One thing I've learned about art after 8 years of daily paintings

I’ve been painting (almost) every day for 8 years now.

I used to draw mindlessly, maybe find a fictional couple I wanted to draw, maybe just paint a portrait of a character.

Those portraits were rarely well-received online.

No hate – just plain indifference.

The couple’s art, though… I’d get so much attention from it!

In hindsight, it’s easy to identify the pattern. But even though I painted every day, it took me a few years to understand why some paintings built connections with other people while others fell into oblivion.

It is the most important part of any artwork:

Emotion.

When our art inspires an emotion within the audience, it’ll be marked in their hearts.

If your painting doesn’t make the viewer feel something, it’s the same as not existing. They’ll look at it for 1.5 seconds, maybe double tap the image, scroll away, and it’s over. They’ll never think of it again.

That’s not what we want! We want them to remember the art, to remember us. You need to focus on emotions for that.

There are many ways you can evoke an emotion with visual arts. Here are a few of them:

·         Fan art – they’ll love it because they already love that character

·         Stunning art – they’ll feel inspired or amazed

·         Meaningful storytelling - they’ll feel whatever you want them to feel

My portraits weren’t ignored for any special reason – they were just plain boring. Similarly, my couple’s fan arts weren’t loved for being incredibly awesome – I was just tapping into pre-existing love for a ship.

And there’s nothing wrong with tapping into your audience’s love for their favorite shows! It’s why many artists choose to start building their fanbase with fan art.

But even when you make fan art, try to stir some emotion with it. Maybe you can redesign a character, or design how a fusion of two characters would look, or draw them doing something interesting.

The goal here is to maximize the emotions you can make your audience feel!

I still draw lots of fanart even to this day (mainly because it’s fun for me, but it doesn’t hurt that it helps build a connection with my followers.)

But nowadays I notice that when I create my personal art with my original characters, I get a lot more reaction than before – mainly because the art is technically good and inspires others.

If you want to inspire awe with your painting, join the priority list for my new program, The Color Master. You’ll receive updates and an exclusive offer when it launches!

But before we end today’s message, I have a practical exercise for you.

Here’s what I want you to do in your next painting:

Before even starting to draw, consider: how can I provoke emotion with this painting?

I bet your art will perform much better then.

Focus on creating meaningful art that evokes emotion in your audience. They won’t forget you!