The amount of times I have seen the sentence “I am a self-taught artist” honestly grinds my gears.
Why? Because all artists are self-taught. To put it simply, you cannot teach someone how to draw. This may sound controversial, but I personally believe that artistic skill and creativity is something that you are either born with or pick up by yourself with hard work and dedication. Sure, art teachers and tutors can show their students how to draw and paint, apply artistic skills, etc. but to actually teach someone how to draw is improbable.
For example, during comprehensive school I could not paint at all. My teachers would ‘teach’ me how to paint with acrylics, how to mix colours, how to apply layers, but I still could not paint. I tried, but the results were awful. It was only when I went to university that I finally learnt how to paint during life drawing sessions. My tutor saw that I was struggling and showed me how to handle acrylic paint, what colours I should use and what I was doing wrong. I really wanted to improve, so I actually tried and put in the work. After a lot of experimentation, mistakes and many life drawing sessions later, I finally improved.
When I see people calling themselves “self-taught artists” I immediately sense an air of arrogance. It’s like they’re saying “look how good I can draw even though I don’t have any formal education in the arts and didn’t attend any art lessons.” It’s silly, really. Just because you didn’t go to university to study art does not make you better than any other artist. Students go to art school to expand and improve their skills, not to learn how to draw.
Artistic style is something that you yourself will discover throughout life; someone else can not give it to you. By studying traditional drawings, paintings and pieces by your favourite artists, you will learn to develop your own style. But nobody will have taught you.
There is a difference between learning how to draw and being ‘taught’ how to draw.
