STEP 1:
Painting and Sculpting are technical crafts that require a lot of training to be good at. The training part can be skipped mostly if you already have natural ability which is called talent. Most people can practice and never even come close to a naturally talented person that practices. Creating paintings / sculptures is about fun and doesn’t matter if it is sellable work. Painting / sculpting is for everyone is and having talent should be ignored.
STEP 2:
Creating visual art is not about expressing yourself. It is just creating an image using your technique. Your life experience has nothing to do with creating paintings / sculptures. All of the greatest sculptures and paintings have nothing to do with the personal life of the person making them. Most of the best paintings were created as commissions.
STEP 3:
In order to become a real artist you should follow official Barnett Gallery drawing tutorials located here.