“My 3 magical words now: “don’t be afraid” (every morning a writer is afraid of what he wrote in the previous day…) ”
- Paulo Coelho via twitter
Tags: illustration, motivation, something to think about, work, worry
There comes a time in everybody’s life when you’ll find yourself sprawled across your bed (made with recently lint shaved linen), leaning on a stack of freshly delinted clothes, watching Crocodile Dundee II on television while lint shaving your underpants.
While you’re wearing them.
And you’ll take in this scene, and ponder it for a second, then wonder:
“Why isn’t the rest of the world this well adjusted?”
Tags: I don't know, i'm an idiot, i'm crazy
A conversation today got me to thinking about just how effectively turning professional with art can kill your muse.
Previously, my art moods and inspiration would flit in and flit out, and I’d go with them, painting as I pleased. Now I sit down, coffee in hand, every single day, and somehow I just assumed my muse would do the same.
Not so.
Sometimes my inspiration – my art mojo, if you will – flips me the bird and goes off drinking with his buddies. Sometimes he hangs about, props his dirty feet up on the furniture and says “What if I refuse to work today, then? Huh? Whatcha going to do about it?” while I try to ignore him and hunch further into the computer, jam my fingers in my ears and try to type with my elbows.
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do about this. Mr. Art Mojo is a real jerk sometimes, a poor house guest and a thoroughly awful business partner.
Nothing you can do but keep turning up and doing your part of the work – if he won’t help, that’s his fault. At least you’re turning up for the job.
Sometimes though, there are things that I find help me get back into it. Here’s a list of the random (and sometimes little odd) things I do to try to get the wheels turning again.
Look after yourself
Sounds simple, but artists are stupid. Have you just spent 9 hours at your work and forgotten lunch? What was lunch? Condiments on spoons aren’t lunch, try again.
Have you had enough water? When did you last shower or change your clothes?Always remember that you’re the instrument you’re using to create with. If you let yourself get too run down, you’ll feel crap and stop feeling creative. Take multivitamins, get enough sleep, try to relax and make sure you’re remembering these things daily.
Easier said than done, but it is important.
Put it away
For now, agonising over it is going to make stuff worse.
Even if you can only ditch it for fifteen minutes, do.
Do something that makes you feel good
For me, this varies daily. Sometimes it’s a hot bath, sometimes it’s watching an episode of StarTrek or a sitcom, sometimes it’s being out in the garden and sometimes it’s doing some cooking.
The main thing is that it should absorb you and be enoyable. Try to focus on the task as you do it, or on the show as you watch it. Do your best not to let your mind drift to your work. Again, tricky, but worth the effort.
Tidy
Take a look at your work space. Is it overflowing with papers, coffee cups, weird little bits of plastic things you can’t idenfity and tumbleweeds of cat hair?
Working in a trash heap is draining. Fix this. Get your obsessive compulsive on and organise.
Personally, when my work space is not only organised but pleasing to look at, I look forward to sitting down at it.
Get the hell out
Spend time with friends, go for a walk or even go grocery shopping if you want.
Getting out of the house lets you walk away from the problems for a bit and offers a chance to get a bit of perspective. A few hours laughing with friends and you may realise that a poorly drawn hand isn’t something you’ll have to kill yourself over after all.
If you can’t get out but need company, catch up with other artists online. It’s often a huge relief to know you’re not experiencing all this alone.
Look at things that are different to your own work
As a digital painter I find that looking at other digital paintings for inspiration usually leaves me wanting to throw down my pen in a jealous rage and never work again.
So now, I seek inspiration in things entirely different from what I do.
I’ll browse watercolours, or photography or even watch a documentary about a visually stunning place. It provides me with visual input to process, without making me want to measure my own skill unfavourably against anybody else.
Similarly, music is a fantastic way to become inspired by a mood without feeling overwhelmed by other visual stimuli.Remind yourself
I find it easy to look at an obstacle and only see the mountain of work in front of me, but I think it’s important to remind yourself of the long journey you’ve taken to get where you are with your art.
Looking back, I realise I’ve come a long way and have learnt a LOT, which is something I’m proud of. My art isn’t the quality I want yet, but it’s so much better than when I started.
Have fan mail? Read it now. I’ve stored some of my favourite positive messages from years ago for this purpose.I also like to remind myself that I’m a professional. Sometimes I’ll even say that out loud.
I’m a professional!!
And I worked damned hard to be here. When I think of what ELSE I could be doing right now (counting baked bean cans on a shelf), I suddenly feel excited again to be living the dream.
I’m an art professional!!!
Damnit, when I think about that, that’s exciting!!
I’m an art professional and I’m living the dream!!And lastly…
Curse
There are times where none of the above work for me. I’m living a nightmare, my bank account is almost empty, the painting I’m working on is the worst I’ve ever seen and now that I think about it, what is the purpose of art? What is the purpose of me? Of my life? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ANYTHING OMG WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER TO LIVE????
Sometimes you have to sit down, get back to work anyway, turn to Mr. Art Mojo and say in a loud, clear voice:
“Fuck you. Fuck you!“
You mustn’t think it – it MUST be said out loud. Repeat if you like.
Sometimes it takes him by surprise, and he gets back to work out of pure shock, and sometimes, it just makes you feel better to swear.
And that’s is all I’ve got. Go forth and paint stuff. But not your loved ones. A well meaning lick of paint down the back makes them cranky. People eh? I don’t know.
Tags: art, illustration, motivation, work
Zoe Keating talks about quitting your tech job to become a musician.
So much of this also applies to being an artist. The decreased income and not seeing friends in particular.
Tags: art, illustration, work, youtube
It seems to me that nice, well meaning and otherwise intelligent people like to offer up the phrase ‘Well, everything happens for a reason’ when told of the woes of the world.
Can I just take a moment here and suggest that, despite being said with good intentions, this maybe be the single most fucking retarded offer of comfort I’ve ever heard?
When this is said to me, I try to take it with the good heartedness with which it was said.
But really? I honestly believe it’s only white middle to upper class people in technologically advanced countries who would even so much as entertain this notion.
The way I see it, there’s no way this can make sense. It suggests that reason is inherently good, a lack of reason inherently bad, and that there’s no such thing as a stupid reason.
So, let’s see….little Jonny Thirdworld dies in a sweatshop? OMG HOW AWFUL! Oh, wait, was there a reason? Oh yes, the reason is I need cheap t-shirts! Well, I feel so much better now. Cheer up little Jonny Thirdworld, everything happens for a reason!
A ‘reason’ isn’t the same as a good reason. And a ‘reason’ doesn’t mean it’s worth it.
Try living in a third world slum for a year (or, like many people do, a lifetime), watch the people you love drop dead around you from illness and disease, THEN see how you respond to somebody living it up in an affluent country spouting the wisdom only a fortunate few can afford to hold true: “everything happens for a reason!”
That isn’t to say that good can’t come from bad. That we shouldn’t try to find the positive in what we can, that we shouldn’t try to put what we learned through our negative experiences to good use in future.
But sometimes, there isn’t a reason. Not a good one. Sometimes the only reason is people are petty arseholes. Sometimes the reason is that a nation’s greed took all the food away from another.
Seems to me, saying “everything happens for a reason” absolves us of an awful lot of personal responsibility and guilt, and offers no comfort whatsoever to those who are truly suffering.
It says, in one glib sentence, “I have no understanding of your suffering, I have nothing left to say, I’m at a loss for what to do, I don’t wish to alter my world view to accept that random and pointless cruelty and suffering exist because they don’t in MY personal space, I can afford to remove myself from the daily woes of the average person and am possibly doing so by walking all over you little people and I refuse to accept guilt or personal responsibility for the injustices of the world that I really just prefer to turn a blind eye to.”
So people, for the love of all that is sane, don’t say this anymore.
And especially don’t say this to the people you love.
Tags: complaints, It's not just me is it?, rant, something to think about
Happy Australia Day, everyone! Time to celebrate the fact that we are Australians, and that as Australians, we are now joining Burma, China and North Korea in an exclusive censorship club! May we forever follow their shining examples of civil rights and liberties.
I’m aware it’s a cover (duh), but having an Australian sing it makes it especially relevant right now
Something I haven’t yet shared my (unsolicited) advice on is getting exposure for your art in the real world.
Online exposure is all well and good, but by being only online and not paying attention to the world around you, you miss a major chance to get your art ‘out there’.
The key to this aspect of marketing your art, in my experience?
Creativity and persistence.
Maybe good walking shoes…and possibly also coffee (or substance of addiction of your choice), but I think we’ll skip that part.
Local shops
Local people love local people. Don’t forget to love them back. Give small local businesses a chance to help support a local artist (such as yourself) and chances are they will.
What qualifies as local? Well, you can get creative here.
When I lived in a small coastal tourist town called Kiama (in the Illawarra region, in the state of NSW), I had my stuff in local shops just walking distance from my house as a ‘local Kiama artist’. At the same time, I had my stuff in shops 45 minutes away, as a ‘local Illawarra artist’.
I have also marketed myself as a ‘local NSW artist’, or even gone really broad as an ‘Australian artist’.People like to see what is being created around them, from the same environment they’re in, so local businesses are a really great bet. Make sure you promote yourself as local, and if you’ve got any artwork relevant to the area (wildlife, scenery, famous icons, etc) all the better.
Let your local shop owners know that by supporting you, they’re supporting the arts in the area, and that you’ll offer support back with loyalty, promoting the store on your website, etc.
Be a person
You’re an artist, not a corporation. Yet sometimes the temptation as an artist is to head too far into a business persona.
By all means by professional, but don’t forget that it’s your individuality that makes you ‘you’ as an artist. I found that by being comfortable with this, more people seemed to respond well to me.
The way I see it, any business owner is already dealing with other businesses, probably better run and more professional than yours. Don’t try to bluff them into thinking you’re the head of some art empire (they’ll see right through it and think you’re unhinged), let them see you’re a professional individual.
Put yourself in their shoes: who would YOU rather buy art from – a professional artist with a personality, or some want to be business person who was treating their art with the same boring business mentality that could be applied to selling polystyrene?
An an artist, creativity and individuality are your strengths. Play to that.Be selective in what you present
When locals shops carried my stuff, I didn’t just take my entire portfolio to every store.While in Kiama, a lingerie shop specialising in bridal lingerie took pictures of mine depicting female forms. I’d visited the shop, had a look about, realised I had some artwork that might fit, and took my female nudes and fantasy characters down there to show the owner.
They took them on consignment (be prepared to be flexible in arrangements like this too, just make sure you cover yourself with a contract if need be) as it complimented, but didn’t compete with, their existing stock. Art on the walls also dressed up the shop a bit, at no cost to the owner.
Win for all.
Meanwhile, a shop only across the road that sold quirky, alternative clothing was displaying my more unsual artwork.
I’d made sure to present each shop owner with different art best suited to their clients, and was careful not to give the two shops any of the same work. This way nobody was in competition, my art complimented each store differently, I’d inserted my art into two entirely different markets, store owners had free art, and when they sold we both made money.Get creative
Having your stuff in local shops is great, but if you get creative there are lots of other places to look at as potential galleries.
Cafes are an obvious choice, but there’s still a lot of other places that could benefit from local art, thus benefiting you as well.For instance, a skilled artist friend of mine does spectacular bold artwork featuring a vast array of animals. She could take her pictures of native animals to, perhaps, a local bed and breakfast. They could hang artwork not only for the sake of having nice artwork, but to add even more local flavour (native animals AND a local artist) for tourists to enjoy while visiting.
A deal could be arranged with the owners that they buy the artwork, or that they hang it for free, and that you both get a share of the money should a visitor buy any art.Similar deals can be struck up with all sorts of places, but tourist places and places looking to emphasise your town’s ‘distinct flavour’ are ideal. Look at tourist centers, libraries, locally owned hotels/motels, post offices, day spas, restaurants etc. Then tailor the art you take to these places to suit them.
Let’s say then you have a bunch of paintings of non native animals that none of these places are interested in. Where did you get the reference photos? If you take reference photos from a local zoo, contact them.
Let them know that a) you appreciate the zoo is there, and that by visiting it you’re able to take much needed reference photos and b) that these are the artworks you’ve done featuring the inhabitants. Would they be interested in purchasing any, or displaying some somewhere for the public to purchase?
This could also work for wildlife refuges and rehab places, and could be used to not only earn yourself some money on your art, but to serve as a fundraiser for these sorts of places that often run low on funds.
In cases like this, the obvious benefit of your art over other artists who may paint the same animals is that yours actually features, and then potentially gives back to, a resident.For those not painting animals, think about what you have painted, and what places are connected to those sorts of things.
Goblins and elves and dwarfs? Your local games workshop might be interested in carrying them. Or they might even be interested in having your contact details so that their gamers can contact you to commission individual character portraits. Maybe you could even suggest a sketch day in store, so gamers can pay for sketches of their characters.
No harm in asking, and you never know, they might even say yes.
Essentially, it’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open. Anywhere you see art, ask yourself “Would my art suit this place too?” and anywhere you DON’T see art, ask yourself “Why not? Is this a place I could make mine?”.
And don’t be afraid to ask! The worst a place can do is say no.
And that’s it. Go forth and art.
Tags: art, Art and illustration, something to think about, work