Biggest mistake most beginning artists makes.

Imagination is the biggest mistake that most artists does that I did when i started out, I had the impression that great artists just pick everything from their mind and translate it into a picture, that I have to do the same thing as they do or i'm not good enough.
When you start out with art you have no  library to pick from to create something believable  or you have no understanding,  understanding and visual library  is what you should focus on when you start out, and continue to focus on through your entire art career,

I thought that some people can draw and some people couldn't I was terrible when i started out about four years ago, and i cant say i'm the best now i'm still trying i'm still increasing my library, I'm doing research to have advantage when i create a piece.

Understanding, how color work, how anatomy work, how composition work, how to come up with an idea, and also how to simplify reality.

Visual library how to paint trees, how to paint anything really, you need knowledge to be able to apply anything from your imagination, most great artists cant do most things from imagination, only those who has done those things many times can do it without thinking, or from imagination.

You can prepare for having no visual library by doing research, research how color work, research lighting, research composition, research the subject matter of what you want to paint. by doing this you should be able to do a lot better than you could from imagination this is just natural, our brain sees in symbols, clouds are fluffy white kinda shapes and a blue sky, a rock is grey and has a rough surface, grass is green and a tree is brown with green leaves, really nothing here,s correct, that,s why you cant draw or paint well from imagination.

Don't expect you to be able to know how something works if you,we never done it properly, 

Draw from life, study materials, study photographs read books about how to do things, 

When you've done those things you can start finding your style, your style will be strong because its based on reality its based on knowledge.

If you have a conscious choice to do something different, like shapes or even color, but since its based on reality it will be way stronger this is how a great style is made, how amazing artists stylkes were developed.

Let Me know what you think about this, I've been thinking about those things for a while now since i hear a lot people just don't understand how i can just do things seamingly without references, but the opposite is true, I do a lot of studies.