Perhaps you are an artist or you’re simply curious to know what are common mistakes artists make? Here below is a list of 10 mistakes all beginning artists make to help you avoid them. Therefore, you can know what they are, find a way to avoid them, and if you make those mistakes yourself, know that you are not alone in making common drawing mistakes.
Do professional artists make mistakes?
Before saying and enumerating the common mistakes that beginners make, let’s first talk about professional artists. Do they make mistakes?
The answer is yes, professionals are still human beings and human beings make mistakes from time to time. However, the big difference between a beginner artist’s mistakes and a professional artist’s mistakes is that a professional knows how “to hide them”. They will draw pretty impressive drawings that are easy for them to draw while avoiding drawing things that they know they have trouble drawing, especially in front of people.
How do artists identify mistakes?
There is no doubt that artists have a certain talent that is learned and mastered over time. And to be a great artist, the learning and improving part is really important. To do so, what they need to do is to identify the mistakes
They are multiple ways to know when you did some drawing mistakes and there are some ways to identify them so that you can make your drawing still look good as if you’ve made no mistake at all in the first place and those are…– More
10 Mistakes All Beginning Artists Make (Do You Make Them Too in 2024?)
1- Drawing with not the right proportions
This is definitely one of the most common mistakes beginners make when they start learning to draw.
It is called drawing out of proportion when, for example, someone has drawn a body and the head is bigger than the body, or if, for example, the arms are longer than the legs, etc.
Drawing out of proportion is certainly a common drawing mistake.
2- Applying too much pressure on the pencil
When a professional draws he takes his time and draws slowly. As he does so, he may add detail by making his drawing darker in some areas. A beginner, however, without noticing it, draws thick lines by pressing hard on his pencil instead of drawing softly. This is a very common mistake that beginning artists make.
3- Not having the right materials or using too many
This applies mostly to people who draw digitally. Most of the time, the problem is that they don’t know which brush to use and sometimes even use too many. This is a mistake made by a lot of people.
When it comes to traditional drawing, a beginning artist may not have the right “materials” meaning, they may draw with a 3B pencil which is too dark, especially if that person makes also the “number 2 mistake” mentioned above.
4- Not drawing anything because of art block
This is a very common mistake artists make (beginners and professionals): To not draw anything because of art block.
First of all, let’s start by explaining quickly what art block is. It’s basically when your creativity gets blocked, and you aren’t able to make a new artwork that you’re satisfied with. This tends to discourage artists from stopping. To not draw anything at all because of art block which is a big. BIG. MISTAKE!
There are some ways to get out of art block and therefore avoid the mistake of stopping to draw which are… – More.
5- Comparing your artwork(s) with professional ones
Have you done this before? Compare your artwork with professional ones? If yes that is a common mistake that artists make a lot.
Artists tend to be hard on themselves, which could be a good thing as well as a bad thing depending on the situation. It can be a good thing if this makes the artist wants to be always better and work harder. It is however a bad thing if it discourages the artist, brings him down if he compares his drawings (which can be good) with other drawings made by other professional artists that will then make him feel bad about himself and his drawings.
6- Not being able to draw the other eye
Has this ever happened to you? Spending a lot of time drawing one eye and being satisfied with it (which is rare) and then, when you get to drawing the other eye, you just can’t draw it as the first one. You get frustrated, and you try to draw it again and again until you give up. At that point, you either stop, throw your drawing, or try to hide the other eye by drawing some hairlines on top of it. This is a problem that is pretty common that a lot of beginners struggle with, even professional artists sometimes.
7- Not wanting to get out of your comfort zone
A mistake that sadly a lot of artists make. If an artist is used to drawing portraits sometimes he wouldn’t want to get out of his comfort zone and learn to draw something else, different, like drawing buildings.
He has learned to draw something, he improved on drawing that specific thing, whatever it is, and then he doesn’t want to get out of his comfort zone to improve even more on drawing something else that is different which is a mistake.
8- Imitating
An artist can imitate other drawing styles, sometimes without even knowing it. And that is a mistake, not knowing when to stop imitating, to just be you and express yourself. To start learning how to draw you can try imitating other artists you like but when you become better at drawing you need to stop imitating and get instead inspired. That is one way to avoid this very common mistake.
9- Drawing hands and sometimes even feet… What a pain…
Beginner artists and even professional ones have some fears, like drawing hands, and sometimes even feet. It is a very common problem that artists make and even with a lot of practice they still struggle to draw accurate hand figures in different angles. Beginners tend to not draw hands and feet at all, while some professional artists still make mistakes drawing hands and feet at different angles. They might be able to draw good hands figures but with difficulty. So in the end, they might end up following the same path by avoiding drawing hands and feet in general as much as they can by drawing other things they are good at, like portraits or landscapes.
10- Not practicing drawing without a reference picture (The big mistake you’ll regret making as an artist)
Beginning drawing artists may always use reference pictures to draw which is not a bad thing but… They should also practice drawing without a reference picture otherwise they will be able to make cool artworks, but when the time will come for them to draw without a reference picture they’ll be shocked to see and realize that they can’t draw. That is why not practicing drawing without a reference picture can be a big mistake.
In conclusion
This article is to show and explain what are the common mistakes artists make. All the mistakes made by artists can not be mentioned, of course, however, these are the 10 most common mistakes that you should avoid making yourself. Remember that everyone makes mistakes but by knowing them, you can find a way to not make them and improve a lot as an artist. Feel free to check other articles on drawing that might interest you HERE.
