1 Great Tip for Becoming a Better Artist

Here is a great habit you should consider picking up if you want to become a professional artist.

Work on projects.

Here's the explanation:

You can spend a lot of time sketching from nature and drawings nudes.  You can draw a thousand little heads on notebook paper.  You can work on your shading and line weight, etc.

Unfortunately, however, good draftsmanship is trumped by good design sense.

You're not going to learn design by sketching and making incomplete drawings.  You learn design by finishing.

This is why working on projects is so important.

You can make up your own if you like.  Maybe you've had this idea for a graphic novel kicking around in your head.  Draw it!  Are you in a band?  Make stickers, fliers, and CD covers.  Make a coffee cup painting for a local coffee shop...free of charge!

Having a project to work on teaches you how to solve relevant problems.  It builds the skills you need to be successful in the marketplace.  You learn how to make compelling work.  You learn how to use space effectively.  You learn how to make your drawings serve your purpose.

Don't just doodle.  Work on projects.

Hemingway on Style

Steven Pressfield has posted George Plimpton’s famous interview of Ernest Hemingway.
Something that Hemingway said really struck a chord with me:

INTERVIEWER

Could you say how much thought-out effort went into the evolvement of your distinctive style?

HEMINGWAY

That is a long-term tiring question and if you spent a couple of days answering it you would be so self-conscious that you could not write. I might say that what amateurs call a style is usually only the unavoidable awkwardnesses in first trying to make something that has not heretofore been made. Almost no new classics resemble other previous classics. At first people can see only the awkwardness. Then they are not so perceptible. When they show so very awkwardly people think these awkwardnesses are the style and many copy them. This is regrettable.

I was reminded of a quote.  I don't remember the source, but it was basically that a person's style is the sum of their deficiencies.

Style should be a choice, not an excuse for bad craft.

Go read the rest of the interview.

How to Stop Being a Frustrated Creative

If you're like me, you have a desire to create things.

If you're like me, you also have a particular nagging problem:

When I'm creating something, I get aggravated because I'm not getting the result I want, and I'm not talking about feeling frustration at the end of a project.  I get frustrated in the middle of the project!


I've always looked to the end of things too quickly.  My 12th grade Calculus teacher told me I messed up math problems because my mind got ahead of itself.

But watching a friend of mine on the computer a month ago helped me realize what I've been doing wrong.

He was designing T-shirts on the computer.  I got to see his process.  He would quickly start with an idea instead of taking a long time to think about what to do.  He would just get started.  Then, once he had a rough draft down, he would correct issues he didn't like one at a time.

That was the clincher for me.

I've always thought about designs in total, and I would try to manipulate too many variables at once.

Instead, my friend would find one thing that irked him and fix that.  Then he would fix something else.  Then something else.  Before too long, he ended up with something he liked.

This change in thinking represents the difference between enjoying the work process and trying to get to the finish line as fast as you can.  Ironically, in trying to finish your work too quickly you slow yourself down with frustration and mistakes.  When you enjoy the process and fix your problems one at a time, your work is completed faster.

This mindset can be applied to anything.  You could be writing a song.  Instead of getting frustrated because the song sucks, fix the problems with it one at a time.  This melody isn't catchy enough...this turnaround is boring...this chorus is too long...etc., etc.  Before too long, you've got a much better song.  More happily, you have a much better completed song.

Don't think about how much you dislike something you've made.  Just fix what you don't like about it one little issue at a time.