Can an artist be self taught? (2023)

Can you be a self-taught artist?

Of course it's okay to be self-taught! After all, you don't need to go to an art school or receive a fancy degree in order to make art and call yourself an artist. That being said, if you don't have formal art education, you probably spend time searching for information on how to improve your skills.

Genius cannot be taught but skills can. And even the wildest, most visionary of artists relies on the techniques they were taught.

Self-taught artists are artists who did not receive formal training in the visual arts, or whose formal training did not influence their artistic practice. Self-taught artists may or may not work as professional artists in the mainstream art world.

Yet learning to paint doesn't need to be intimidating, and it doesn't require talent, in-person lessons, or great expense. All you need to teach yourself to paint is a few materials, targeted practice, and the right frame of mind.

If you are disciplined, then you can achieve anything as a self-taught artist that a trained artist could achieve. In fact, formal art training can be restrictive to the learning of some artists, who may be better suited to the self-taught path.

The Benefit of Art Education

In a study conducted by Artnet, only about 12% of the 500 most successful American artists were self-taught, while others had bachelor and masters degrees from various art schools. Prominent college art programs, usually offer a variety of perks for their students.

Firstly, Let's talk about pros and cons of taking up art as a hobby. The best part of pursuing any hobby is that it requires no formal degree. You have the liberty to enjoy art with no performance pressure. You can go at your phase with minimum guidance or monitoring from a tutor.

Artists are both born and taught, says Nancy Locke, associate professor of art history at Penn State. "There is no question in my mind that artists are born," says Locke. Many artists arrive in the world brimming with passion and natural creativity and become artists after trying other vocations.

The advantage of a self-taught artistic career is that it essentially throws the artist into the deep end right away. While this can seem overwhelming at first, many artists find that simply putting themselves and their work out into the public eye can help to improve their craft and expand their resumes.

Why is it important to be self-taught?

Self-learning enables you to learn what you want when you want, and how you want. You drive the learning process and this tends to be more effective that instructional learning.

Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds.

Even if you believe you have no talent, anyone can learn to be an artist with the right training, tools, and passion. While becoming an artist will likely take more work than for someone who has a natural talent as an artist, art is like any skill that can be learned and improved upon.

Drawing is a skill and like with any other skill, you can't expect to get better without practicing it. So many people think that drawing is just something that some people can do and others can't. This simply is not true. Anyone can draw, but you have to want it enough to practice it.

While there are no formal education requirements for artists, entering an undergraduate degree program might be one way to develop your skills. If you're a seasoned artist with a bachelor's degree, you might consider a graduate program to gain skills for an arts-related career.

It takes 2 years of professional experience to become an artist. That is the time it takes to learn specific artist skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 5 to 7 years years to become an artist.

Only ten percent of art school graduates make a living from their artwork.

NAïVE ART. This term refers to untrained artists who depict largely realistic scenes, often in skilled detail, with people, animals, and other aspects of the observed world, sometimes combined with fantasy images.

Giving a clear answer to the question, whether artistic people are more intelligent in any way than others is difficult. Nevertheless, yes, creative people who make art in any way imaginable are very likely to be more intelligent than others but yet mainly outside the regular IQ.

What should I learn first as an artist?

An essential skill to learn as a beginning artist, whether drawing or painting, is perspective. If you want to achieve three-dimensional art, knowing perspective is key, including how to find the horizon line, determine the vanishing point and an overview of linear perspective.

Artists are often isolated, because they don't know any other artists. For some of us, the only chance we have to socialise with others who do things that are similar to us is the internet. And even there, you have to be part of a group or a “clique” sometimes to be accepted.

Everyone is capable of making art, everyone is capable of expressing their innate creativity in some way, but the practice of actually being an artist is work, it is labor, it is a practice of making that requires intentionality, skill and craft.

It is never too late to start again with a new beginning or to reinvent yourself. Monet didn't start seriously painting until his wife died in his 40's. Folk artist Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was in her 70's. Georgia O'Keeffe famously painted throughout the later years of her life.

Your artistic skills might be as heritable as your eye color

Based on all available information, it is very likely that the capacity for creativity is shaped by genetic influences –– it's a complicated way of saying that creativity and artistic interests can almost certainly be inherited.”

In much of the world today, an artist is considered to be a person with the talent and the skills to conceptualize and make creative works. Such persons are singled out and prized for their artistic and original ideas.

In short, the essential qualities that create art are intrinsic to the person, and not learned. Skills that can be learned, however, play an important role in the creation of art. The better the artist knows his skills, and the more options he has at his disposal, the more satisfactory the end result is likely to be.

Self-learning does take a lot of discipline and can be difficult at first, but like any endeavor, with time it becomes easier. Self-study, when done correctly, is a very effective learning tool, so it can be helpful when used to prepare for a test or learn an entirely new subject matter on your own.

autodidact. / (ˈɔːtəʊˌdaɪdækt) / noun. a person who is self-taught.

People who are self-taught generally have a number of things in common: they possess the ability to learn new things; they're disciplined; and they know how to manage their time. These soft skills are oftentimes just as important to employers as technical skills, so be sure to list them on your résumé.

Can I call myself a professional artist?

There is no mention if qualifications, how much money you make or the years of experience you have. It's quite acceptable to call yourself an artist even if you don't make a living, or trained.

Trained Artist. A self-taught artist is generally someone who has taken a different career path in life than anyone who has pursued art as a career from an early age. A trained artist may have gone to college to study fine arts, or worked as an apprentice for an established artist.

You're Not Allowing Yourself to Play

If you're approaching your art too rigidly or without an element of “fun”, then you're likely to get frustrated and eventually quit over time. You're also likely not to find much improvement in your work because you're looking at it too closely.

Drawing is a skill. As a species that needs to be taught everything, we should not expect to suddenly create a masterpiece one day. I do admit there are some who could paint with much more ease than others. On the other hand, one would not expect to drive a car based on talent.

Art is both a talent and also something that you can learn.

There are people who can do art very well without going to school, and that's what we can say it is a talent on the other hand there are schools that teach art in which you can develop great skills by learning.

If you make art, you are an artist. It's not dictated by financial success or professional success. But if you don't make art, then you aren't an artist anymore.

An artistic personality type uses their hands and mind to create new things. They appreciate beauty, unstructured activities and variety. They enjoy interesting and unusual people, sights, textures and sounds. These individuals prefer to work in unstructured situations and use their creativity and imagination.

Creative geniuses have mastered the ability to combine their divergent and convergent thinking skills to continually produce innovative and novel ideas. A true creative genius is marked not only by their critical thinking skills but also by their ability to ideate and create.

Drawing well is a matter of developing your observational abilities, techniques, and self-assessment abilities. The basis to drawing well is making the firm commitment to the long-haul of it. You can get VERY good in two years with a clear path, excellent resources, and consistent work on the daily.

It's possible to see improvements by drawing only 1-2 hours per day. But if you want to see significant improvements you should be aiming for 5-6 hours per day, or more if possible. Starting anywhere is better than never starting.

Can you learn to draw just by copying?

Copying is a great way to put the creative strain aside and simply draw. If you draw every day, you can improve your drawing skills. Copying can just be one of the many techniques you try in your regular drawing routine.

Successful Artists Without Degrees

There are many famous self-taught artists who changed the art world. They didn't go to art school, but achieved great things. Van Gogh was almost entirely self-taught. And Frida Kahlo didn't have any formal training at all.

Artists are both born and taught, says Nancy Locke, associate professor of art history at Penn State. "There is no question in my mind that artists are born," says Locke. Many artists arrive in the world brimming with passion and natural creativity and become artists after trying other vocations.

Since they are very much in the public eye, people may not necessarily expect that they may be introverts. But introverts often have rich inner worlds and are especially creative – and some introverts can actually thrive on performing and being on stage.