Nobody’s waiting to give you permission to call yourself an artist. Make art. That’s the permission.

The title has no gate and no committee, though it feels like it should have both. There is no exam, no follower count and no approving adult that converts you from someone who draws into an artist. The word just describes what you do, which means the only thing that changes your standing is the work existing. Waiting to feel entitled to it postpones the one thing that earns it.

Drop the apologetic version of how you describe yourself, the one with sort of in the middle. Make something this week, however small, and let that be the whole qualification. Then say the plain sentence out loud to one person.