"If you're not drawing 24/7, you aren't working hard enough"

[ZombieChinchilla]

Hmmm, I've been thinking about this for the past few months, actually. Over the summer I started listening to Will Terry's youtube videos, they're great to watch as you work, and he mentions having a really good work ethic a few times. In one video (can't remember which one), he mentions med students, and how you always hear about how hard med students are working, how they're always studying and losing sleep over it and how med students are almost guaranteed a job after the whole process if they stick to it. He says that artists should be working just as hard as med students, perhaps even harder because we definitely don't have a job waiting for us in a few years. At the time this advice really inspired me and I started to follow it (kind of). I paired this with some advice Dan Luvisi gave in his Level Up video (SO good, highly recommend it). In it he mentions that he worked like crazy on his first Last Man Standing book, like he would get up every day around 6 and go to bed really late, never socializing or doing anything else, just working working working.

And then just a few days ago I stumbled on the quote in the first post and started to think about that...I don't know. It's hard, maybe impossible for us to say, "x hours is too many/not enough and you should change your schedule," to someone else. I think it's about finding a balance in your own life. Don't dedicate your whole life to art, hell, don't dedicate to one thing, no matter what that thing is. Find a balance. If that's working 20 hours on art and spending the other four eating/sleeping, and you're fine with that? Great! If that stresses you out and you can only draw 6 hours a day and instead socialize or do other hobbies, fine.

I will say, though, that if you want to be really, really big and famous some day, you may have to take the 20 hour route. That doesn't mean it's the only way to be successful. But if you want to be famous and well-known like some of the big names, you may have to follow the eccentrics from history and dedicate your entire life. But for me, I don't need that, so I'm fine taking some time off.

I'll end with some of this comic by Stephen McCraine, You Are Not Your Art:









http://doodlealley.com/2012/09/10/you-are-not-your-art/