[Artips #1] Why you *do* have talent

Hello everyone!

So, let's get started with this Artips series of journals about tips sharing and experience in general. I tend to babble a lot, so beware.
Your input and feedback is most appreciated, so do comment and share your experience/opinion/random thoughts with me and everyone who cares to read! The more the merrier.


This first journal will be about...

Why you *do* have talent (whatever you might think about it).


Have you ever thought "Oh my, I suck, my art sucks, I'll never be a good artist, I don't have enough talent, I'll never be anywhere as good as [insert your favourite artist's name here]" or any kind of variation about it?
If you have, don't worry - we all do (well, almost all) at times. Some feel that way more than others, but... we all have these thoughts to an extend. No matter how good, no matter how "talented".
What I'm trying to say is that hardly anybody is ever entirely happy with their own work, so if what you're pursuing is the day when you'll look at your artwork and think "damn, I'm awesome", it's likely that you're in for a disappointment. Same if you're waiting for the day when you'll be 100% sure that you're "a good artist".

Doubting yourself and your own work is something healthy, actually (to an extend, at least. Feeling like blowing your head because of it is definitely NOT healthy). How could you keep improving if you felt like your work is already awesome? Now that would be a creativity killer...! As artists, we're our own worst critics, we always feel like the result is not really what we were going for, we always see things we're not satisfied with, we're always bitching about that-ugly-little-tiny-thing-that-nobody-can-see-but-you-know-it's-there-and-it-bugs-you. And that's why we try to do better next time, and that's how we improve.

So, don't worry too much about your actual level today, right now. I've seen people so discouraged and so focused on their skill level that it completely blocked their creativity (I've felt that way myself at times). You really don't want to do that. Firstly, it's always better to have room for improvment, than to feel that you've seen it all and done it all (nobody likes blasés, right? They don't make very good artists anyway.). Secondly... well, you've got talent. Whatever you might think about it.

I personally don't believe that talent is some kind of dazzling, magical technical ability you were born with. As far as I'm concerned, skills are 99% hard work. Ok, some people might be a bit more predisposed, but really...that's 1% of the whole thing. The rest is work, work, work.

So what's talent? Well, for me, being "talented" is mostly loving what you do. It's what gets you to pick a pencil and draw like crazy, just because you enjoy it. It's what keeps you motivated for creating your artwork. How many great artists do you know who hate art? None at all. Talent is just... well, feeling like creating. Don't get me wrong : it's not the same thing as "creativity" or "originality". It's the spirit of wanting to create art, whether you have the skill or not, whether you have ideas or not, just because you enjoy creating.

So, you're talented. Or you probably wouldn't be reading this. You've got the will (... tie Rambo's ribbon around your head, now).
Now, as Picasso said it wisely long before me... Talent without work is just a bad habit. Sad as it may sound, improving your skills requires work. Lots of work. Of course, some people are really quick learners and improve super-fast, but for the rest of us... it takes years and years of work before we look back at our old work and think "wow, I've improved quite a lot!". Not to mention that some got started really early and have already gone a long way...! So, there's no shortcuts and no day when you'll wake up in the morning with sudden magical drawing skills.
But wouldn't that be much, much sadder if some people were born with talent, and the rest of us would just have to watch them from the sideway with no hope whatsoever to improve?! So look at the bright side: with work, you will improve.

I try to look at improvement as a road. We all started at the beginning of the road... but some started as 3-year-olds, and some just got started. Some walk fast, some walk slowly. There's no rule and there shouldn't be one. It's not a race to the top. Since you like what you do, you keep creating and you walk that damn road, and you improve. The harder you work, the faster you improve. Also, you shouldn't keep thinking of the "end" of the road... because there's no end. What you should be thinking about is the next step you will take... and the next one... and before you know it, you're further on the road.

The good thing about art is that it's not like mathematics. In mathematics, if you have an equation, there's only one way to solve it and one solution in the end. In art, there are as many solutions as artists. Which is awesome! It means that you shouldn't compare the road you walk on, to the roads of the other artists around you. Each one their own, and that's all for the best! What's interesting about your art is your evolution. What you've got to show. How you improve and develop. So don't go thinking "I'll never have [insert artist]'s talent"... sure you won't. You've got your own, which is better. Maybe you'll never have their skills, but what's important is to develop your own, so who cares!

So, the key is work, work and work, and most importantly, enjoy yourself. You paint, sculpt, photgraph, write, whatever, because you love it. Not because you're into a skills competition with so-and-so. Turn what you don't like about your work into fuel for creativity, into energy to work harder and improve. Don't feel bitter or sad because you think you're "not as good as" somebody else: see it as a motivation to work harder. Try hard and eventually you'll succeed... sometimes not in the way you expected to! Don't feel discouraged. We all started somewhere, and we're all going somewhere... although we may not really know where. But that's part of the fun.


Ok, I babbled for waaaaaay too long... this is more than enough.


Next time's babble should be about originality, finding your own style and such, since many people asked about it.


Talk to you soon!