After careful calculating and clever research I have come to the conclusion that success is about 5% talent and 95% hard work.
I of course just made those numbers up because who really wants to have to live with the pressure of a statistic?
If I had to guess I'd say must of us aren't 'talented'. Or at least talented in the typical sense of the word.
I for one am not one of those rare and beautiful talented people. But I sure know what it means to work hard!.
It's really hard to point out what exactly what kinds of things I am drawn to when it comes to art and story telling. It would be really easy to say that I love fantasy! I love the bright colors and the magic and the castles and the monsters.But I am not necessarily in love with fantasy's happily-ever-after, knight saves the day kind of story. While happily-ever-afters are very much rooted in fantasy I always enjoyed that bitter touch of reality.It started way back in middle school when I decided that I wanted to be a writer. Yes a writer, I wasn't a good artist. I loved telling and writing stories above all else. I spent all through elementary school being showed up by my best friend who was a 'talented' artist. We went through this little faze of creating our own worlds that I wrote and he designed. My stories were always a little dark. I remember writing one when I was little and then letting my mom read it. She got upset with it because it was a sign of a bad childhood and parenting. Oops.
But then BOOM! Half way through middle school the best thing to ever be created ever was released! And I will stand by this forever that Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the best stories ever created!(Better than Brotherhood, I will fight you on it). It was funny and sad and touching and cool and the characters! Sorry, I had a moment there. The point of that was that ever since then I based all of my writing and my characters around a story like that. A fantasy were the line between good and evil were blurred and a cast of characters who were so human they could fail.
Almost immediately as I started to watch the show did I start to work on becoming a better artist. Like many young kids around that time I was so infatuated with the style. Which was in a way strange because it's not like I've never seen anime before but there was just something about the style of this one that made me what to start drawing, I mean get better. I always drew, but this was the time when I decided to really get better at it. For better or for worse off of the anime styleI also immediately started to draw comics at this time and they were actually, a very very early version of the comic I am currently working on! Looking very different than she does now, Raine is the main character of the very first comic I've ever drawn! I still have these comic pages too, which could totally be a fun thing to bring out and show people after I've become oh so famous?
I worked my butt off to get where I am today in my art skills. On more than one occasion I've encouraged new artists to keep practicing and studying and developing.It was rather mind blowing to be told I was good at art and then have it followed by, 'but I'm not good!'. I've never considered myself a good artist, possibly decent and still learning but I've come so very very far since I first started. I was bad and everyone around me was so good but instead of being discouraged by them I used my fellows as a goal, that one day I would be them! OR better! And that is what I tell those who compliment me in such a way.
I've also unknowingly excepted the challenge always, I never consider my skill when attempting a project. If I want to do something I go for it even after being told to stop biting off more than I can chew.
It's better to try and fail than to never try at all!
I was once told by an art teacher that all my friends looked up to that I'd never be good at art all because I couldn't copy a picture well. But here I am! Still trudging along, a million times better than he probably ever thought I could be!
If I were good at anything at all it was my characters and their personalities and how real they felt. The greatest compliment I believe I ever got from anyone was a friend I really looked up to in high school. She was so good at drawing realistic pictures and paintings, I was always a bit jealous, but she told me that she was jealous of me and how alive the characters in my comics were, they breathed.
As of now I am more determined than ever to make and create my own comics on my own. I'm not really thinking of joining a studio or working for Marvel or anything like that. Maybe I'll change my mind in ten years or so. I heard a great deal of talk about how you're more likely to get hired by bigger companies if you have the proof of being able to make a comic book yourself. So if I ever want to work for either Marvel or not DC or something along the lines, making my own book or series will help me out a ton.
For now all I can think of doing is just getting started already and spreading the word through the internet on the million of sites I've set up for myself and going to conventions and such.
Full Post
No comments:
Post a Comment