08-10-2014, 11:06 AM
I think you missed my main point a little. It wasn't some abstract notion of "we are all poweful and can do what we want". It was an actual confirmation of this fact despite our own best intentions to get in our own way.
All I was trying to say is that you shouldn't forgo your present for some constructed future that you have no way of knowing will even eventuate.
While I agree with some of the concerns you raised when thinking about things from a purely practical point of view, it is clear that they are all coming from a fear of uncertainty of your future well being as an artist. So without mincing words I'm going to call bullshit on the vision of your projected future, which is one that is overly negative, extrapolated on many vague assumptions and heavily doused in the smell of fear. An equally possible future is that you work hard for 4 years being true to yourself and coming up with a unique view of your own over time that people start to like it and get more exposure. Some art director at a convention sees some potential and gives you your first shot, which leads to more contracts. You get your work into some art mags like imagineFX and Spectrum. You get hired to work on a game that becomes the biggest cult hit indie game ever, that gets made into a movie which you then do concept art for. I mean really that is probably equally valid given that BOTH are completely made up possibilities. Why then choose the negative view? Fear.
All I'm saying is that many artists think this way, that we have to get the angle of attack right now, in order to reap the benefits in the future. Yes this is true to some extent, because if you don't put in work now it is unlikely you will hit your targets.
All I'm saying is try not to succumb to the stress of hitting that angle correctly all the time. If you are passionate, enjoy what you are doing, have a sense of what you want to do and what is important to you, then for sure things will fall into place. IF you stress out about % chances of getting a job in the future, what course/school/area to study these have a distinct possibility of skewing your own inner path. I know, because I had done exactly that, and it is a huge mistake, and one I try and stop other younger artists from repeating. That's all :)
To give you some context I turned 37 last week. For most of you guys on this forum it is ancient. I started the art journey close to 3 years ago. Never once did I think I was too old, who I was going to be competing with, what the industry would be doing and what that would meant for job possibilities. All I knew that I had spent too f*ing long not doing art, that I loved the process and that was all that mattered. The moment the idea of fitting into a job came about, I started going off track and fucking up my own inner sense of what I enjoyed because I thought the world was only looking for yet another mech-soldier-with-clothes artist. The web and community of artists is not a good place to find your individual vision I realised and went back to basics, not trying so hard to fit a mold, and do whatever I wanted. Shortly after this shift in my mind and doing some new pieces, I got asked to submit my folio to Weta by one of their seniors, and I won an international illustrator competition that gets me flown to LA next year. I'm still not working full time as an artist, and I'm not trying to be smug, but I did my years of grinding, and the moment I eased up and just let myself go the way I wanted, things started happenning.
What I didn't mean to imply is that you give up and not do ANYTHING at all now in order to get to a goal of doing art professionally, but instead that you can do whatever you want RIGHT NOW to get your fulfillment out of art, and not focus so heavily on the future ends.
Your statement that it seems like you can never win sometimes is very telling of your state of mind right now. The only person telling you you can't win, at this moment, is yourself.
You only fear competition from other artists when you aren't getting satisfaction from your own work. And I don't mean satisfaction in the output, but satisfaction in the process. Think about it, if you really did art out of a pure enjoyment of the process, it would make little difference whether someone could paint something better than you and consequently get that job instead of you? I can tell you for a fact that you wouldn't care and you would actually be genuinely happy for that other artist, because they have earned it.
So, basically, listen to your instinct, think it out and make the "career" decisions based on what you think is right, but then just leave it alone and see what happens!! The "not doing art professionally" stress just disappears if you can make that mental shift, and when it happens, all the better!
:)
All I was trying to say is that you shouldn't forgo your present for some constructed future that you have no way of knowing will even eventuate.
While I agree with some of the concerns you raised when thinking about things from a purely practical point of view, it is clear that they are all coming from a fear of uncertainty of your future well being as an artist. So without mincing words I'm going to call bullshit on the vision of your projected future, which is one that is overly negative, extrapolated on many vague assumptions and heavily doused in the smell of fear. An equally possible future is that you work hard for 4 years being true to yourself and coming up with a unique view of your own over time that people start to like it and get more exposure. Some art director at a convention sees some potential and gives you your first shot, which leads to more contracts. You get your work into some art mags like imagineFX and Spectrum. You get hired to work on a game that becomes the biggest cult hit indie game ever, that gets made into a movie which you then do concept art for. I mean really that is probably equally valid given that BOTH are completely made up possibilities. Why then choose the negative view? Fear.
All I'm saying is that many artists think this way, that we have to get the angle of attack right now, in order to reap the benefits in the future. Yes this is true to some extent, because if you don't put in work now it is unlikely you will hit your targets.
All I'm saying is try not to succumb to the stress of hitting that angle correctly all the time. If you are passionate, enjoy what you are doing, have a sense of what you want to do and what is important to you, then for sure things will fall into place. IF you stress out about % chances of getting a job in the future, what course/school/area to study these have a distinct possibility of skewing your own inner path. I know, because I had done exactly that, and it is a huge mistake, and one I try and stop other younger artists from repeating. That's all :)
To give you some context I turned 37 last week. For most of you guys on this forum it is ancient. I started the art journey close to 3 years ago. Never once did I think I was too old, who I was going to be competing with, what the industry would be doing and what that would meant for job possibilities. All I knew that I had spent too f*ing long not doing art, that I loved the process and that was all that mattered. The moment the idea of fitting into a job came about, I started going off track and fucking up my own inner sense of what I enjoyed because I thought the world was only looking for yet another mech-soldier-with-clothes artist. The web and community of artists is not a good place to find your individual vision I realised and went back to basics, not trying so hard to fit a mold, and do whatever I wanted. Shortly after this shift in my mind and doing some new pieces, I got asked to submit my folio to Weta by one of their seniors, and I won an international illustrator competition that gets me flown to LA next year. I'm still not working full time as an artist, and I'm not trying to be smug, but I did my years of grinding, and the moment I eased up and just let myself go the way I wanted, things started happenning.
What I didn't mean to imply is that you give up and not do ANYTHING at all now in order to get to a goal of doing art professionally, but instead that you can do whatever you want RIGHT NOW to get your fulfillment out of art, and not focus so heavily on the future ends.
Your statement that it seems like you can never win sometimes is very telling of your state of mind right now. The only person telling you you can't win, at this moment, is yourself.
You only fear competition from other artists when you aren't getting satisfaction from your own work. And I don't mean satisfaction in the output, but satisfaction in the process. Think about it, if you really did art out of a pure enjoyment of the process, it would make little difference whether someone could paint something better than you and consequently get that job instead of you? I can tell you for a fact that you wouldn't care and you would actually be genuinely happy for that other artist, because they have earned it.
So, basically, listen to your instinct, think it out and make the "career" decisions based on what you think is right, but then just leave it alone and see what happens!! The "not doing art professionally" stress just disappears if you can make that mental shift, and when it happens, all the better!
:)