11-17-2013, 06:32 AM
Recently I read some books. Actually they were recomended by Chris Oatley. He mentions them all the time in his podcasts. The books are: 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferris and The Dip by Seth Godin. Books were good, I did not agree with everything in them, but they were interesting. After the books I somewhat started to search the internet by typing authors names in google. Some interesting videos were found. I would like you to watch them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDtkBsWgzWE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylLgJ4rpTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB6K60mkmho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm3vq_zkOn4
Now, what's the point. First of all I would like to remind you the words of Chris Oatley who said that every artist should be an entrepreneur. Instead of working hard to look for clients and try to please them, try to come up with your own ideas for projects and find the audience for them. Quite interesting idea, probably nothing new. It somewhat goes with the Seth Godin and Tim Ferris books. Anyway, the people who make the most money out of entertainment industry aren't necessary the creators. Is it good or bad, that's not the point here. What I would like to put attention to is the mindset of average artist. We struggle to get better and better. To train our skills the most. Art is hard and needs a lot of practice. There's no doubt. What kind of made me wonder was the thing that most artist are planning to do when they actually get those skills. Land in dream job, get hired (wherever), get more commissions(from whoever). Aren't those quite vague and not precise goals? We want to do something, that unnecesarry we will be happy with, to eventually get money and forget about whole thing. Isn't that lack of planning? Here comes the entrepreneurship... Entrepreneur has everthing planned precisely (at least he should have). He know what tools he would need, what are the risks and benefits. He strips of unnecessary things. This is a project oriented thinking. Now we come to learning. I must say that the speeches by Tim Ferris and Jonathan Fields about "accelerated" learning really opened my eyes. Those guys are so precise. So focused and with apropriate and most efficent tools. This is something that I think artist are missing. We kind of go around everything. For example Burne Hogarts book called Dynamic Anatomy has 70 pages of preface where author mostly moans about the state of modern art and the dualism of art and science. Pretty entertaining, but still I bought this book to learn anatomy for f... sake! Anyway, what came to my mind after the books, videos and Oatleys podcasts is that we should be more precise. More project oriented. For example - want to do game that is mostly 2d and contains isometric buildings - train yourself for that purpose. Gain proper visual library, learn to push the design further and further, learn to draw greatly in perspective. Learn proper color mixing. That is a lot, but still, for this purpose you skipped human anatomy, character design etc. I don't want to say that those things are useless, but for your current project they are irrelevant. Maybe, your next project will be a comic book, then you will stick to anatomy, character design and so on. Of course I don't want to be rude or upset anybody. Futhermore I might be wrong. That is just a thought. Let me know what you think of this. I think this idea could be helpful when dealing with overwhelming amount of art issues, unstable market and persons who want to make a use of you. In this way you know what is your current focus and because of internet it isn't that hard to find audience. You work for yourself, not for somebody else. If you fail, what will eventually happen, you can learn from failure and try again. If you succeed you probably will be more happy than a freelancer or a person with artistic day job. And having a day job doesn't mean you cannot do your own projects. Who knows, maybe that is even safer way than learning alot, quiting day job and struggling as a freelancer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDtkBsWgzWE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylLgJ4rpTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB6K60mkmho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm3vq_zkOn4
Now, what's the point. First of all I would like to remind you the words of Chris Oatley who said that every artist should be an entrepreneur. Instead of working hard to look for clients and try to please them, try to come up with your own ideas for projects and find the audience for them. Quite interesting idea, probably nothing new. It somewhat goes with the Seth Godin and Tim Ferris books. Anyway, the people who make the most money out of entertainment industry aren't necessary the creators. Is it good or bad, that's not the point here. What I would like to put attention to is the mindset of average artist. We struggle to get better and better. To train our skills the most. Art is hard and needs a lot of practice. There's no doubt. What kind of made me wonder was the thing that most artist are planning to do when they actually get those skills. Land in dream job, get hired (wherever), get more commissions(from whoever). Aren't those quite vague and not precise goals? We want to do something, that unnecesarry we will be happy with, to eventually get money and forget about whole thing. Isn't that lack of planning? Here comes the entrepreneurship... Entrepreneur has everthing planned precisely (at least he should have). He know what tools he would need, what are the risks and benefits. He strips of unnecessary things. This is a project oriented thinking. Now we come to learning. I must say that the speeches by Tim Ferris and Jonathan Fields about "accelerated" learning really opened my eyes. Those guys are so precise. So focused and with apropriate and most efficent tools. This is something that I think artist are missing. We kind of go around everything. For example Burne Hogarts book called Dynamic Anatomy has 70 pages of preface where author mostly moans about the state of modern art and the dualism of art and science. Pretty entertaining, but still I bought this book to learn anatomy for f... sake! Anyway, what came to my mind after the books, videos and Oatleys podcasts is that we should be more precise. More project oriented. For example - want to do game that is mostly 2d and contains isometric buildings - train yourself for that purpose. Gain proper visual library, learn to push the design further and further, learn to draw greatly in perspective. Learn proper color mixing. That is a lot, but still, for this purpose you skipped human anatomy, character design etc. I don't want to say that those things are useless, but for your current project they are irrelevant. Maybe, your next project will be a comic book, then you will stick to anatomy, character design and so on. Of course I don't want to be rude or upset anybody. Futhermore I might be wrong. That is just a thought. Let me know what you think of this. I think this idea could be helpful when dealing with overwhelming amount of art issues, unstable market and persons who want to make a use of you. In this way you know what is your current focus and because of internet it isn't that hard to find audience. You work for yourself, not for somebody else. If you fail, what will eventually happen, you can learn from failure and try again. If you succeed you probably will be more happy than a freelancer or a person with artistic day job. And having a day job doesn't mean you cannot do your own projects. Who knows, maybe that is even safer way than learning alot, quiting day job and struggling as a freelancer.
It's a somewhat solitary existence, a bit like a lighthouse keeper throwing a beam out into the darkness, in faith that this action might help someone unseen.
My Sketchbook (critique welcome)
My Sketchbook (critique welcome)