10 Mind-Altering Tips For Artists Who Want To Achieve Greatness In Their Lifetime

Great art must be destroyed and reworked many times before it becomes great. Those who love their art will have a hard time doing so...

The art itself is just a medium for expressing the story. Don't let your personal urges for creative expression get in the way of telling the story.

Everyone is born with talents for a specific type of art. Use this in-born talent instead of trying to hone an artistic style that doesn't suit you. Otherwise, you'll spend more time on technical details than on the story itself...

Thinking that you have to create art every single day, non-stop... is the fastest road to burnout. For most people at least. You can improve your art by spending time away from the brush (or tablet) as well.

How?

Explore other fun and creative fields and activities that interest you. And take the lessons you learn on your journey over there back with you to the drawing board once you're ready to return to the artist's chair!

You will most probably improve much faster as an artist if you focus on churning out new art quickly and consistently, instead of spending months on a single project. However, the caveat is that it must suit your personality type. If you're the type who very strongly values quality over quantity, then this could quickly kill your motivation.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an artist is spending all your time studying the works of other artists, instead of... studying the greatest artwork of them all:

Nature itself.

I see so many books these days about... how to think like an artist... or how to think like a scientist... or how to think like a 12-year-old kid who's hyped up on sugar to the point of ADHD.

And while those books can be good, all of them miss out of a most important point:

You shouldn't be pigeon-holing yourself into a specific way of thinking. Because there are pros and cons to the thinking modes of every occupation. Instead, treat every way of thinking as another toolbox, not as a hammer. You know the saying, a man with a hammer sees everything as a nail?

So use your time wisely. We only have 24 hours in a day. How we use those hours determines the heights we reach at the end of our lives.

Have a variety of personal artistic side projects outside of work. Don't make your work your life. Especially if your work involves painting the same things over and over again everyday and you're getting bored.

Yes, you need to work to feed yourself. But interlace that with some "fun art" time. Or find a fun-ner job.

What's the point if you gain all the money in the world but lose your own "soul"?

You need to be different if you want to stand out. Definitely. Don't be another fish fighting for food in a bloody red ocean. But... a lot of artists take this too far. Sure "different" catches attention, but if your skills aren't up to par, you won't hold that attention for long. Don't stop leveling up your skills.

Lost out to other artists for a coveted project? It doesn't mean your work wasn't good enough. Oftentimes, it's just because the other artists made fewer mistakes with their submission than you.

The author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, once said:

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

「追加するものがなくなったときでなく、取り除くものがなくなったとき、それが完璧になるということである。」