Artist Strong Blog
Enjoy interviews and articles about creative process and our inherent creative spirit.
How to Understand Your Creative Confidence (and Why It Matters for Your Art)
Feeling Stuck in Your Art? Use the Creative Confidence Meter to Get Unstuck Today If you’ve ever sat down to create and thought… “Where did my confidence go?” “Why can’t I bring the ideas in my head onto paper?” “Am I even an artist?” …you’re not alone. Every artist...
What Does It Mean to Be an Artist? Redefining Creativity for Yourself
What Does It Mean to Be an Artist? “Am I really an artist?” If you’ve ever wondered whether you can call yourself an artist, you’re not alone. It’s a question I hear all the time, and honestly, one I’ve asked myself more than once. Maybe you’ve taken a few classes but...
“Real Artists Don’t Use References?” Let’s Talk About That.
A consistent theme I’ve seen, wherever I’ve lived, from Dubai to Ottawa to Houston, is that artists are the worst at policing one another. We constantly bully and belittle peers for doing it “the wrong way.” From assuming abstract art is easy, to dismissing digital...
The New Era of Patronage: The New Renaissance of Art
In art history, “patronage” meant something very specific: powerful individuals, families, religious institutions, or states commissioning works of art and architecture, funding artists, and thereby shaping culture. Think of the Medici family in Florence, or the...
Style Study Session: J.M.W. Turner
How to Study an Artist’s Style How do you study an art style? How do you learn a specific art style? How do you analyze art styles? How do you find your own unique style? In this Style Study Session, we’ll use the six qualities of style to better understand J.M.W....
How to Get Better at Drawing in 5 Steps
When I paint regularly, I find myself walking through the world a little differently. I’ll catch myself muttering the paint colors I’d need to mix to match the deep green of a pine tree or the soft gray of a rainy sky. Sometimes, while waiting in line at the store, I...
🎨 Propaganda I Don’t Fall For Anymore (Artist Edition)
12 Lies Artists Are Told, And the Truth That Sets Us Free For many artists, the journey can feel like swimming upstream. Whether it’s gatekeeping in the art world, internalized self-doubt, or outdated myths about what it means to be “legit,” the noise is loud. But...
The world’s on fire… why should I make art?!
At the time of this writing, there are so many crises in the world that we share a responsibility to address, from famine in Gaza, Mali, and Sudan, to political strife and climate emergencies. And so often, this makes creatives feel like they shouldn’t make any art at...
Are You a “Too-Many-Online-Courses” Artist?
Are You Taking Too Many Online Art Courses? (And How to Actually Learn From Them) We’ve all been there: the thrill of clicking “buy now” on a new course, the promise of fresh skills, the dream of finally unlocking our creative potential. And yet… many of those courses...