Select Page

This is my first post in this category, so I thought I would give a little introduction.

I desperately want to improve my artwork. I want to rival the artists whom I look up to, with the ultimate goal of completely illustrating my own webcomic (and making it look awesome).

This desire is what inspired me to create this website. Artprompts.org started out as a personal tool, one that was only for myself to force me to draw things out of my comfort zone. I soon realized that it would be a cool thing to share though, and it blossomed from there. Unfortunately, this meant that I threw all of my spare time into making a website for like-minded people to use, instead of actually drawing!

 

A new, lofty goal!

I made a post in The #1 most important tip to getting better at drawing where I write about the “10,000 hours rule.” Basically, there is no such thing as “natural talent.” Just like being an athlete, becoming a good artist takes a lot of deliberate practice. That’s it.  Now, 10,000 hours is supposed to be the minimum amount of hours to become an expert at something, as in one of the best in the world. That is a lot of time. If you were to practice at something for three hours a day, it would still take nine years to get to that “expert” skill level.

That being said, I am starting a 5,000 hours goal. Why? Because I’m not starting from the ground up because I have a bit of a foundation. Plus I don’t necessarily want to become a world-class “expert”, I just want to be good. Good enough to look at a drawing and not totally hate it.

I made a page to track my goal, and that fancy sucker has a bar graph.

 

What I strive to achieve

Now take a look at this following image grid. This is just a tiny selection of some of my favorite images from my favorite artists, artists who I look up to and want to emulate. The characters are beautifully stylized, the colors are vibrant, and the environments are wonderfully done and well-lit.

 

 

My skill level now

Erm… here is the skill level I am starting out with. I’m not terrible, but I can’t say that I’m any good either. Not compared to my idols. And I am certainly not so great with coloring… I have a lot of work to do : )

 

 

Join me!

Like I mentioned above, I originally started this website as a tool only for myself, but it has grown into something much more than that. Now I want to bring resources and information to those who have similar goals and aspirations as myself. That being said, I challenge everyone to create their own 5,000 hour challenge, because after all…

Vladimir Horowitz quote

 

Yes, lots of work to do. I am determined to hit that 5,000 hours goal, though. Feel free to follow along, and please share with me if you are doing a similar challenge! I’ll keep posts that are related to my person work in their own category called “My Work”, and I’ll try to update that weekly as well as update my hour tracker and bar graph!