It seems that I’ve already begun to neglect you, my lovely blog with very few readers… but it’s fine. I didn’t have much to say anyways. I finished my self-portrait but do to epic luck, my camera is out of batteries and thus, I do not have a photo to show you all. I’m not sure how much I like this painting… I feel I could’ve done a lot better but I lacked some materials that I had consequently left in Ontario. Matte medium, oh how I miss you.
To be honest though, I just wanted to come to this pleasant little blog of mine to pass off some thoughts that some people may or may not share with me nor agree with. Who knows?
In the past year I was doing a one-year course in Art Fundamentals. Now, I’m not saying I’m an AMAZING artist, far from it, but I like to think that I exceeded several people in terms of versatility. A lot of my fellow classmates were strong in certain areas but not quite others. For example, a friend of mine did amazing life drawings of our models but needed more improvement in applying his skills to painting. It’s not like he didn’t try though, by the end of the school year he showed amazing improvement and it’s because he applied himself in the field he was weakest in. If you work in one field over and over, you will be good in that one area, but how will it affect the other areas?
What I’m trying to get at is… versatility. As in, I know a lot of artists who have sadly, only ever drawn cartoons or anime. They aspire to find a career path with it but in fact, have not drawn from life. At some point, I’m sure it’s because they believe that trying to draw something from life, in a realistic style, is too difficult. However I found that this lack of education has become so accustom to them that when they do approach life drawing that they unfortunately transform it into the style that they had learned.
Life as an illustrator isn’t easy. The art life is romanticized. It is not painting in a big bright house on a porch, over-looking the sunset. The business is hard and competitive. If these artists who are looking to work in the industry of their choice, the unfortunate reality of it is that if they have no versatility in their work and cannot show a diversity of styles… well it’s quite like hearing someone sing with a monotone voice. It’s all just one, flat note and an assault on the song and to your ears.
Or another problem I find is that some people do leech off a style but clients want to see YOU in YOUR work. Even if your clients want something done very specifically, they are buying your individual style.
So to my fellow aspiring illustrators; please keep in mind that you need to work hard to achieve your goals and with that you need to keep your individuality but also keep your work fresh, diverse and make sure that you’re able to be versatile with your work.
R.