01-25-2014, 09:09 AM
Hey Will, great sketchbook:) I can't see the pre-photobucket screw up work but the stuff I see is epic:D
I thought I could join with the others in sharing the pain and advice lol:)
About hitting the wall AND about motivation, I think it's crucial that you talk to others, especially other artists, especially those that are somewhat on the similar level. Because, our brain always wants to come to a conclusion and leave no loose ends and it also has problems with delayed gratification. So, when we are alone or we don't "share" for some longer periods of time, we come to conclusions and explanations that reinforce our current state of mind, and those explanations sometimes can be nothing short of magical:) Because we don't get the feedback, we get into this spiral of thought which, when unchecked, can go wild:)
For example, you might rarely hit on girls or do it the wrong way or whatever, which results in you don't having a girlfriend for, say, five years. And when unchecked, your brain will eventually come to a conclusion like "I am not destined to have a girlfriend" or something like that:) And you don't find it ridiculous, because you came to that conclusion gradually. While you could, for example, talk to friends and they would tell you "dude, you don't bathe, that's why" or "you talked to six girls in five years, one was gay, two were married and other three simply didn't like you" or something banal like that.
Also, there are those things everybody thinks they are the only ones doing them:) I don't know, "oh, I was so absent minded yesterday, I threw the fork and knife into the garbage can, omg I'm demented".
Even more in this field of ours, those feelings and situations are quite often. You simply don't know how many plateaus and mini breakdowns some top level illustrator had, for example. You often don't know are you even practicing the right way (even if you actually know you do, if you are at a plateau, your brain will start to weave a story that complements that plateau, like "we practiced in vain all this time, this exercise sucks"). So, when you start to doubt things and create negative patterns, they tend to stick and remain unchecked.
So I really think that talking with fellow artists is the best therapy one could have. Because, more often than not - and we've seen it right here in this thread - you will find that others are having the exact same situations, issues, doubts and problems.
As for the plateau - I think the best recipe is to simply take for granted that you are going to get through it and try not to think about it at all. Because, you WILL get through if you continue to practice, it's inevitable. It is frustrating and yes, you start to doubt and lose motivation etc. but try not to feed those things. Simply try to soldier it through. And, of course, come and whine with all of us from time to time, I mean, I do it all the time, I should have named my sketchbook thread "Doolio's whine thread" :D And I'll probably whine more as time progresses, because I have yet to reach a month since I've opened a sketchbook here:)
Same goes for motivation. And I must again praise this community, as the mere fact that I have a public sketchbook that fellow artists browse through and that there are other such threads and they all get updated insanely often, is enough for me to practice hard. Also, there are absolute beginners here, there are people like me, people better than me, people WAY better than me... and that's great, I love browsing all the sketchbooks.
And, when someone "disappears" to move on to bigger stuff, that's very positive:) You look at someone better than you and you see he's better because he practiced more/harder/longer. And you know that, because you're both humans:), you'll reach that level one day. And then you look at someone who's just beginning and you see you are better than him, because you've progressed. Because the progress is relatively slow (I mean, you draw a naked man like thousand times and then you STILL go "duhhhh" when you need to bend the knee or whatever) people tend to see that progress as being in the same spot. That's why I think you should think years and maybe months for smaller chunks of measurable progress and not just trust your emotional feeling that tells you you are stagnating. Take a look at a piece you did a year ago and see if you are stagnating and you'll see a lot of progress has happened. Guaranteed (if you practiced during that year).
So, try not to get swayed to the "wallowing side" because such is the path of a developing artist:D
Oh, and about the comfort zone and "plunging into the unknown", that's totally true. EVERYTHING is like that:) I mean, you were probably terrified when you went to buy milk for the first time as a six year old:) But you were proud when you did it:) Not to mention that now you're probably killing it:D
The problems start when we pour too much self awareness into these things. And that's that dark-talk side of the brain and it needs to be cut down as soon as it presents itself. If you were to give in to it, you would never buy milk and you would never have sex and you would never, well, get past the plateau in the gym or in front of a tablet:)
I thought I could join with the others in sharing the pain and advice lol:)
About hitting the wall AND about motivation, I think it's crucial that you talk to others, especially other artists, especially those that are somewhat on the similar level. Because, our brain always wants to come to a conclusion and leave no loose ends and it also has problems with delayed gratification. So, when we are alone or we don't "share" for some longer periods of time, we come to conclusions and explanations that reinforce our current state of mind, and those explanations sometimes can be nothing short of magical:) Because we don't get the feedback, we get into this spiral of thought which, when unchecked, can go wild:)
For example, you might rarely hit on girls or do it the wrong way or whatever, which results in you don't having a girlfriend for, say, five years. And when unchecked, your brain will eventually come to a conclusion like "I am not destined to have a girlfriend" or something like that:) And you don't find it ridiculous, because you came to that conclusion gradually. While you could, for example, talk to friends and they would tell you "dude, you don't bathe, that's why" or "you talked to six girls in five years, one was gay, two were married and other three simply didn't like you" or something banal like that.
Also, there are those things everybody thinks they are the only ones doing them:) I don't know, "oh, I was so absent minded yesterday, I threw the fork and knife into the garbage can, omg I'm demented".
Even more in this field of ours, those feelings and situations are quite often. You simply don't know how many plateaus and mini breakdowns some top level illustrator had, for example. You often don't know are you even practicing the right way (even if you actually know you do, if you are at a plateau, your brain will start to weave a story that complements that plateau, like "we practiced in vain all this time, this exercise sucks"). So, when you start to doubt things and create negative patterns, they tend to stick and remain unchecked.
So I really think that talking with fellow artists is the best therapy one could have. Because, more often than not - and we've seen it right here in this thread - you will find that others are having the exact same situations, issues, doubts and problems.
As for the plateau - I think the best recipe is to simply take for granted that you are going to get through it and try not to think about it at all. Because, you WILL get through if you continue to practice, it's inevitable. It is frustrating and yes, you start to doubt and lose motivation etc. but try not to feed those things. Simply try to soldier it through. And, of course, come and whine with all of us from time to time, I mean, I do it all the time, I should have named my sketchbook thread "Doolio's whine thread" :D And I'll probably whine more as time progresses, because I have yet to reach a month since I've opened a sketchbook here:)
Same goes for motivation. And I must again praise this community, as the mere fact that I have a public sketchbook that fellow artists browse through and that there are other such threads and they all get updated insanely often, is enough for me to practice hard. Also, there are absolute beginners here, there are people like me, people better than me, people WAY better than me... and that's great, I love browsing all the sketchbooks.
And, when someone "disappears" to move on to bigger stuff, that's very positive:) You look at someone better than you and you see he's better because he practiced more/harder/longer. And you know that, because you're both humans:), you'll reach that level one day. And then you look at someone who's just beginning and you see you are better than him, because you've progressed. Because the progress is relatively slow (I mean, you draw a naked man like thousand times and then you STILL go "duhhhh" when you need to bend the knee or whatever) people tend to see that progress as being in the same spot. That's why I think you should think years and maybe months for smaller chunks of measurable progress and not just trust your emotional feeling that tells you you are stagnating. Take a look at a piece you did a year ago and see if you are stagnating and you'll see a lot of progress has happened. Guaranteed (if you practiced during that year).
So, try not to get swayed to the "wallowing side" because such is the path of a developing artist:D
Oh, and about the comfort zone and "plunging into the unknown", that's totally true. EVERYTHING is like that:) I mean, you were probably terrified when you went to buy milk for the first time as a six year old:) But you were proud when you did it:) Not to mention that now you're probably killing it:D
The problems start when we pour too much self awareness into these things. And that's that dark-talk side of the brain and it needs to be cut down as soon as it presents itself. If you were to give in to it, you would never buy milk and you would never have sex and you would never, well, get past the plateau in the gym or in front of a tablet:)