11-13-2014, 05:36 AM
It's important to practice and do some art for fun, do other things but also I'd like to point out though that every stage in artistic development is different. Even just every different season during the year affects how you perform. I constantly see that even if I develop a perfect schedule for myself, after while it stops working and I have to change some things and gain new momentum from scratch.
I started taking art seriously maybe about ten years ago when CA.org was beginning to get popular. At this time I developed the most intense learning habit where I never really missed a day sketching. Even if it was a doodle a day it was still enough. My endurance and skill got better and by the time I was finished architecture faculty, I could paint decent images and do it all day.
Luckily few weeks after graduation I got a job at 2d artist in small game company. I didn't experience ticking clock that much to be honest. The other problem came out though which was burnout and slight health problems. The job gave stability but from the beginning I knew it won't be as exciting as I dreamed when I started drawing. I lost all the momentum and every attempt at doing studies felt like torture to me at this point. Not only that but several times at the first year of the job I felt like quitting in order to search for something better. It's my fourth year at the job and I think I adapted enough to switch gears when I get back home and do studies again. What I also realised is one of the driving force for me when it comes to drawing when I started out was playing games. Unfortunately I haven't played games for years.
All the advice about throwing away tv, console, uninstalling games and so on are right but you can't be on the study rush forever. Eventually you have to expose yourself to culture again. Watch, read, discover, play. It has to be part of the cycle. I guess the key is to choose wisely what to consume. For example some games require months of gameplay, others you can finish in one weekend but you can get something valuable or inspiring out of them. Some games you don't have to play to the very end to get the idea.
Right now I'm at the point where I'm trying to get past the mid point and even though it's not freelance, there are still very similar problems to those mentioned in that Dan Warren's talk linked in the first post. It feels like I'm in the middle of the ocean and not seeing land for the long time. My approach to this is to be consistent with the studies but do those as little as possible and focus more on trying out things. You won't really develop personal voice if you don't let it speak for a while. It might stutter at the beginning but hopefully I will break through that ugly duckling stage.
In the end my advice would be to expect that "making it" will happen somewhere far in the future and for now just focus on taking slow but steady journey. Doing anything is already enough. As for study attack. Having one is fine once in a while but creativity attack is even better :).
I started taking art seriously maybe about ten years ago when CA.org was beginning to get popular. At this time I developed the most intense learning habit where I never really missed a day sketching. Even if it was a doodle a day it was still enough. My endurance and skill got better and by the time I was finished architecture faculty, I could paint decent images and do it all day.
Luckily few weeks after graduation I got a job at 2d artist in small game company. I didn't experience ticking clock that much to be honest. The other problem came out though which was burnout and slight health problems. The job gave stability but from the beginning I knew it won't be as exciting as I dreamed when I started drawing. I lost all the momentum and every attempt at doing studies felt like torture to me at this point. Not only that but several times at the first year of the job I felt like quitting in order to search for something better. It's my fourth year at the job and I think I adapted enough to switch gears when I get back home and do studies again. What I also realised is one of the driving force for me when it comes to drawing when I started out was playing games. Unfortunately I haven't played games for years.
All the advice about throwing away tv, console, uninstalling games and so on are right but you can't be on the study rush forever. Eventually you have to expose yourself to culture again. Watch, read, discover, play. It has to be part of the cycle. I guess the key is to choose wisely what to consume. For example some games require months of gameplay, others you can finish in one weekend but you can get something valuable or inspiring out of them. Some games you don't have to play to the very end to get the idea.
Right now I'm at the point where I'm trying to get past the mid point and even though it's not freelance, there are still very similar problems to those mentioned in that Dan Warren's talk linked in the first post. It feels like I'm in the middle of the ocean and not seeing land for the long time. My approach to this is to be consistent with the studies but do those as little as possible and focus more on trying out things. You won't really develop personal voice if you don't let it speak for a while. It might stutter at the beginning but hopefully I will break through that ugly duckling stage.
In the end my advice would be to expect that "making it" will happen somewhere far in the future and for now just focus on taking slow but steady journey. Doing anything is already enough. As for study attack. Having one is fine once in a while but creativity attack is even better :).