#163 - Becoming An Artist By Not Trying To Be One
Stay off social media as much as you can.
YouTube Video - Practice Drawing A Rotating 3D Bent Cylinder Model
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” — Ernest Hemingway.
his is why I don’t call myself an artist: if people think you’re an artist, they expect you to make objects to hang on walls, to sell in galleries, to put on display in museums. And for you, this may be different, but I don’t care for any of that very much. There’s a lot of competition. Many people want to be prominent, well-known, respected artists. It takes a lot of time to promote yourself, select works or even create a series specifically for an exhibition, frame works, transport them to and from the exhibit, figure out how to hang the work there, and be present at the opening.
I’d rather just be drawing Kim Jung-Gi or Katsuya Terada style.
Focusing on pleasing others and making what you think the market wants can become soul-destroying.
I made that mistake with social media for a while. I wanted to figure out how social media works and ended up on a treadmill, trying to please an algorithm, which became an incredibly unsatisfying experience.
Just 15 or so years ago, there weren’t any social media platforms, and artists developed their body of work in private, in isolation, for years, making painting after painting without anyone seeing their work. It was just them in conversation with their canvases, trying to achieve something, trying painting after painting, learning and growing along the way. This is a healthy process.
You lead a caged existence if you try to make every piece you create something for public consumption.
It is liberating if you let go of trying to make things that please other people or algorithms. You’ll find a sense of freedom as if shackles were removed. You discover that there are no rules, and you can do anything you want!
I’m just copying beautiful art into my sketchbooks for practice. Some people think a rule says you can’t do that, but why not if it’s in your private sketchbook? I can’t sell the art as they are copies of copyrighted work drawn into sketchbooks, not frameable sheets of paper, but I enjoy it a lot, and I am learning and growing. If you make work for yourself, you’ll find there are suddenly far fewer rules to adhere to, just as long as it pleases you.
At the end of the day, I look at my sketchbook pages, and they please me! It is very satisfying and makes me want to draw the next day. And if I am is not inspired, just leafing through my sketchbook makes me want to draw.
If you start making things that please you, others will like it, too. People like my sketchbook pages. I do share some of my practice pages now because I love these pages so much, but they were initially intended to be kept private and hidden in my sketchbooks.
Over time, you will produce a body of work, and if you have a quirky style, the sheer volume of work will make it impressive and make an audience appreciate it.