Miss Daisy Drawing

Tag: artist

  • 3 Practical Tips to Select Your Ideal Art Medium

    In my last content, How to Discover Your Unique Artistic Style I talked about how to find your own artistic style. Today, I want to continue that conversation and tackle a challenge almost every art lover faces: How do you choose the right art medium for yourself?

    Many art lovers switch mediums every once for a while. You spend some time with acrylics, then fall in love with watercolor. You practice watercolor for a while, then suddenly the iPad looks very tempting. This constant switching can become one of the biggest obstacles to developing a stable and recognizable artistic style.

    And this isn’t just a beginner problem. Even trained art students experience this.
    Oil painters fall in love with the texture of ink. Watercolor students discover printmaking and never look back. Switching mediums isn’t wrong. In fact, choosing your medium is a journey of self-understanding.

    Your personality, your temperament, and your preferences—all of these are hidden in the style you are about to create. 

    So today, I want to share three practical methods to help you choose a medium that truly fits you.

    First. Explore widely before you decide.

    Do not judge yourself “I’m not good at it” before you’ve even tried. The sensory experience each medium gives you is the most honest indicator of whether it fits you.

    Spend some time exploring different mediums: graphite, colored pencils, watercolor, markers, oil pastels, acrylic, soft pastels, ink—anything you can find.

    Pay attention to the experience: the bold colors of acrylic, the fluid unpredictability of watercolor, the tactile texture of graphite, the soft, dreamy feel of pastels. 

    Try them systematically, and document how each one makes you feel. After exploring, choose the medium that creates effects you love and one you naturally handle well.

    Second. Start with the medium you feel most comfortable with.

    Your medium doesn’t have to be expensive or trendy. It just needs to be something you can easily pick up every day—a pencil, a basic watercolor set, or acrylic on canvas.

    The more familiar you become with your medium, the easier it is to stay consistent. And consistency—not expensive supplies—is what separates amateurs from artists.

    Growth comes from steady practice, reflection, and understanding the materials in your hands.

    Lastly. iPad drawing is an extension—not a replacement.

    Digital drawing is powerful. It combines the expressive possibilities of traditional mediums with modern convenience. But for beginners, the endless options—brushes, textures, layers—can be overwhelming.

    And no matter how advanced digital tools are, they cannot fully replace the tactile, physical textures of traditional mediums.

    So if you’re new to drawing, or if you want to build a unique artistic voice, traditional mediums remain the best training ground.

    I often find connections between drawing and life—how they influence and mirror each other. I hope sharing these reflections can inspire you and your own creative journey.

  • How to Discover Your Unique Artistic Style

    If you love drawing, or you’ve just started learning it, you might find yourself constantly switching between different mediums—colored pencils, watercolor, the iPad, and so on. Your subjects may jump from portraits to landscapes to small everyday objects. If this sounds familiar, you need to read this article. What I’m sharing today is the result of decades of learning art and falling into countless traps along the way. This passage can easily save you ten years of detours.

    For Many beginners—or even hobbyists who have been drawing for a while—will face the same struggle: when you look at other artists’ work, you feel genuinely envious of their unique styles. Some artworks feel wildly imaginative, some are incredibly powerful in color, some tell strong stories, some show amazing technical skill. Some pieces look simple, yet feel warm and comforting. All of them have something special—something that makes us pause and admire. That “special something” is the artist’s style.

    So, how do you develop your own artistic style? Almost every creator asks this question. But here’s what you need to know: style isn’t something you can “think” your way into. You can fabricate a style through shortcuts, but you’ll quickly get bored of it and abandon what you made up. A lasting, authentic style requires exploration and trial and error. It emerges naturally from long-term creation, shaped by your interests, your personality, and your life experiences.

    So, how do you actually find your style?

    First, style doesn’t start with technique—it starts with preference. Begin with the medium you love most or feel most comfortable with. Starting today, pay attention to what draws you in: the fluid unpredictability of watercolor, the texture of colored pencils, and so on. Notice which subjects feel most natural to draw, and what you want to express through them. The things that repeatedly show up in your work—that’s your preference.

    Second, don’t rush to be “original.” Most artists’ styles begin through imitation. Imitation isn’t stealing—it’s part of learning the language of art. Copy the use of color, brushwork, or composition of the artists you admire. Even when you imitate, you’ll discover that part of the work still carries something uniquely yours. That “irreplaceable difference” is the seed of your style.

    Third, you need volume. Style doesn’t come from thinking—it comes from making. With ten pieces, it’s hard to see any pattern. With a hundred, patterns start to appear. With a thousand, your style will grow on its own. All the imperfect pieces, ugly sketches, and failed attempts—they’re all part of the puzzle. Quantity pushes you toward quality.

    Fourth, your style comes from your life. Your travels, the music you listen to, the movies you watch, the books you read, the emotions you’ve experienced, the pain and joy you’ve gone through—all of these shape the way you understand the world. The richer your life becomes, the more unique your expression will be. Art isn’t a stack of techniques—it’s a concentration of experiences. Your unique life experiences and personal insights will naturally show up in your artwork. 

    Fifth, style takes time—and patience. Don’t chase a style too quickly by forcing special effects or gimmicks. A manufactured style is fragile and won’t last. True style is something you can’t escape from, even when you’re not trying. It shows up in your unconscious choices, in the marks that grow naturally over the years.

    The way we find our artistic style mirrors the way we find our path in life. First, record yourself frequently. Observe your interests and tendencies to identify your real preferences. Second, look for people you admire—whether they’re celebrities, artists, or business leaders—and learn from how they think and act. Third, there are no shortcuts in life. Only through trial and error can you gradually get closer to your true direction. Lastly, discovering yourself takes time. Some people have strong support—good education or financial stability—but most of us must rely on persistence and effort. Flowers don’t bloom overnight. And once you find your path, you need patience and conviction to stay on it.

  • The Most Important Skill for Today’s Artists Isn’t Realism II

    Building on the previous content The Most Important Skill for Today’s Artists Isn’t Realism  I – last time we looked at the limitations of hyper-realistic painting from the perspective of art history and the artist’s creative process.

    In this episode, I want to shift to the art market and the audience, and explore why, today, the pursuit of extreme realism isn’t just outdated, but may actually run against the direction of our time.

    Let’s start with a simple question:

    If you wanted to hang a painting in your home, would you choose a highly realistic portrait or a traditional landscape Painting？

    I believe most young people wouldn’t choose either.

    And the reason is pretty simple.

    No matter what your interior design style is, realistic paintings and modern home aesthetics belong to two completely different visual languages. Put them together and there’s a subtle, indescribable sense of mismatch.

    That’s why many people are more inclined to choose an abstract or geometric piece—even if they can’t understand it at all—as home décor.

    Modern viewers actually gravitate toward abstract, geometric, and ambiguous works.

    Even when the content is unclear, the artwork fits the space. It fits the mood.
    Its functional role matters more than its storytelling role.

    But why is that?

    It’s because our entire visual environment—architecture, furniture, product design—has been deeply influenced by the Bauhaus design movement of early 20th-century Germany.

    Bauhaus emphasized one core principle: “form follows function.”
    Meaning: function comes first, form and decoration come second.

    The high-rise buildings we see everywhere today—dominated by straight lines and almost zero ornamentation—are direct results of this philosophy.

    To accommodate more people and improve spatial efficiency, simplicity became the mainstream aesthetic.

    And Scandinavian furniture, IKEA’s clean lines, all those minimalist, functional designs—they are everyday extensions of Bauhaus thinking.

    Once you understand this, it becomes clear why today’s art market favors decorative, highly stylized works over hyper-realistic figurative paintings.

    Of course, every style has its own audience. This isn’t a value judgment, but a trend analysis: what kinds of works are more likely to be chosen and collected by the general public.

    So what do today’s art audience actually favor ?

    In an era dominated by short-form videos, endless visual feeds, and decreasing attention spans, what grabs people first is always form, not content.

    Or, you could say that content itself becomes part of the form.

    In today’s visual culture, the two are almost inseparable.

    In the next content, I’ll talk about why AI will not truly replace painting.

    I’m Daisy, a storyteller who loves and shares art. I hope my words and drawings inspire your own creative journey .