SanderCommander

Talent is Earned

I get it. There are some people out there that do have some extreme capabilities right out of the womb, but this is targeted to those who are average joes, who think they can’t do things that a person with ‘Talent’ can.

Let’s start by defining the word ‘Talent’. According to dictionary.com it states

tal·ent  [tal-uh

nt]

noun

1. a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing.

2. a capacity for achievement or success; ability: young men of talent.

3. a talented person: The cast includes many of the theater’s major talents.

4. a group of persons with special ability: an exhibition of water colors by the local talent.

5. Movies and  Television. professional actors collectively, especially star performers.

This definition, in my opinion, is misused when said to me. Because to me it implies that what I do, is specially natural to me and it comes easy. But the truth is, it did not come easy. I fucking worked for it.

I was the music kid when I was growing up. When I started to play guitar I was around 15 years old, and acquired a good skill at it by practicing day after day for 5-6 years. I deserved to be good at it, and I was. Then when that career path seemed grim I tried my hand at normal jobs, like retail, and even plumbing. Eventually I decided that I wanted to work in video games and went to an art school majoring in programming. That’s right programming. I had no portfolio for art, nor was I any good at it. I was just as good as any kid who can trace anime. Which I can do. But saw that art was a much more creative, and interesting path to go down. So I switched.

You see, once I decided that I wanted to be a concept artist, I became a concept artist. It didn’t matter that I was bad, being bad is only a reflection of my lack of training and knowledge. So what do you do, when you lack the training and knowledge. You go get it, and there is no easy way around it. It’s a grind, and always will be a grind.

So I began to grind. (not the dance)

I spent 10-12 hours a day painting, drawing, learning, studying, applying, teaching, and reaching towards my goal. One goddamn inch at a time. I did this for 1-2 years and landed my first few jobs in the industry.

And to this day I study like no other, and practice all the time. So I’m going on 7 years of practice and acquiring knowledge full time. So I deserve to be good. Everyone knows this, the problem is nobody does it. When it comes to health everyone knows that to lose weight you have to eat right and exercise, but they always look for the six pack abs program done in 2 weeks. It’s the same with art. You have to digest solid information and practice constantly to become an accomplish artist. No one is accountable for your abilities other than your self. Funny thing about excuses, they work. Excuses are a great way of getting away from working hard. To me, because something is hard to do, is no excuse not to do it. If this is what you want to do, start doing it.

When people ask what did I do to become the artist I am today, I answer with, “I studied and painted a lot for 7 years straight.” People already know this answer but yet that’s not the answer they are looking for.

You may think that it was easy for me to practice and study. Nope. I have failed on so many occasions and keep making mistakes to this day. The difference is I don’t care if my studies or my practice sucks. It’s supposed to, that’s why I do it. If it didn’t suck then I’m not learning or forcing myself to seek new and improved solutions to my problems. When I post stuff it’s the stuff that didn’t suck. I have 100x more images that are complete garbage. So don’t worry about being bad now, because it doesn’t last if you work for it.

To you it may look like magic, but to me, it’s so transparent. My talent, was earned. And yours can be too.

How to stay Motivated.

I’m writing this article for the type of people who say that just can’t find motivation to:

Make a portfolio Finish a painting Work on their personal project Etc.

I got three tips I’m about to write, and it’s just advice and things that I found useful for myself. If you are capable to do any of these things you should definitely try them.

Tip 1

Fear. Get rid of it. If you are fearful of the outcome it will unmotivate you immediately. Just finish whatever it is and think about how you can improve after. If you can’t see what you need to improve ask someone else to tell you. There is always room to improve, and if you go into a critique with an open mind you will grow exponentially.

Think of it like this. If you were running one lap, and half way through you stopped because you were afraid you were going to throw up or pass out, you will never really know how fast you can run that lap. You didn’t push yourself enough to know your limits. If you finished the lap and did it in, lets say 3 minutes, you can now train and try again. If you run 10 seconds faster, you can see improvement. If you don’t you can see whatever you were doing may need more time or isn’t working. But at least you can now see where you are at, and make a move.

Tip 2

Which brings me to my next tip, which is clarity. The lack of it will keep you unmotivated. If you don’t know what you are going to TRY to do to be motivated, you will never start. I like to make a game plan of the things I’d like to learn or improve on. Let’s say Tuesday I’ll go and do some studies in lighting, the next day anatomy. I set a time limit and follow through. Even if all I did was draw/paint from reference, I put in a good effort to improve myself that day.

Here is another way of thinking about it. If you are playing a role playing video game where you can level up, the goal is clear. Kill 10 monsters, you level up. So what do you do, kill 10 monsters and sure enough you LEVEL UP! Then it says kill 20 monster, and so on and so forth. The thing is that the game is giving you an artificial sense of achievement that propels you to stay motivated in it and keep playing. All you need to do is the same thing with schedules, and planning. Just say to yourself, if I put in 10 hours a week, I should level up in art. And you would.

Tip 3

And the last thing you should do to stay motivated is have fun. It doesn’t always have to be work or studying. It can just be dicking around and see what you come up with. Many of my personal projects have evolved from this. At first it started out as a test or some practice, but then it turned out great, and I had a blast doing it. So I would do more and more, and then BAM bunch of new pieces and art to show others. And be proud, even if they aren’t all that great, you had a moment of glory and that rewards you with self confidence to go on.

>BUY<

55 minute video

HiRes JPEG and PSD

My Photoshop CC tools

This process is about how I take simple forms and design, copy paste them all over and paint on top of them to create the illusion of new fresh detail. This mostly covers the painting process. The point of the process is to help you paint fresh designs with unity and variety