I have talked a lot about my “experience” with Adobe MAX last fall. There were so many great talks and tools. I picked up so many great ideas for my creativity posts from all of the wonderful speakers. One of these speakers was Anthony Jones. I started writing today’s post based off of one thing he said, but ended up watching his whole talk again. I wanted to write everything that he said. Instead of doing that, I thought I would share his talk here. It is only 30 minutes but it is totally worth it.
Here are some of the things that spoke to me.
His perspective on creativity.
People are creative by nature (see? not just me). Kids are always singing and doing art. I liked that he pointed out that, how creative someone may be in their lives really depends on how that was nurtured and supported as an individual gets older. We are all creative. HOW you are creative is up to you. There isn’t a creative bone that people are born with.
Creative people work hard to get where they are.
I really liked his comparison of the art to a gym workout. You don’t start benching 400 lbs, you start smaller and work your way up to it. No one starts amazing, you need to work at it. All really great artists have worked very hard to get to where they are at, they have done a lot of work to get the way they are. Art is a skill that is worked for and earned.
You need to keep at it.
Some people might not feel motivated so they won’t draw that day, or they will stop drawing. You need to draw a lot to be a good artist.
If you don’t feel like drawing today, draw anyway! Set a timer for 30 minutes, don’t worry about quality, just the time. If you keep doing this it will build the habit. You might not be producing what you think is quality now, but you are working towards better quality art later. It’s not just going to click while you’re sitting around, you need to be working for it. Once you have a bit of a habit, you can accelerate forward. Don’t give up too soon.
Eventually, you will get to a point where some things feel like second nature. Do not even ask me what half of the shortcuts are that I use in Illustrator or Photoshop. My poor trainees have to listen to me saying things like “Use the ctrl shift B tool”. They are so patient. But if you get to that point, somethings will feel more natural or like second nature, facilitating what you are doing, and leaving room for more learning.
You also have to “pay your art bills”. Don’t let the skills get rusty, the longer you leave them, the harder they are to get back. This is a fact. Ask any art student who thought it would be a good idea to take the summer off. I’ll wait. Continuing to pay your art bills will eventually pay off in pride and confidence in your work, which can lead to even bigger things if you keep working at it.
Anthony also has a great cycle on how to not suck at art anymore. I really think you should watch this part, it can really be applied to anything. Some things do come to some people a little quicker, that doesn’t mean that you suck, or that they are more talented than you. Maybe something else that they have worked really hard at in the past helped them this time. They didn’t just get there by magic.
Keep learning.
Art is a skill. You need to feed it. No one is just naturally good at it. No one naturally knows how they would do their art either. You need to do the research. Put in the time.
For example, I did not know that I liked markers first. Or that a more paper cutout, hard outline style would be what worked best for my ideas right away. I went through A LOT of different things to get me there. I tried a lot of art supplies, I tried a lot of styles, I ran lots of experiments, wasted a lot of pages. At some point somethings really spoke to me more than others did. Some media felt more natural for me to use than others. I still think today that I am still reaching for my style, I don’t know if that really is something that anyone really decides on, it’s just a place that you get to. Listening to that and researching that is how we get where we need to go.
Don’t limit yourself either. Anthony’s example is a face. “Faces are hard. I can’t draw faces.” OK, I guess you’ll never do that then. OR, you can change the perspective. “Faces are hard to draw. I need to study.” I am doing this right now. I have a bit of a struggle with hands, so I could just stop drawing hands. OR, because I think that the hands and the eyes are the most expressive parts of my ideas, why let the art suffer? So, I am studying hands, figuring out ways to draw them and facilitate my process. I even got a visual aid that I hope will help me out. The point is, you can set up the barriers, or you can blow past the limits and learn all you can to make the best art you are able.
This is just a small piece of what Anthony talked about at MAX, so please take a minute to give it a watch.
To all you artists, creatives, and humans out there, keep paying your “art” bills, and own that talent. You have worked hard for it, you feed it, and you’ve earned it!
Hues & Tones 