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Trust your gut when choosing projects. Experiment in a wide variety of styles and disciplines. Draw influence from your entire life, not just your artistic pursuits. Show your work to others for thoughts and feedback. Accept constructive criticism.
If an idea captures your and won't let go you've got to pursue it. Great artists don't worry if it will sell, if it fits current artistic trends, or will take a long time to make. Great artists jump into their passions with open arms, trusting themselves to make it work. If you want a unique, refreshing artistic voice, then you need to trust your voice. It can be hard to embark on a project that feels weird, new, and experimental. But remember -- if you can't get passionate about the project, how can you expect your audience to feel passionately about it? There is a reason burgeoning painters spend time sculpting, and vice versa. All forms of art are intrinsically linked, and they share similar vocabulary and skills (color, shading, composition, etc.). By pushing yourself to approach art differently, you open yourself up to a wealth of new influences, techniques, and styles.  Push yourself to get out of your comfort zone -- this is often where you make the biggest breakthroughs and personal discoveries. This includes other forms of art, such as writing and music. Creative expression, whether with a paintbrush or a piccolo, is about getting your ideas out of your head and into the audiences. The medium you use to do that doesn't matter. Great artists are often great readers, using books and literature to push themselves to new ideas and philosophies. They are unashamed of their past, no matter what it is, and are confident using it for motivation and inspiration. Furthermore, great artists rarely say "no." They keep their minds open to everything, becoming a sponge of influences that come together to make something incredibly unique, and incredibly you. For most artists, art is a form of communication. You create art because you want to share it with other people. Otherwise, you could just leave the ideas in your head. Exactly how you want to show your work and to who is your choice. You could try to get your work shown in galleries and put up for sale. You could try getting published. You might be more comfortable putting your work online and possibly selling prints of it. Or maybe you would rather just frame some of your best work and hang it up in your home for your family and friends to enjoy.  Ask for honest critiques, and try to accept them with grace. You will never catch everything, and your audience's opinion will help find areas to improve in. Ask people what they think about the art, and what it might mean. Does it match up with your own thoughts and ideas? Did you accomplish your goals with the piece? Could you better communicate them your goals, or are you happy with ambiguity and differing opinions? Constructive criticism is designed to help you improve your artwork, either the piece you're working on now or your future works. A person giving constructive criticism will usually point out both the flaws and the strengths in your piece and make suggestions on how you could fix the flaws. While it isn't always fun to hear, criticism is something you're going to have to deal with as an artist. Learn to identify when a criticism of your work is valid and use that information to focus on correcting your mistakes.