Be Still and Know

Being a self-taught artist I value the helpful sites I find online.  I thought I’d share two of the sites that have helped push my own art past boundaries that I didn’t think were possible to reach.  And, although I’m still a beginner, I have better focus on what to do with my studies.

The first site is http://www.conceptart.org/forums/  There is just so much information in that forum, and tons of professionals giving tips.  There is a sketchbook area, a critique area, a mentoring area, and you can even get your portfolios reviewed.  I don’t have a portfolio yet, but I learn just from reading the critiques.  Sometimes it seems a little intimidating at first, but seriously, you will learn if you apply some of the advice.  If you are an artist that would like to improve, you should be able to find more than enough information on this site.

The second is http://www.artphotofilm.com/forum/  This site is a smaller art forum.  There are only a few of us that regularly participate.  But, sometimes it is nice to have that one on one critique.  This is definitely a great site for the beginner artist that has had no schooling.  There is a step by step art course designed to help learn the basics eventually leading up to learning anatomy.  A professional artist that runs the site mentors you throughout the course. 

I started working on the course off and on about two years ago, and if you were to look at all of my work over the last four years, you would see an obvious jump in improvement around the time I began the course.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to learn the foundations of art, and that happens to be what most self-taught artists miss.  If you are interested, here is a link to the art course area on the forum, http://www.artphotofilm.com/forum/index.php?/topic/46-art-course-getting-started-directory-and-about/ 

Anyway, I thought I’d share, and hopefully some of you will find these sites useful.