Yeah!!! Totaly agree!
People are like- you're so talented!
No, we're not, we are developing taste, skills, collecting knowledge and learning how to apply it in our works. When an artist shows me, someone, that he or she looks up to and says- I will never be as good as he is in the craft. I ask- How old is he/she? And then they say- 40, 50...Older... And I reply- You will be as good as them at their age, maybe better. You just have to put as much time into it as they did or even more. We're standing on the shoulders of giants! You just have to learn, and now learning is easier than ever, it's amazing that we can reach each other and help, grow or just talk. It takes time, effort and discipline, practice, repetition. Make perfect practice until it's perfect! There is no need to romanticize art. Drawing, painting and any other way of visual expression are just like math, physics, chemistry or any other field of science. These don't get romanticized? Why should art be? It's like getting good at something happens overnight... It happens over countless nights, countless experiments and countless scrapped projects won't see the sunlight. When someone says that someone is talented... I feel like he is discarding that person's effort to be better... I have anger towards that, It's driving me insane to listen to people that never took the time to learn and develop something and at the same time they are the first to say- "Yeah but you're talented" No I am not, no one is! We're just busting our asses, searching and fixing mistakes in order to become something more.
I'm sorry for that rant but... Lately, these people are getting more and more, or just the media gives them a voice that we could not hear that often before...
Power to you!
he he... I understand your rant @svdsdragunov. The romance of the talented person I think goes back to, funnily enough the period of the Romantics (late 1800's). I read an article that reseached where the story of the starving artist came from. Apparently it was a French Romantic story that gained popularity, that of the struggling, misunderstood genius artist.
The modern media has amplified this story, but now since the 80's with manufactured stars, we are sold the story of overnight success. People disastisfied with themselves and their lives make for voracious consumers and hence increase the profits of those who unscrupulously prey upon it.
I think prior to that, talent was always understood as the result of many years of dedicated training. The Medieval guilds testify to that. You apprenticed to a master and learnt until achieved mastery of the craft.
I am starting to see a trend back towards this approach of dedicated learning and self-improvement through the growing demand for classical Academic art training in Ateliers.
Some of us at least, are beginning to igore the mainstream narrative as it hollows itself out to the point of collapse.
Power to you @svdsdragunov!
The searching of a teacher for me started 2 years ago. It was an advice from the man that taught me how to paint digitally. For now, I have no success. But I'm doing my best. Not missing opportunities is the thing that pushes us forward.
It's just a misunderstanding of the word, for some reason people are losing the idea that work is the reason why we are where we stand... I don't know. Even younger artists than me slack hard, Trying to go around the raindrops and not get wet in the process.
I've met an "artist" like that yesterday and got really angry at him, he is a musician and while we were talking he shared with me that he does not know why he does not get what he wants from what he does. I asked him- how much time you spend practicing a day? His answer- 2 to 3 hours a week... Tried to explain to him that this is not the way but he was repeating some sort of excuse... I've got my beer and went to the bar.
Guessing there will always be people like that.
Well, I have to admit I was kind of like that until recently. I did put effort in, but not as much as was needed. Also changing my technique helped. It was after researching "success" in many different fields that I started to discover a repeating pattern. All self made successful people work their arses off and don't stop. It might mean sacrificing some things in your life to achieve it, but that's why we are fascinated with such people; they go the extra miles that most are not willing to do.
Yes, there will always be a majority of people who only do enough, that's the 99%. The 1% are those who do excess of enough.
Recently I found a book that opened my eyes even more about what is efficient practice, and how to apply it no matter where. It's called the "Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle". That might be interesting for you to check.
Thanks, I'll investigate.