What Defines a Good Artist?

"Good artists are the crappy artists who never gave up." *frzdragon

That quote is very true. Being an artist, it does not matter what skill level you are at. It does not matter how many page views or watchers you have here on deviant ART. Art is not a popularity contest that defines your skill. It DOES matter, however, one thing.
That you never give up.

Not to use corny pop music in relation to this or an internet phenomenon, but literally promise your art and supporters (now matter how little or how great the amount should be) what I do.

I am:

“NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP! NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN!”

I know, laugh at me. This song is actually inspiring to some people. Shocker of all shockers, am I correct? Thank you, to Rick Astley.

Well, I want to tell you one thing. We all start out small. We all start out being crappy/horrible artists but move our way up. I am a fine example of this. I started out very, very small, on another account that is no longer in use. No page views, no watchers. Horribly proportioned art as well, but I had one thing.

Inspiration! It’s one thing we all need~ I inspire many small artist by watching their accounts and giving them attention (explaining my high watch list count if you’ve ever looked at my gallery stats). Many people inspired me to slowly get my way up the ladder of popularity. =mukkuru, one of my dearest friends online, was my first inspiration to grow as an artist. ~Asaryn, another amazing artist, she aided me in learning human proportions.

We all start out small, as I said. =Lavender-Ice began small. ~ChankoNabe began small. =mukkuru began small. Every single popular artist began small. These ones are just off the top of my mind.

I want you to know, that just as long as you don’t give up, you’re one of the best artists in the world. We don’t need to be the next Leonardo da Vinci to be a good artist.


Also, being a good artist means to create your own art. Art is a product of CREATIVITY. Not just tracing an anime screenshot, etc. Not to crack at you guys who trace, but don’t flaunt it around to the dA community like you did it yourself. It’s OKAY to trace as practice, but not as art, UNLESS you are doing Pop
Art.

Do we understand?

Being a good artist, it means that you keep trying, no matter what; it means that you create your own art. It means that you, truthfully, can believe in yourself.


I have written this for inspiration, for those who have none and desperately need it.

Thank you very much for reading!
-Cass
~despaired-rainbow


_{PS: Feel free to link to this! I'd be honored! And special thanks to *frzdragon for allowing me to use that quote!}