Making Great Art:You Can Do It With Any Medium

In this post, I’m assuring you that no matter what medium you’re working in, be it oils, acrylics, colored pencil, or what have you, you can make great art. 

What Determines How Good We Get As Artists?

​How good we become as artists is not determined by the medium we use. It’s determined by how much time and effort we’re willing to put into learning how to work with that medium.

My Own Misunderstanding

​I used to be under the impression that I was limited by the mediums I was working in. I thought excellent paintings were always done in oils and until I was able to work with them, I would be artistically confined to mediocrity.

What Happens When You Only See Good Art Done In One Medium

​Looking back it’s not surprising that I thought this way since almost all the great paintings I was exposed to were oil paintings. If you’ve pretty much never seen a fantastic watercolor or colored pencil piece, how would it occur to you that these mediums can be used to make phenomenal artwork? It wouldn’t.

How Can You Change Your Beliefs About What Can Make Good Art?

To that end, I encourage you to expose yourself to artwork done in a variety of mediums. I’m going to recommend a artists' websites to check out as reference. The first one is Lisa Clough's. Lisa works in acrylics, oils, colored pencil, graphite, and ink. The second one from Leonardo Pereznieto, by Leonardo Pereznieto. Leonardo works in oils, charcoal, graphite, ink, colored pencil, watercolor, and marker. Next is Lena Danya, who works in oils and watercolors. The last site I’m going to recommend is Kelly Eddington's for her stunning watercolor work. 

Amazing Art Can Be Made With Surprising Materials

I've even seen amazing work done in ballpoint pen and Crayola crayon. I wouldn't really recommend those, because I don't think they're archival, but still, it is possible to make fantastic artwork with them.

If you want to work in pen or crayon, there are artist pens, which are archival and there things called Conte crayons, which are a fine art variety of crayon.