like a lot of fun and enjoyable to pratice with. A good tool to work with. 😅❤

Ohh I just reposted that Ekko drawing yesterday on my story. It's so good, the shading is insane! Also I totally agree with the feeling that someone else created a piece you've just finished. It happens to me from time to time.