Artistic moment

If I knew then what I knew now,
maybe I might have appreciated my
work a little more.
I always used to compare myself to
other artists that I would see, artists
much older than me, with the training and the experience I didn't have. It
didn't seem to matter to me where
they came from, just that they where
good, and I was not. If I had
understood at the time that someday,
with perseverance, study and practice, I too might be ask good as they, maybe I
might have worked a little harder,
studied a little more and not been so
down on myself. Now I look back on a lot
of the artists
who were my idols; their art saved to my ancient computer in my room at my
mom's house
for reference and inspiration. I realize;
they really weren't that good, some of
them were actually quite bad. At any
given time, even if your art sucks to you, or even thousands of other people,
it is amazing to someone and you are
inspiring someone else by sharing it with
them. If it seems like you are not
improving at
all, it is probably because you have stopped learning. When people draw
the same mistakes over and over, they
are simply practicing doing it wrong.
Simply "Practicing" is not enough. Take a
moment to study, learn to do it right,
even if it is hard, and messes you up now. It won't forever. This was a really
hard bridge to cross when I was young,
and stubborn, and lazy, and just wanted
to do what I felt like at the time. Now I
can't wait to learn and study something
new. This attitude and willingness to follow through has let me improve very
quickly in a relatively short period of time
for doing so. Just remember, nothing
happens overnight. It will always seem a
bit slow, but keep going, and don't be
afraid to look at your older works when you're having lows. You don't notice
your hair grow, but you can sure see
the difference if you look at pictures of
yourself months or years after your last
cut. No one stops improving for no
reason, do not accept "just because" as an answer. As soon as you accept a
perceived limitation as a fact of your
artistic life, it will become so. People often
tell me they can't get
better, that their art isn't changing, and
when I look at their stuff, I again see, not only that they might be practicing
the same mistakes, but that they are
simply practicing different variations of the
same thing. This may seem a bit
strange from someone who has made a
living doing portraits, but what a lot of people don't know is that this is a very
small part of who I am and what I do as
an artist. Do something new. Try a
different style. Try a subject you would
have never drawn before and learn to
appreciate something you might not have. Do you rely on your CG to make
your art look nice? Just sketch. Sketch
until your sketches please you just as
much. Just draw heads? Draw a full
body. Just draw people standing there?
Draw an action sequence. Swear to yourself that your next 10 drawings will
not be what your previous 50 were.
Finish something you might not finish
because it's just too hard, or learn to let
go of something you spent a lot of time
on that isn't going to work. Nothing is a waste of time, even if it ends up in your
trash bin, where 9 out of 10 of my
pictures go. Something people who are
not artists
don't understand, and even many
starting artists, is that art is not a 'gift'. People are no more born artists as they
are born Olympic gymnasts. It takes
years of time, dedication, study and hard
work. It takes mental focus,
toning, endurance, physical and mental
co-ordination, aim and understanding. I practice drawing a minimum of 5 hours a
day, every day, not including time to
study, wherever I am. Immediate
gratification is not a
reasonable expectation of a dedicated
artist. Art is not a competition. If all you do is work to please everyone else, you
will never achieve the gratification and
inspiration it gives to those who do art
because they love to do it and have
something to show or prove to
themselves. I know all of this may sound incredibly
obvious and should just be a given, but I
am constantly surprised by how many
people need to be reminded of this now
and then, including myself. My very long
point here is that every artist thinks they suck. During this time of thought,
always remember: You don't suck. You
just suck right now.:)