07-21-2013, 03:21 AM
Just read through your sketchbook, and really felt like you need a peptalk. I'm gonna copy a part from dave rapoza's sketchbook, it's a great read. You are at the start of an amazing journey, don't let anything hold you back! All those great artists were the ones who were to stubborn to give up. Cheers (:
Motivation
To me motivation is inspiration which comes and goes in most people. I like to get all pumped up and ready to do all my work. What motivates me is seeing all the people around me really pushing to become great and making believe I live in some sort of Vision Quest type movie...
This is the way I see it:
first off, what we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. Everything youre afraid to do or you put off just becomes mental baggage and really pulls you down. So when I say dedication instead of motivation I mean that you really have to push to get all that stuff done. No matter what it might be, if its holding you down you have to really just pull it together and finish it. For instance, if you can't draw hands, draw hands(which is what I'm workin on ). period. Or anything really for that matter. A good way I've found is to limit everything I do to a few hours. Like I wake up at 7am, I have to have all my studies done in my sketchbook by 9am and then have my digitals done by 11am. This forces you to not be lazy and not browse the internet or whatever it is you do to fill time. After this I usually limit work times in general to make sure I'm really pushing myself. Thats not to say you can't go out and do things later, just that youll actually get more done in general and have more time on top of that.
Basically it all depends on you, youre the only one who can make you work hard. I try to keep in mind that tomorrow becomes never and if I keep putting anything off it will just never happen. Everything has to be started and done this instance or it will never get done. Just trying to think of how serious life is and how we're all gonna die in any number of years is somethin that pushes me too. Each minute that passes you by you could be learnin something new or accomplishing something you've always wanted to do. The only real thing that has to happen is you acting on it. So when I push the other dudes on the forum I really just want to see them getting everything they want outta life. We all have goals and we can all reach them easily.
Something to really avoid though would be comfort zones. These can kill your drive and motivation. I always try to avoid feeling comfortable with whatever it is I'm doing. If I have too much money and think I am alright just taking the same old jobs I'll spend money to force myself to get off my ass and work harder. If somebody tells me my work is awesome the way it is then I'll go and send my work to a professional I like and ask for critiques. Anything to keep from being a lazy asshole. To me its all about breaking the ego and never stop looking up at what you could be.
I know this all sounds cheesy and whatever but its all true. We're all just dudes, hardly anybody started out golden or just amazing off the bat. Everybody you look up to has already gone through what you're going through and the only thing that changed them was really just sitting down and workin at it. We can all be great in our own respects but we all have to work at our core drawing skills first and we have to pull ourselves together and start pushing for everything we want.
and one last thing... Don't go easy on yourself! Never settle for anything and always set unrealistic goals worth reaching! Everybody thinks theres a huge race to be the best and never try because they say theres too much competition. But in reality theres a huge group of people thinking the same thing and they only settle for mediocre jobs or whatever it may be. So theres actually more competition for shit jobs than for the best.
moral of the story: Work hard, stay focused, and pull yourself together! Define what you want and go take it!
Motivation
To me motivation is inspiration which comes and goes in most people. I like to get all pumped up and ready to do all my work. What motivates me is seeing all the people around me really pushing to become great and making believe I live in some sort of Vision Quest type movie...
This is the way I see it:
first off, what we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. Everything youre afraid to do or you put off just becomes mental baggage and really pulls you down. So when I say dedication instead of motivation I mean that you really have to push to get all that stuff done. No matter what it might be, if its holding you down you have to really just pull it together and finish it. For instance, if you can't draw hands, draw hands(which is what I'm workin on ). period. Or anything really for that matter. A good way I've found is to limit everything I do to a few hours. Like I wake up at 7am, I have to have all my studies done in my sketchbook by 9am and then have my digitals done by 11am. This forces you to not be lazy and not browse the internet or whatever it is you do to fill time. After this I usually limit work times in general to make sure I'm really pushing myself. Thats not to say you can't go out and do things later, just that youll actually get more done in general and have more time on top of that.
Basically it all depends on you, youre the only one who can make you work hard. I try to keep in mind that tomorrow becomes never and if I keep putting anything off it will just never happen. Everything has to be started and done this instance or it will never get done. Just trying to think of how serious life is and how we're all gonna die in any number of years is somethin that pushes me too. Each minute that passes you by you could be learnin something new or accomplishing something you've always wanted to do. The only real thing that has to happen is you acting on it. So when I push the other dudes on the forum I really just want to see them getting everything they want outta life. We all have goals and we can all reach them easily.
Something to really avoid though would be comfort zones. These can kill your drive and motivation. I always try to avoid feeling comfortable with whatever it is I'm doing. If I have too much money and think I am alright just taking the same old jobs I'll spend money to force myself to get off my ass and work harder. If somebody tells me my work is awesome the way it is then I'll go and send my work to a professional I like and ask for critiques. Anything to keep from being a lazy asshole. To me its all about breaking the ego and never stop looking up at what you could be.
I know this all sounds cheesy and whatever but its all true. We're all just dudes, hardly anybody started out golden or just amazing off the bat. Everybody you look up to has already gone through what you're going through and the only thing that changed them was really just sitting down and workin at it. We can all be great in our own respects but we all have to work at our core drawing skills first and we have to pull ourselves together and start pushing for everything we want.
and one last thing... Don't go easy on yourself! Never settle for anything and always set unrealistic goals worth reaching! Everybody thinks theres a huge race to be the best and never try because they say theres too much competition. But in reality theres a huge group of people thinking the same thing and they only settle for mediocre jobs or whatever it may be. So theres actually more competition for shit jobs than for the best.
moral of the story: Work hard, stay focused, and pull yourself together! Define what you want and go take it!