An artistic awakening : How to begin your journey as a creative

by Amar Shah and Batrisyia Daanya

Close your eyes and visualise a road surrounded by self-arranging hues each representing a fragment of the memories of an artist. Imagine every single fine hair of a brush caressing the tiny weaves of a canvas, the graphite of a pencil lead embedding itself into a paper, and the countless eraser strokes that they had to utilise to perfect each of their pieces.

Don’t you wonder how they came to be?

It sounds really cool to be able to brag to your friends about your expressive skills but many people who try often give up at the start of their journey as it is ‘too tedious’ and feeling ‘not good enough’. Well, fret not! Because in the wise words of Pablo Picasso, “Everything you can imagine is real”.

Believe it or not, you only require two qualities in yourself to aspire to your own artistic route.

Passion

Developing a strong passion is the key to acquiring a drive for you to continuously try. It is necessary for beginner artists to gain motivation simply from their love and the fun of doing it.

Oftentimes, those who are forced or practise art under pressure and stress will associate the activity with negative experiences. That includes constantly burdening yourself with your own heavy expectations. Instead of setting big goals that give you sudden red lights such as sketching a realistic portrait of Josh Hutcherson, take baby steps. Set small goals, trust the process and tell yourself that it is okay to make mistakes.

The most important thing is that you never ever be ashamed of trying no matter how small your everyday progress is and enjoy the process like taking a walk in the park.

Patience

Even so, it is not just all love and no work. Struggles are inevitable in pursuing anything that you want. For instance, art blocks are just a small part of the obstacles that artists have to face on a daily basis.

Every artist must consistently practise their abilities according to their own level. This is essential as your techniques must be refined habitually. At the same time, there are tons of useful tutorials on the Internet that should be used as reference especially if you are self-taught. Due to concentrated efforts, you will slowly begin to see some improvements that will further motivate you to continue.

Rome was not built in a day, so also keep in mind that progress will only come with time.

Like anyone would clearly see, this creative hobby familiarises us with expressivity, determination and perseverance. Paving your path will certainly be a challenge but at the end of the day, there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.

So, if you are willing for this commitment, pick up your pens, ready your paper and have fun!