Hey, Hey!

Today I wanted to break down 3 of the most common MYTHS surrounding artist that I hear ALL of the time.

Before figuring this out, the artists’ paths seemed to be an uncertain one.

And to be honest, realizing that these 3 concepts are WRONG helped me a lot with many of my artistic doubts!

I hope you will find them useful as well.

Myth #1. You need to be born with a drawing talent.

So, we hear this story over and over again: “I was drawing since I could hold a pencil. I guess I was just born with the talent!”

Well, not so fast!

This myth really gets many awesome people to give up trying.

If that’s something that crossed your mind – STOP!!

There are MANY talented artists who started learning at a very LATE AGE and are successful now.

And guess what people call them? Talented.

But when they first began drawing their art SUCKED. They just kept pushing and improving their skills!

I am one of these cases.

Since a very young age, I wanted to be a signer or an actor. And then in Grade 10 (!!) I had an awesome art teacher that shared with me this beautiful experience of making images – creating Art.

Since then, I kept practicing every day and getting better. I still am!

And, to my surprise, many of my classmates at Art University shared with me that they also discovered their passion for art in a later age (some at 20+ years old, and one of them began drawing at the age of 28).

So, I firmly believe that “you need to be born with a drawing talent to be successful” is a MYTH.

All you need is the 4 components I talk about all of the time – Motivation, Inspiration, Knowledge and PRACTICE (M.I.K.P. for short).

At the end of the day – you don’t NEED to go to school to become a successful artist.

All you need is motivation, inspiration, knowledge and PRACTICE.

And I will do my best to provide you with the first 3 components you need for success.

After all, I went to an art university – so you don’t have to.

(Unless you want to network, then by all means it’s the best to mingle.)

• Related Article: Is Art School Worth It? Should I go? 2 Biggest Myths Covered

Myth #2. You can’t make money with Art

When a beginner artist keeps hearing this from many people (including family) do you think they are motivated to succeed?

No!

They will be more likely to just fail because that’s what everybody predicted anyway.

I hope you never take these words to heart, as there are MANY successful artists out there who make over $100,000+ / year.

For example, one of my professors was kind enough to share that she made over $150,000+ this year with her job as an Illustrator.

PLUS she is a professor, so she gets paid for that – and that amount wasn’t disclosed or calculated to the previous amount.

Meaning, she earns over $200,000+ a year.

Also, on payscale.com the average annual salary (in U.S) for Illustrator is currently $45K, for Fine Artists it’s $46K, for Concept artist it’s $54K and the list keeps going!

Who else wants to tell me that artists can’t make money?

• Related Article: I have an article you might want to check out, “6+ Ways To Make Money Online As An Artist“

Myth #3. Digital Art is CHEAP Art and you can’t do much with it.

Well, that one I hear quite a lot. And it SUCKS. It really does because I honestly consider myself a digital artist.

And when people ask me, ” So what’s your profession?”

And I reply with “I’m an Illustrator“.

They don’t seem to get it looking at me with confusing looks waiting for a further explanation…

Then, I say, “I’m a digital artist“.

That’s when their looks go from being confused to somehow feeling sorry for me??

I never got that, but honestly, I decided to embrace people’s understanding of digital art.

Then they would tell me something along the lines of “I understand how people make money with ‘REAL’ paintings. Those cost thousands! How are you planning to make money? By selling your fan art prints online for $5?” and they giggle.

In some cases, I take the time to go on and explain to them that digital art is much more than selling fan-art prints! And this explanation would take me HOURS!!!

I would explain to them that it’s not even about selling prints. Moreover, that if I were doing that – each print is like an original “real”, as they called it, art.

Digital artists are people who create concepts for movies, books, games.

They paint their own worlds, create stunning character designs.

Digital artists are people who work for:

• Editorial (magazines, newspapers, journals)
• Create art for educational, mainstream and kids/adults books
• Work in graphic design and advertising creating logos, websites, design packagings
• Create storyboards for animations, advertisements, movies
• Write graphic novels, comic books
• Work in gaming as background or character designers
• Create art for posters, CD’s and merchandise
• And this list could go on and on and on if I wanted to!

These just scratch the surface of all of the possibilities digital artists have in front of them.

Would you like to know WHY I am so sure of it?

Because I go to different seminars and meet people who ACTUALLY work in all of these fields by “just using their tablets”.

So yes, it’s a MYTH.

A sad one.

And only we, digital artists, can bring some light to this profession to help more and more people realize what digital art is all about.

On that note, I wanted to also briefly mention that I spent over a year trying to learn the Ins and Outs of Procreate App on my iPad.

AND I spend over 5 years practicing digital art every day.

So, I know how much work it is. And I know that digital artists need to be appreciated A LOT MORE than we are now.

Do you also want to learn the Ins and Outs of Procreate and become a Master at it?

You know what I’m going to say.

My “Master Procreate App For Beginners” course has all you need to get started and even more with all of the additional bonuses that are included in it.

So, check it out of you haven’t already: courses.yourartpath.com

I hope I gave you some thoughts to “chew on”, and that you feel a bit more motivated to continue on your path to success!

What are some other common ideas that stop you from giving it your all to art?

Maybe they are myths too?

Talk soon,

-Anna