Top Ten Mistakes HS Artists Make: A Reflection

There I was. It was the last day of the school year and I was sitting in bed. I had no exams that day (*angels sing in the distance*) and so I spent most of my morning watching YouTube videos and Anime, with the rest of my time on Tumblr. As I was in my browsing position, scrolling down my feed, I realized that I needed to get myself out of this lazy day and be productive, because this would turn out to be my entire summer.  So, about two hours later, I did. Please don't judge me for the sad life that I live; let's just applaud the fact that I did get out of bed. ....I guess that says a lot about me.

Anyway, here I am being productive. 

I decided to tackle the beginning of my AP Art war, I mean, AP Art Journey. The moment I saw the title of the article we were supposed to read, 10 Mistakes High School Artists Make, I knew that I would fall into all of the categories. After reading it, well, I fall into at least six of them. Jokes aside, the article was able to shine some light on mistakes that I have seen people make in past art classes. Things like taking too long to begin (which I happen to do sometimes; I might as well be the Dutchess of Procrastination) and producing simple and cheesy artwork (which I try not to do) are very common. Many people paint a sunset over a beach and bam, they're done with their piece. I, on the other hand, hope to create something that is unique and makes people think, not always in a "deep and artistic" way, but also in terms of "what in the love of goat's cheese is that" kind of way. Um, let's just forget about the goat's cheese part and move on...

The article also encouraged me to develop my ideas more. I have loads of ideas in my head, but it's important that I (throughout the course of the summer and school year) build off of these ideas and create composure and cohesiveness with them. This then becomes one of my main goals as an artist, especially since this is very important when creating a portfolio. 

Other mistakes like taking too long on artist statements or going off of second hand sources don't affect me too much. I do follow many artists on Instagram and Tumblr, which really do influence my art style and inspiration, but I don't copy them or take their style as mine. I also do my annotations last, so it reflects what I have created, not the other way around. 

Also, the article mentioned "aesthetic pleasure", and well, my life revolves around those two words, especially in art. I want for everything to be pleasing to the eye and I want for my work to look nice. Just nice. Because of this, some people may say I'm a perfectionist or tend to start over a lot, but that's beside the point. My artwork may not be a lot of things, but it is and will be aesthetically pleasing. 

And so, these mistakes that were listed in the article do affect me since I am an artist who is in high school. Throughout this journey, which is about to end very soon (oh god), I hope to not fall into these mistakes as I might have in the past. I hope to grow immensely in terms of technique, creativity, and just holistically as an artist. 

At the end of the day, all I want is for my artwork to not be a flop. But, I mean, there's no guarantee of that. It could all literally burst out in flames and become a mess like my life. 

Ha.. ha.. okay, bye.