Artist don't eat compliments
Credit: Sarah Anderson
Before I begin to talk about talent and how people perceives it i want to talk about artist's main struggle. We cant eat compliments alone. Don't get me wrong , I highly enjoy compliments on my works as much as everybody. Peoples approach on this is very different from other jobs. When you go to see a doctor, you won't say;
"oh doctor, you are such a great person, i love the way you work with your medicine and the way you wear that stethoscope around your neck! keep up the good work, you are saving lives! "
I dont claim to be best at this art, and I know I have long way to go and improve. But art nowadays is a thing that you cant do fulltime. People often approach me "Wow, did you draw these?! amazing.. can you draw me???? pleaseee??" and when they hear about the price, they got mad, expect me to draw them for free. I drew lots of free portraits and logos, and graphics for my friends and their friends in the past. I don't ask for the money most of the time. General reaction i get when i tell them the price " What!! that is so expensive for a 1 hours of drawing! " while they are holding a Starbucks coffee and eating a dessert which is roughly the same price ^^
@kedi in his workshop. We used the same shape of my ibanez grg170x guitar . We couldn't complete the build because of lack of time. What is talent?
I don't know where to begin.. I stumble upon a comics by Sarah Anderson yesterday and i must say i feel so happy to see somebody adressed the situation. It really summarize the whole subject. All my life I hear words like " you are so lucky " , "you must be god's favorite" " god's gift" "you are gifted" and so on so forth. Talent is not something you acquire instantly from birth. Talent is not something downloaded to your body from the sky. Talent is not something you have in yourself without doing anything else.
"Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard"
Being good at something require hundreds if not thousands of hours of practice. Practice makes everything perfect, practice makes you better not only in arts but almost everything in this world. When people see a great musician, immediately they think "what a great talent, a gift of god, i wish i could play like him/her" But they can't see the thousand of hours practice behind that performance. I play couple of instruments too, i know how hard it is to get that good. Nobody born with the whole package. Everybody must work for what they want to do.
*Hopefully next time when you see a person good at what they are doing, don't just say "you are gifted" Remember that they practice hundreds of hours for being that good. And don't ask for free drawings if they are doing art for a living. ı would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. *
First drawing is for a friend of mine from the university, Stephan. Second one I did for a friend , he gave the drawings to his girlfriend for her birthday.
Material used for the drawings:
165 gr paper
Artline waterproof ink pen 0.05 / 0.1 / 0.3 / 0.6
Hi-text permanent marker
HB Pencil