I know this one is an easy excuse to fall into. After all, you’re working really hard to improve and no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you study, it just doesn’t seem like you’re getting any better. So just give up right? You’re obviously wasting your time. Right? WRONG. (duh… that would have been wierd if i said “right”, and just ended the blog post right there huh?)
I know how it feels. I want my artwork to be at the level of my artistic idols right now. I want to be like Walt Simonson, Marc Silvestri, or Adam Hughes. And though I’ve had minor success in my career so far, I’m a far way away from the amazing art these guys can produce.
I’ve been working really hard too! I’ve I study anatomy, I practice every day. There is not a day that passes that I didn’t draw. I even go into withdrawals if I don’t draw for a while. So why am I not like my idols? If I’m working so hard, why am I not the master that these guys are? Why aren’t you getting any better even though you’re working real hard? Is it just because we suck? And we’ll never live up to these standards we set for ourselves? No, It’s because we need more time.
Developing your art is not a sprint, its a marathon… more accurately its 1,000,000 marathons end on end over the course of you’re entire life. The reason my idols are so good, is because they’ve been doing this for 30+ years, I’ve been doing it for 5. So even though I’m working really hard I can’t compete with 6 times the experience. My heroes didn’t start off awesome. They started off pretty mediocre like me. And after decades of practice they’re the amazing artists they are today! The same goes for you. If you’ve only been doing this for a year or so, you have a long way to go before you’re art is anywhere near what you want it to be.
I know what you’re thinking right now. “Shono, you’re babbling, you’ve talked about practice makes perfect in past blogs. I’m doing the practicing, but I’m still not getting any better”
Okay okay I can see how you’re still frustrated. Lets do a fun exercise to see if you’re really getting better or not. I want you to get a piece of paper and a pencil right now…. I’m serious, go do it now I’ll wait…..
Okay Now I want you to draw something. Anything. Draw it the best you can. Show me how well you’ve practiced. I’ll do it with you…
Okay now this is what I have:
Okay Truth be told I didn’t draw this just now. But its one of the most recent comic book pages I’ve drawn that I’m allowed to post as of right now. It’ll serve its purpose regardless.
Now take that picture you just drew, and compare it to something you drew 5 years ago. YES, FIVE YEARS AGO. Seriously, this isn’t going to work unless you find something that old.
This is mine. This was the first page I ever drew for my comic portfolio. Its a bit older, 6 years, but it proves my point nicely. This is what I showed editors and publishers at my first comic convention, ever:
So It’s obvious that I’ve improved. What did you find?
If you’ve answered Yes, you’ve improved in the last 5 years, then You’re practice is paying off. You just have to trust that it is. Much like you trust that your finger nails are growing. If I asked you how much you’re nails grew in the last hour, you’d say “They didn’t grow at all.” But they did, you just didn’t notice it. Even after a week, you might not notice a difference in your finger nails. But I bet you that if you didn’t cut your finger nails for 5 years, you would see an ENORMOUS difference in how you’re nails look. Drawing is the exact same way. You Just have to trust in your hard work, and don’t give up.
Now for the one person out there who answered “there was no improvement between now and 5 years ago.” There is a couple reasons why this might be.
1. You’re fooling yourself and you’re not working as hard as you think. Drawing for an hour every other month or so isn’t going to garner any results
2. When you practice, you’re practice drawing things wrong. You can practice all you want, but if you continue to practice drawing people with 6 fingers, it’s never going to look right no matter how long you’re at it. Make sure you’re not taking any short cuts and that you’re practicing things right. Sorta like music. No matter how much you practice a song, if you’re practicing it in the wrong key, or out of tune, it’ll never sound right ever.
3. You’re not taking the time to study. Some of my students suffer from this. They don’t want to take the time to learn it and then complain that they don’t know how to do it. If you want to learn how to draw hands better, study hands. You can’t get better from using your imagination. You’re imagination has no idea what a hand looks like. Take the time to study BEFORE you practice drawing it. You need to know what a square looks like before you draw one.
So I know its tough sometimes, and frustrating when you don’t see any imidiate improvements in your art. But it’s no reason to give up and it CERTAINLY isn’t an excuse. You have to think of it as going up a hill at a very subtle incline. It might feel like you’re walking on flat ground, but after you’ve walked a while and look back you’ll see how much higher you were than when you started. Just make sure you’re taking the time to study drawing first. Then take time to practice it properly. That kind of discipline is what will ensure that all your practice will pay off!
So don’t loose faith in yourself, don’t make excuses, and keep on making comics!
I hope this helped some of you out there, and If you have an excuse you’d like me to help you get over leave me a comment about what you think is holding you back and I’ll happily get you over the hump and back on track to making your comics!
and until next time you can check me around the web here:
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And if you love my artwork don’t forget to pick up my comics!
Tomorrow I’m heading to Animazement in NC. I’m sure I’ll have a blog post of all my fun pics in the next week. If you follow me on twitter or tumblr though I’m sure I’ll be posting pics as they happen!
