smrrfette's Odyssey

[Ignatz]

Hey smrrfette. Great to see you still pushing these personal pieces.

Creating imaginative works (with or without reference) is a skill in itself. Doing studies is great but they're 'easy' in the respect that you're basically just copying something while trying to extract something useful from the process. With a personal piece you're having to work out everything from scratch and apply all that you've learnt.

I fell into the trap that I think a lot of people fall into; I would do lots of studies, some of them quite decent looking, then I would jump into a personal piece and it would be waaay behind the level that I'd achieved in my studies, so I'd get REALLY frustrated and think 'I'm not good enough to do imagintive pieces yet; back to doing studies.'

It took me a while to get out of this mindset. Personal pieces are far more difficult and humbling than studies, and it's really frustrating how long they take but don't ever stop doing them because that's how you really discover what level you're at and where your weaknesses are.

Thems my opinions anyhow. Keep up the good work!