Hi FA, here are a few lessons I’ve learned so far about art:

>Reference is an absolute necessity: the danger of telling yourself that you don’t use reference is that you have no control over what you’re actually taking reference from. For example, if you’re drawing a human face with no reference, its really common to have drawn your OWN face. After all, that’s what you’ve done the most research on!

>The same goes for artistic influences- find some. Be 100% aware that you’re going in that direction. It’s great to have a library of people who influence you, because the more influences you draw from, the less people will be able to tell you’re emulating at all.

>Consider researching your influences’ INFLUENCES! Who informed your art-idols’ style? Researching this will give you an opportunity to develop something similar but different than your own idol.

>Don’t try and tell yourself “It’s just a cartoon, I don’t need to study from life”. As an example, you might have studied ‘The Lion King’ over and over, but that means that every big cat you draw will look like Simba, albeit with different hair. If you study the Lion King and REAL big cats, you have a better chance of creating a great character that might FIT into The Lion King, but isn’t bound to it. Plus, you wont get sued as easily.

>You’re not just drawing- you’re designing. Being aware of this forces you to think more as you draw and produces much better results.

>Be aware that art books are not all created equal- it’s surprisingly easy to publish bullsh*t.

>Don’t buy super-specialized books, like “How to Draw Fantasy Creatures”. Fantasy creatures are based on real animals, so buy books on those! Your mental library will be rich and nuanced and you’ll have much more opportunity for creative designs, without ‘design contamination’ from other artists’ solutions.

>Art fundamentals always need to be refreshed. I’d like to think I know tonnes about perspective, but I still go back and see if there’s anything else I can know about it. Being arrogant and thinking you’re too good for fundamentals is a very bad sign.

>The most important piece of advice I have is this: DO NOT BECOME COMPLACENT! If you’re consistently impressed with the art you’re churning out, that’s a bad sign. Never let up on practice an research. You can actually get WORSE over time if you cut yourself slack. If you don’t know where to go from where you are, take a step back and do research on a completely different subject ( I drew my first serious car the other day for example)


That’s all for now, folks. Maybe when my fav art site is working, I’ll post some cool links to get you started on research. In the time being, have one that Fabercastel linked 4 years ago: http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm