Discover the Top 8 Worst Art Advice. Ever. Uncover the art world’s biggest mistakes!

All right, so I was feeling a little bit curious and I asked you guys on Instagram what are some of the worst pieces of art advice that you’ve ever gotten. So, I went through the list of people’s responses and there were a few that kept showing up. I was like, you know what, I’m gonna share that with you guys today. So, if you are a new artist, these are some pretty questionable pieces of advice that you might want to look out for. Let’s go, lord have mercy on my soul.

Number one is people saying not to use references or somehow if you use references, that piece is not original. Boy, please. I’m gonna put some of these responses up on the screen so that you guys can see what I’m talking about. But we got things like “you need to draw from memory, if you use references you’re not a creative person”. This is not true. Having a reference means you have something to base your drawing off of so you’re not going completely in the dark and trying to figure out how things are supposed to look. When you’re drawing, doesn’t matter if it’s anime, doesn’t matter if it’s hyper-realism, your art is based on real life. Unless you’re one of those people who just splatter paint on a canvas and give it meaning and call it abstract, but I’m not addressing you guys today. Look at these stylized pieces, okay? It doesn’t matter how far you push things, they’re always based on real life. Studying from a reference means studying from real life. That’s why I have this skull here, so that I know how a human head is supposed to look when I’m trying to draw a human head. I don’t know who started this trend of saying if you use a reference, it’s not original or to only draw from your imagination. Because if you use a reference, that’s copying something else. I don’t know who started that, but that’s got to stop. If you look at the works of some of the old masters, a lot of them used references and some of them straight up just drew a portrait of a person sitting in front of them. You don’t see them accusing each other of not being original. Come on now, there should be no shame involved in using references in your art, okay? I’m gonna make it my life’s mission to tell the kids that references are okay. I don’t know who started this thing, but if you’re out there, I’m gonna come find you and I’m gonna destroy you. Listen, even if you do see an artist who’s drawing straight from imagination without any references and you’re like, “That’s amazing”, do you think they were just born with that skill? No, they have to practice using references. Bad advice number one, references are fine, use references, learn from your references, God.

Bad advice number two is people saying art is not a real job. Who gave you that idea? Look at this, “quit drawing because it doesn’t make money”, “art is not going to pay the bills”, “you don’t make a living with drawings”. I mean, excuse me, there are literally so many ways you could use art in a career. You could be a storyboard artist, you could be a concept artist, you could be an animator, you could even be in graphic design. You could try to be like me, but I don’t know why you would want to do that. I think just by looking on Instagram and some of the artists who inspire you, you could look into their careers, what they’re doing. There are so many possibilities with art as a career, so I think this is just a really outdated opinion based on what’s valued in our school systems, you know, the sciences, the maths, and becoming a doctor or a lawyer. But you know what, if you want to pursue an artist’s career, it’s a very valid career. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Well, let me tell you, these boomers don’t want us to have good things.

Number three, and this one also really annoys me, that is the idea that you need talent in order to draw. This is just so sad to me. But like, read these responses. They said, “you need talent to draw”, “if you’re not talented in art, don’t pursue it”. Drawing is about talent, so quit because I wasn’t good enough. Teacher told me to once quit drawing because she believed I had no talent. Every single one of these points is something that we can make a whole video on. But I think talent is just one of those things that gets tied with art a little bit too much sometimes. I find myself using the word talent when I’m trying to describe somebody who’s really good. But I honestly think a better way to think about it is skill. People who have talent might pick up the skill of drawing a little bit faster than somebody who doesn’t have talent, but that literally does not mean the person without talent can never get as good as a person with talent. The people out there who you see who are absolutely amazing at what they do today, they had to put in thousands and thousands of hours of work to get to where they are. It’s not like they were just born with this thing so everything just came super easy to them. No, talent is only a tiny fraction of the equation. The most important part is your hard work, your dedication, and how much you want to get better, how much you want to improve. And also this last one, what is going on here? How could an art teacher tell somebody to quit drawing because they don’t have talent? Bro, like isn’t it your job to teach the kids how to do this thing? I mean, if you as a teacher think somebody should just give up on drawing, I think that reflects more on you. That says so much more about you as the teacher than it does about the student. Next time somebody tries to tell you that you need to be talented in order to draw, ignore it, move on, keep working towards your goals, you got this. We are making good progress here. Let’s get on to number four.

This one, oh boy, number four is people saying what you do is not real art. Let’s look at some of these, okay? The most common one that I see all the time, and I’ve heard this one personally before many times, and that is anime isn’t real art. Look at this, “don’t draw anime, stop drawing anime”, the classic don’t draw anime stuff. And then there’s stuff like art teachers saying “only realistic art is real art, real artists don’t use erasers”. I mean, come on, who are you to say what’s real art and what’s not? Come on. I mean, people all have their own opinions, right? You could say, “I don’t really like the anime style, so that’s not really my cup of tea.” But to go as far as to say that’s not real art is such a stretch, because to be able to simplify to the level of anime artists, you need so much skill, and that comes with so much time, so much dedication, so much practice. I mean, come on, who’s to say anime is not art, but Marcel Duchamp’s urinal in a museum is art. It’s also arbitrary, and people trying to tell you that this is not real art, that is real art, this is real art, that is not real art, they’re just trying to gatekeep, honestly. What they have to say should be taken with a massive grain of salt. If you’re in a conversation with somebody and they’re trying to tell you what’s real art and what’s not, run in the other direction.

Number five is kind of funny. I see a lot of people really worked up about this, and that is people telling them to just practice. Look, I get where they’re coming from, practice does make you better. But if you’re talking to a teacher, an instructor, they should probably provide you with a little bit more detail on exactly what you need to do. For example, they could say, “You need to practice your gesture drawing to get more comfortable with your poses”, or “you need to practice your anatomy a little bit, do some studies of the human figure in order to make your characters look a little bit more believable.” Specific things like that coming from an instructor, that’s what helps a little art baby grow. But stuff like just practice, just draw a lot, practice every single day, that doesn’t really help people that much. You guys should use your practice time wisely, target your weaknesses, work on things that give you a lot of trouble, face your fears and face your responsibilities. Bad art advice number six. This one’s a little bit more technical, and that is people telling other people to shade with black. Don’t you ever shade with black, listen to me. Okay, look. Only when there’s no light at all do you get pitch black. Literally just look at me right now. Look at this side of my face that’s in light, this side is in shadow. Is that black? No, that’s more of a, you know what I mean. Okay, don’t use black in your shadows, try to find the color of the shadow and harmonize it with the color of the light. Shadow and light is the play of colors, it’s not adding black to something to make it darker. If you’ve been doing that, no shame, that’s a very common rookie mistake. Just stop it, okay?

Number seven is a little bit more broad. But I saw a lot of responses from people saying that other people were telling them not to draw this, not to draw that, to stop drawing this and draw more of that. I think some of the ones that I saw were like stop drawing cartoons, stop drawing bright colors, stop drawing girls, stop drawing guys. If there’s anything that I don’t believe in, it’s telling people what to draw. If somebody’s drawing for fun, for themselves, let them draw whatever they want. Drawing is something you should have fun with, it should be something you’re interested in, and the subject of what you’re drawing should not be gate kept by other people saying you should be drawing this instead. Now there are certain cases where you should be told what to draw and what not to draw. For example, in a school assignment, maybe a teacher wants to see a specific thing from you. In that case, they can tell you what to draw and what not to draw. Maybe when you’re putting together a portfolio for a school or for a job, there are certain things that they’re looking for, and those are the things that you should be drawing. But dude, if you’re just drawing for yourself, draw whatever you want. Don’t let anybody tell you to stop, do your thing.

And that brings me on to number eight. This one’s my favorite. We’re gonna end on a high note. Number eight, bad art advice is people saying digital art is not real art. Look at these responses. My art teacher said digital art is not real art. Digital art is not real art. Digital art is not art. Draw on paper. Digital art is fake. Digital art is not art. So stick to traditional. Digital art is no art. I think with the way that technology is growing and expanding, digital art is going to become more and more popular amongst the newer generations. And I feel like saying digital art is not art is just like the older generation trying to tell us to stick to traditional. They don’t want to see the change. Dude, we’re sorry, but this is just the way things are moving. Being able to undo something, set it on a new layer, being able to liquefy something like this is unheard of. Not having to mix the paint, not having to clean our brushes makes our life so much easier. And I’ve done traditional and digital. I’ve done watercolor, graphite, oil paint, acrylic, all that. And I have a lot of love for both mediums. But saying digital art is not real art or digital art is fake, it’s cheating, whatever, it’s just a really outdated kind of thinking that I’m sure a lot of older art teachers are still trying to preach to the younger generation. And if you’re an art baby and you hear people saying that, let that go in one ear and out the other. Just don’t hang on to it. Digital art is as valid a medium as watercolor, as acrylic, as oil paint, as gouache. This is again just people trying to keep the art community or people just not embracing the change. If you are a traditional artist, I recommend you try digital art at least once just to see how hard it actually is. The computer doesn’t do everything for you anyway. So, those are eight of the worst pieces of art advice according to me and my community. If you guys have any more bad pieces of art advice to add to this list, leave them in the comments and let me know.

So, I just want to put this out there to potentially clear up some of these bad pieces of advice for people and let people know what are some of the things to look out for when they’re talking to people about art. And if you’re an art baby and you’ve been following any of these pieces of bad art advice, time to reconsider what you’re doing. Okay, I hope this video has been helpful for you guys. If you want to see more content like this, feel free to subscribe to my channel. And with that being said, I’ll see you in the next video. Very nice. You know what’s coming up next though, guys. We got a roast video. So put your work in #SamRoastMe9 and I will destroy you in our next YouTube video. Yeah, in Ethan Becker’s words, don’t you ever listen to people who tell you these pieces of advice. Yeah. Okay, guys, so I went to Mexico and I saw the Mayan pyramids, the Chichen Itza, and I got a little souvenir from there. Look at this. It’s like a little shot glass, but it’s a skull. How fitting. I’ll be taking shots out of the skulls of my enemies.