7 Simple, Practical Tips to Becoming a Better Artist

Do you perhaps set special resolutions at the beginning of each new year? Even if you don’t, read this post for tips on becoming a better artist. Something might stick? Although Andrew uses Blender, there are definitely valid points that apply to any 3D user.

7 Simple, Practical Tips to Becoming a Better Artist

by Andrew Price for Blenderguru.com

1. Produce one finished render each week

If I could jump back in time machine to my skinny-framed 14-year old self, I would give him this one tip: create one finished render each week.

Why? Because when you come at blender with the flipent approach of ‘There’s no rush, I can stop whenever I like’, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Think about it: If your school teacher told you that you could hand in your assignment “whenever”, do you honestly think you ever would? Chances are you just wouldn’t get around to it. Why would you go through the pain of completing that boring assignment when Call of Duty provides instant gratification? When you have no deadline you become lazy.

Deadlines are what drives society to finish projects.

Did you know that when tradesmen are hired to construct a building they have strict deadlines for which the project needs to be finished by? I once heard of an insulation company having to pay fines of $80,000 per day until they could finish the skyscaper they were working on. They overshot their deadline and had to pay the (very hefty) price.

I know that you’re probably just using Blender as late night hobby, but it’s worth at least entertaining the idea of setting yourself a goal. My recommendation would be to set yourself the goal of creating one finished render in 7 days. This imaginary deadline ensures that you stay on track and don’t get distracted by Facebook or other time wasters. The rule is that on day 7 you must stop working on it, regardless of how bad it is and upload it to a forum and start another project. Repeat this process every week and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you grow as an artist.

Funnily enough, I recently discovered that director Sam Raimi has the exact same advice to aspiring film makers.

2. Recreate photographs

One of the biggest questions a lot of 3d artists have is, “Why does my scene look so fake?” Well if you create a scene based entirely off a photograph then you won’t have this problem, as you can compare your scene with the reference photograph.

When you set out to replicate a photograph you start to notice new details in the photo that you had never seen before. The bounce lighting, the glare, the depth of field, the subtle reflections, all of these things are essential to making the scene believable, but you wouldn’t have noticed them without carefully studying the photo.

Now I know what you’re thinking… [read more]