Facing (Some) Freelancing Fears — Part 2
Welcome back to Part 2 of Facing (Some) Freelancing Fears. It’s a continuation of part 1, which you can find here.
Apologies for the delay, I hope this helps you out if you’re thinking of going, or are already traversing this path.
Marcus Hits Me Back…
Hi Darren
Thanks for replying so quickly.
You’re definitely right about getting comfortable, I had a 2 year contract that ended a while ago and I got pretty lazy with that job. I stopped pushing my art skills and business development during that period, so that when it came time to start freelancing full time again, it was almost like beginning again. It is definitely something I need to be mindful of this time around.
I also agree with the savings, 6 months of income reserve is definitely something I will aim for. I recently bought an eBook from Illustration Island which recommended 3 months, but 6 months would be best given my circumstances. I’ve got my finances in order, so my savings are steadily climbing. Definitely going out a lot less, drawing more and saving more money in the process.
Regarding my fears, I think it comes from a few things, I’m not totally sure.
Maybe it’s my passive nature? I wasn’t particularly good at contact sports like football, because I would feel bad for knocking someone down and would literally stop to help them back up. It landed me on the bench a lot. I guess it’s why I got into golf.
When I was young, I was almost always alone, so I guess I like solitude. That solitude is perhaps what makes me fearful of getting into the whole commercial art scene I suppose. I fear my work is not good enough, that its not original. I dont have a style. I have always envied those with such an individual style. My art has been mostly self taught and it’s a lonely world to live in where I’m my only critic and my only client.
I recently went to book publisher to see if I could get some work. They loved my stuff, and I need to make a portfolio for them. So I have created some art to put into it…but not enough for a full folio, and I don’t know if I can motivate myself to continue adding to it.
It’s my fear sabotaging me again. It’s so full on, I don’t feel like I deserve that kind of chance — I’m not established, I don’t know enough about art, I feel like I have just fluked my way to this point. It feels like I don’t know if I have done things the right way…people like my pictures and I don’t know why, so I don’t know if I can produce more good work. I see other artists emerging slowly, having exhibitions, going to schools…I have done none of this.
Do you know what I mean by a fluke? Like I have no real training to fall back on. I went to Julian Ashton’s art school for 3 months, I found it really hard because it was so slow and it was very much all about drawing things perfect which I got bored with. I appreciate Ashton’s, but it just wasn’t for me.
Marcus
My Reply…
Hi again Marcus,
No problems about the reply…you sound a lot like me earlier in my career. So, let me try to address each point you bring up.
Firstly, I think it’s great that you’re reaching out to others, trying to learn, reading books and teaching yourself. I think it’s important to recognise that, for people like us, a lot of this comes from an underlying feeling of “I don’t know what I am doing!”
You never quite feel that you’re worth what you are charging, even if it’s not that much, because you haven’t been schooled in art, it’s like you’re not worthy, so it makes you eternally curious and you grab onto and remember things other artists say, snippets of information, here and there to somehow build up your understanding and confidence on how things are supposed to work.
As a self taught artist myself, I completely understand where you are coming from. We simply don’t have the voices of our teacher’s to help guide our path early in our careers, we don’t have the luxury of asking ourselves what they would do in this or that situation.
The truth is, it’s a blessing in disguise and as long as you are mindful that you will always feel like you don’t know enough, it will serve you well in your career. I’ve been through and felt everything you listed, so find some comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. 7 years ago, I somehow lucked out and someone started paying me $300 a week ($14,400 p.a. — no pay for time off or breaks…all of it invariable went to more art books hehe) to work as a concept artist. Not much money but I wasn’t going to complain as I’ve never been trained! I have even less schooling than your 3 months, so you’re already ahead of me 
The first 3 years of my career, I still felt everything was a fluke despite the fact that I was by that stage a senior concept artist and then an art director presiding over other artists who did have qualifications. Was it scary? Did I feel like I didn’t deserve it? Was it a fluke? I felt all those things. I did things one way, and people seemed to like it, but I didn’t know if it was the right way or not.
In my spare time, I read interviews with successful artists, listen to them talking on mp3 interviews and watched a ton of training DVDs. The underlying thread I noticed, was that everyone, I mean EVERY single artists, proceeds with their work in a slightly different way, everyone works their way because it works for them and it allows them to end up with a good end result. That alone, the knowledge that there IS no singular “Right Way” was and still is empowering for me and should be for other artists too.
You do things one way, and it works but you’re not sure if it’s the right way? Let me tell you right now, not even knowing how you do your art, it’s the right way, because the end result is the thing that matters. You could be the first person to drag their dick in the sand to come up with their art and it would be the right way, because you end up with the art you want and need.
So you help people up who you’ve knocked down? Hell, you sound like a good individual mate, the world doesn’t need you or me to knock someone else down to bring myself up all the time. There is of course an element of competition out there in the freelancing world, but that doesn’t mean you need to be an aggressive asshole. I (and I’d venture to say the majority of commercial artists) don’t feel the need to stomp on other people to get jobs. I simply go out there, say my piece, try my best to convince someone that they need my skills and convey that I am a pleasant enough person to deal with, so that people won’t hessitate to do business with me. If someone likes and trusts you (and can afford you!), assuming you can do good work, that’s all someone needs to do business.
I do differ in some ways from you regarding to competitiveness though. I am a highly competitive dude, I always have been, but I used to HATE competition, just like you. If someone else liked the same girl, I’d pass. If someone wanted to go for the same job, I’d pass. I was competitive, just as I believe most people are competitive, but I was also deathly afraid of failure. At some stage, you have to just sit down and go, okay, so if I do fail…what’s the worst that will happen? The world won’t end, you’ll pick yourself up from rejection and go to the next thing, and the next thing after that. I learnt to do that earlier in my career, but it’s a skill, and skills can be built, it’s no natural talent. I hated public speaking, so I did more of it until I wasn’t scared of it anymore, same thing.
If it will make you feel any better, I’m still plenty fearful about things, but the difference is that I’ve been through all this enough times to know it will end okay, it’s how you manage fear that is the deciding factor between quitting and carrying on.
Taking it a step further, I actually think fear is good to an extent, it means that we will not go into something unprepared. It only becomes a problem when it stops us from doing something, that’s when you need to rein in fear and recognise that most of what we fear is inexplicable and really…not that bad if we were to screw up. People put too much stock into — oh if I fail my life will be over. My take is to just do it, like Nike says.
Style? Do you have weaknesses? Yes? Then you have style. I once heard that our style is determined by our weaknesses and limitations. With my art, I have this crazy wonky-ness to all of it, it has become recognisable as my style, but you know where it began? It began with me being crap at copying someone’s facial features accurately. It was always a bit crooked, so one day, instead of trying to get everything perfect, I said screw it and made it even more wonky — I had more fun, it captured people’s likeness and I stopped worrying about whether I had style or not. It grew out of my perceived limitations and yours will too, just give it time and don’t pay it any mind. Draw your influences from far and wide so that no one particular artist influences you to become a clone.
Passive natures, I don’t really believe in (and I could be wrong mind you!), I think just about everyone has a line in the sand, that once stepped over will force someone to become pro-active, trouble is, you need to find out where that line is. Someone says they’re a pacifist — you put a gun to their daughter’s forehead, you’ll see someone coming to end you. It’s all in recognising where our battle line is, and we all decide for ourselves where to place this line and how to act once we cross it.
Final point — you’re an introvert, you’re quiet, you prefer your own company and you’re happiest being when you’re alone and arting.
Me too buddy, but that hasn’t stopped me from speaking in front of large audiences, teaching art at university with passion, it hasn’t stopped me from writing in my blog and getting my opinon out there, nor has it stopped me from writing for some of the most well known digital creative magazines on the shelves, it hasn’t stopped me from wanting to drive my art beyond the pale of the common artist and it hasn’t stopped me from knowing that I matter and that I can cause a difference in people’s lives…just as you can. That introversion of yours shouldn’t stop you from doing any of those things either, all you need to do is to believe that you can do them all and much much more.
If you have no firm goal or direction for yourself, anything outside your comfort zone is scary and unreachable. When you are able to train yourself to look beyond all that, to the dream you have for your life, and when you want to achieve that dream with all your heart, obstacles will crumble, you’ll become competitive, you’ll become extroverted, you’ll push past limits you didn’t even realise were limits.
But you have to start by knowing what you want, and doing everything to make that the sole driving force behind your life.
Okay, real final point this time — read some books on extraordinary people, I do all the time, revs me up, pushing me on, makes me feel like I can do it all despite people’s assertions to be realistic. You and I have grand goals for our lives, screw being realistic.
Daz
Final Note from Marcus…
Hi Darren,
Thanks for that, I am so grateful for your detailed response, I see you care deeply for your art. I don’t really have much to say now, just taking it all in. I feel like shaking your hand lol. I’m going to do some drawing.
Thanks again, Marcus.
Well, that wraps up the advice I had for Marcus. Just keep in mind, this is my own point of view, there are plenty of others, so seek them out and continue to grow.
I sincerely hope this has helped some of you out there and answered some questions for you.
If you guys or girls care to share any of your own experiences or point of view about this topic, please do so beneath, I’m sure many people would benefit from it
Catch you on the upside!
Daz
Facing (Some) Freelancing Fears — Part 1
Frequently, when I am asked questions about illustration or freelancing, I have already blogged about it or answered it in my FAQ, so I generally direct people to those resources whenever I can.
There are of course still plenty of questions that I have not answered and when one of these pops up, I will usually take the time to write a detailed answer from my perspective. Then with the permission of the questioner, I will post the response for my readers, because sharing is caring and makes us collectively, a more well informed segment of the workforce, thus increasing our cumulative sway in business.
Marcus got in touch with me through my Facebook account (add me here) and has been following my work and blog. He asked me some things that touched me on a personal level and I felt that I needed to answer them, mostly for Marcus, but a little for me as well.
The post primarily delves into certain aspects of the mentality needed for freelancing, how to face fears, feeling like a fraud, style, things of that nature, not so much on the business side of things — hence the “Some” in the title.
As the second part of my response is long, I have decided to break this into two separate blog posts.
I sincerely hope you get something out of it, enjoy…
The Question
Hi Darren,
I realise we have never spoken before, so firstly I must say that I admire your passion for art, and how much drive you obviously have. Your art and words inspire me. So if I may, I feel the need to ask you a few things if you had the time? If you don’t reply that’s fine as I understand you must be busy, but I would greatly appreciate some advice.
My background is that for the past 3 years I have been paid for creative work such as illustration and graphic design. Currently I am a part-time graphic artist at a magazine. This new job is almost perfect for me at this point in time because my future goal is to freelance solely in illustration. The part-time work gives me steady income as well as time to work on my own art and whatever freelance work I pick up.
I feel that I have things holding me back from jumping into the illustration world completely.
Being a graphic artist comes easy to me but it is not my passion. I love drawing but I feel I keep sabotaging myself. It’s like I’m afraid to compete, I’m not really a very competitive person…I feel that I lack the game-face that many illustrators/commercial artists seem to have. I think the lack of confidence in myself is obvious. It’s so annoying.
I know im still at the very start of my artistic journey and perhaps I will probably learn this eventually, but I was wondering if you had any insights? Perhaps you have covered something similar to this in previous blogs so feel free to just direct me to it.
Thanks in advance.
Marcus
My Response
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for getting in touch and the kind words! Yep, art is definitely a large part of my life, I’m glad it’s the same for you also.
It sounds like you’re in a good place right now, part time work is a great stepping stone that is often the basis for most illustrators/freelancers, but I also feel it is important at some stage, to plan your exit once you have enough experience and an income reserve — typically 3–6 months to cover costs, I prefer 6 months myself as I am a cautious person.
The main problem you have to be mindful of when you’re working part time, is that it’s very easy to get into a comfort trap, where you always have an “out” with your part time job “Oh, it’s okay that I’m not getting much work, I have my part time job to fall back on.”
This mindset reduces the immediacy of the problem of finding more work, which means you’ll always be sailing at half mast. Your senses simply aren’t tuned into a fight for survival mode.
When we are in this mental space of surviving, we are capable of drastic changes and we will either do what is necessary to survive and live or we will crash and find out we didn’t have what it took this time around. We feel alive when we are doing this, because we are acting as captains of our own destiny, at the same time it can be scary because we’re not sure we can sail the ship.
This is a necessary mindset for freelancing successfully, and it is very difficult to embrace if you’re still being paid consistently by someone else as an employee.
Before I advise you on the rest of your email…what do you fear? Why don’t you like to compete? Why do you feel you lack confidence? Get back to me with these answers and we can keep chatting…
To be Continued…
That’s all for now, short and sweet!
As usual, if you have any feedback, comments or advice you feel is pertinent to this topic, please leave it in the comments section below. And if you think that this information will help any aspiring freelancers, please share the link…sharing is caring, help spread the knowledge.
Stay tuned for part 2 in a couple of days…until then, stay hungry.
D-Man
My Review: Kindle 3G
I’ve been using my Kindle 3G now for close to 4 months, it’s a great little revolutionary device that a lot of people have interest in but are still a little reticent to purchase because of it’s seemingly steep price and percieved draw-backs.
Hopefully, by sharing my thoughts on the device, I can help some of my readers to figure out if it’s really worth their hard earned dosh or if they would prefer the butchered tree variety of informational transfer.
I’ll keep the technical jargon to a minimum and write from the perspective of the general layperson, since that’s what I am.
Also, as a note, the Kindle comes in 3 distinct flavours: Kindle Wi-Fi, a Kindle 3G + Wifi and a Kindle DX.
I will mainly be discussing the 3G version since that is the product I own.
Perfunctory Introductory Background
Books are my drugs! I’m not kidding, I’ve spent close to $20k on physical books and they are the primary source of learning and inspiration for me. I love the smell, their feel, their texture, I like the sound a page makes when it’s flipped, but most of all I like that they make me smarter.
I suppose you could say that purchasing an e-book reader was a logical step for me? Well, not quite, and I’ll explain some of the reasons for my delayed uptake of this device.
My Reservations
Back in 2007, the Kindle 1st gen was released on Nov 19 for about US$400…and was sold out in five and a half hours.
It really wasn’t even a blip on my radar back then since most of the books I was purchasing were art books as opposed to text books like I purchase now. Art books by their very nature, generally require real estate only afforded by large page size, and more importantly good colour reproduction — this clearly wasn’t the market the Kindle was targeted at, but it was the sole demographic I was part of.
Because of my narrow view on books, I couldn’t really understand why they were so popular to be honest, it was an ugly device, I was reading documents on my laptop anyway, it just seemed like a filler device with overlapping functionality to existing devices. I’ve never been a big gadgets kinda guy, so it didn’t really have the features to justify the price tag to me at the time.
Also, having never used one, I assumed that not having the tactile feel of turning would impact me greatly, and there is a certain part of me that actually LIKES a wall of books in my living room.
The third generation Kindle came out mid last year on July 28 2010, it was a much sleeker looking device and boasted a range of improvements that really made me sit up, take notice and I finally caved in for one.
The benefits, for me, now definitely outweigh the cons and I’ll go through the greatest impact features now in no particular order.
The Good
- Good looking: This made the designer in me scream with joy. Yes. Scream. Easily the sleekest generation to date. Sure the look isn’t a huge thing, but it helps to actually want to use it out in public and not hide it in a brown paper.
- Amazing battery life: If you turn off wireless connections, this baby lasts for a month or more depending on how much reading you do. The only comparable device I own for reading are my iPhone which will last a few hours and my laptop which struggles to get to an hour. So a month seems like a bloody eternity! The reason it is able to last such a long time, is because of the E-Ink display technology, which basically only uses power when it is refreshing the E-Ink particles. If you’re not actually turning the page, it’s not actually using any power (assuming you have wireless functionality turned off).
- Direct sunlight reading: I don’t always want to read in a slightly darkened room with no light source behind me, but that’s what you kinda need to do with today’s highly reflective LCD screens. Not so with the matte finished E-Ink screen of the Kindle. Because E-Ink displays actually use electronically charged ink particles, as opposed to light to display graphics and text, you can read the kindle anywhere you can read a physical book. If you purchase the Kindle leather cover with inbuilt light (and I highly suggest you do spend the extra $50), you can read it anywhere.
- Inbuilt dictionary: At times, we all read books which like to use more than it’s fair share of jargon or words outside the regular conversational sphere…such as discombobulate (I LOVE that word!). When this is done in a book, it can be pretty frustrating to have to check a dictionary every few minutes in order to fully understand what the heck the author is babbling on about. The Kindle solves this with an inbuilt dictionary function that is easy to access — simply use the directional pad to put the cursor next to the offending word, and you’re presented with a short snippet of the word’s meaning. Click another button and the cursor disappears for you to keep reading, it’s simple, fast and unobtrusive. When you get used to this function, it becomes an automatic reaction and is a HUGE advantage over paperbooks. Definitely a game changer feature.
- Free 3G globally: You just read that right. Free Internet access anywhere you can get a 3G signal. Absolutely no ongoing fees and relatively fast. How does this help? Okay, so I was browsing a Lonely Planet guidebook on Cambodia with my girlfriend, we’re reading some information on the country and we’re not really sure about the currency they use. One button click later, I’m on the web on Wikipedia looking at the information on Cambodia and the currency is called the Riel. How much is a Riel in USd? Hop over to XE.com and it’s approximately 4000r = US$1. A button click later, I’m back on the Lonely Planet guide continuing my reading. How. Fucking. Awesome. Is. That? And I did it bare-assed in bed without moving. I don’t know how Amazon offer free global 3G coverage…but it rocks hard. Game changing feature.
- Free book samples: I’ve been purchasing books online for a while now, and one of the things I do to reduce the likelihood of buying a dud is that I like to read samples, just to make sure I enjoy the author’s writing style and personality. With the Kindle, every book you can find on the Amazon Kindle store, which is just about all the books available for physical purchase, you can download the first chapter free of charge. It centralises the place I need to go to browse, sample and purchase. Efficiency +100xp.
- Simple purchase and download: Amazon has always understood that the less hassle and barriers to getting their products into your hands, the less hassle it is for you, and the better their bottom line will look. The Kindle has taken a lot of the lessons they have learnt from their site and integrated it into the Kindle. 1-Click purchases are even more streamlined on this product since it is directly links to your amazon account, no tedious entering of credit card or personal details, just click buy, and approximately a minute later, the product is there for you to read. Instant knowledge gratification. A nice feature is that if you accidentally purchase an e-book (easy to do on the Kindle), you can return it and get a refund rather painlessly, nice.
- Cheaper books: The books you purchase on the Kindle are generally 20%+ cheaper than the physical equivalent on the Amazon store which is great, plus there is no shipping cost. In some books, they are even cheaper, I was looking at a tome of a book, it cost $100+ physically, while the Kindle version cost $30 since there was no associated printing costs involved for the product. If you buy from Amazon a lot, they is a real cost saver.
- Simple PDF loading: Loading PDFs on you Kindle is easy, it connects via the USB and it effectively becomes a USB memory stick. Drop your PDF in the PDF folder, and you’re ready to read it. Simple.
- Good annotation: The annotation process is painless and straight forward to use. You place the cursor in the text where you want to add an annotation, and begin typing. Once you’re done, you press save and the Kindle will insert a reference mark. When you want to read what the note says, you can either access it by placing the cursor over the reference mark, or you can view all your notes and their locations in the “My Clippings Folder” or you can view a links page of notes and books marks through the menu button.
- Instant Download: With the 3G version of the Kindle, you have the amazon store connected to your account details which allows one click purchasing and in most cases, if the e-book does not have a lot of images, it will be downloaded next to instantaneously wherever you can find 3G coverage. Instant gratification!
- Large capacity: 3500 books! Whoo! Obviously it depends on the types of books, graphic heavy e-books will obviously take up more space, but seriously, that is a lot of books.
- Cross Platform Reading: The Kindle has cross platform reading, meaning that you can load your purchased books onto your iPhone, your laptop, your iPad, your Android and a bunch of other places. The cool thing is, that if you have an Internet connection, it will update the “last page read” bookmarking, and when you load up the same book on another device, it will take you straight to that page. Simple, but awesome feature.
- Lightweight: It weights next to nothing, but still has a nice robust feel. It means I can travel with a crapload of reading material without needing to feel the impact of lots of dead trees.
- Good image reproduction: The greyscale images look gorgeous, and this is coming from a trained eye. The tonal gradations are fantastic and highly detailed. I loaded a few Loomis art books onto the device, and even at the smaller reading size, you could still pick out everything and still read the words too.
- Free books: You get free downloads of a large selection of classics that are not part of public domain, like Frankenstein, Wealth of Nations, Sherlock Holmes, etc. Cool feature, but my personal reading tastes don’t really coincide with this collection. A nice to have, but I wouldn’t miss it.
- Book lending: You can purchase books and you can also lend them to a kindle ladden buddy for a limited amount of time. Cool feature, but I don’t use it much since most of my friends don’t have kindles. Evolve dammit!
- Wi-fi: Yeah, you get wi-fi but since I prefer to transfer files via usb cable, or download stuff via 3G, I don’t find I use the wi-fi functionality at all.
- Social network integration: Easy to use and rather unexpectedly cool since I’ve been engaging the social web a heck of a lot these days. It allows me to annoy people with even more awesome quotes. Click a button to engage highlight mode, highlight the word, press the key combination require to tweet (there is an onscreen context sensitive display that pops up to aid you) and click share…simple! Only caveat is that this only works for Amazon formatted e-books and not PDFs as well.
- Good price point: As of this writing, the Kindle retails from the Amazon store for $189 and in my opinion, a fantastic price for what you are getting. Just make sure you pick up a cool leather cover with built in light as well for an extra $50, well worth it to save your device from being mangled, plus the inbuild light-source links up to the kindle battery. No extra batteries for the reading light makes me very happy.
- Speedy Postage: Everyone I know, including me, who ordered their Kindle received it within a week of placing the order. Nice!
The Not So Good
- Buying books is a little too easy: As I mentioned before, I’ve accidentally purchased a couple of books before, simply because it is so easy. The good news is that these accidental purchases are instantly reversible.
- Some books are region blocked: I really don’t understand why, seriously, this would be one of my pet peeves, why on earth would you have a global company release a global reading device, only to lock you out from certain books because of your account registration location? Makes no sense whatsover. The upside is that there aren’t too many books that are region locked.
- Buttons too small and clacky: One of my major purchase drivers was “I can update my blog on the go!” and if we’re talking technically, I am actually able to do so, all the tools are there for me to do this. However, the biggest factor stopping this from happening is that the keys are absolutely useless for doing so, they are awful for typing, so they are thankfully only used to search for book titles and make short notes. The other annoying thing is that numbers are not represented by tactile buttons, instead, they are relegated to a secondary function which requires you to access another menu. It’s a minor gripe, but it is annoying and unintuitive.
- No color: This really wasn’t a major factor for me to be honest, I knew full well that this device does not support color, and because of the inherent e-ink technology limitations, it likely won’t for a long time, or at least support it in any way that resembles the rich colors of glossy magazines. The nature of the books I read — mainly business books with little or no graphics, means I don’t really miss it in any way.
- PDF reading isn’t that fantastic: A majority of the PDFs I come across are not created with the small screen of the 6″ Kindle in mind. The screen size isn’t a problem with Amazon kindle e-books as they have text that scales, however, PDFs don’t — they are of a fixed size, which means that if you have terrible eyesight for close up reading, you’re going to struggle as the pages are displayed at a small size. The Kindle solution is to magnify the page as-is, which would probably be okay, except that the side-to-side and up-to-down page scrolling isn’t smooth and is instead discreet shifts which can be jarring. If your eyesight can read tiny text though, it shouldn’t bother you too much.
- The robo-voice reader sucks: The electronic voice isn’t especially listenable. I spent more time thinking “the cadence and pronounciation is all wrong!” than listening to what it was actually saying. I’m sure if I spent enough time with it, I would soon forget it, but if I really wanted an audio-book, I’d buy an audio book read by a real human, not Robby the Robot.
- UI takes some getting used to: Seeing as I am often heavily involved with user interface design and user experience in games, there are just a bunch of things that make me say “What the fuck were they thinking?!” For instance, the aforementioned numbers relegated to a secondary function, page scrolling on the homepage navigation can be a bit confusing, and functions that should probably be logically grouped are sometimes separated.
- Lack of tactile feel: Since we’ve been Pavlov’s-dog-trained to flick our fingers across hand held device screens, we naturally want to get our grubby fingers all over the Kindle to flick the page over. Or flick a bunch of pages over back to the start of the chapter. Unfortunately, because of the inherent limitations of the technology, this will likely be an impossibility. For now.
- Angry stares from atheists: If you purchased the black leather case with in-built reading light, people think you’re a church minister.
Conclusion
Despite my gripes, this device has really proven itself to be insanely awesome, a real game changer if you will. It makes my reading (if not my blogging) experience better than it is with physical books for the most part and it becomes obvious that this is the future of the printed word and a big stake through the heart of physical bookstores down the line.
My verdict, is that this is a fantastic product and within a few days of purchasing one and showing it around to people at a previous workplace, a number of folks sprang for it immediately who had been considering it for a while, it really is that good. If you’re into reading, get it.
Keep kicking ass,
D-Diggity
Buy the Kindle:
To self teach or not to self teach? That is the question…
So…you’re faced with a cross road dilemma and it goes something like this:
Do I teach myself how to do something or do I go to an institute to get taught how to do something?!
I do get asked this a lot from younger artists, so I thought — why not answer this topic of discussing in a blog post? I suppose the reason I get asked is that I am a self taught artist who makes a living creating artwork and they are asking from a basis of not wanting to go to school or a training institution to learn it. I usually disappoint with a “Well…it depends…” style answer hehe =)
The reality is that like all complex questions, there is no simple answer my friend. A large part of it depends on your situation, your own personality and what it is you actually want to achieve. So below are some core questions I asked myself before I endeavored to learn art all on my lonesome.
Making something look good…Part 2 (Links & Resources)
Alright, thanks for coming back, this is the second part of the a two part blog post, the first can be found here: Making Something Look Good…Part 1
As promised, here is a list of various skills and associated resources that have helped me to improve my artwork over the span of 4–5 years and will probably do the same for you.
If you have any queries, additions or just want to say hi, you’re encouraged to hit up the comments section of this post. I also wrote this a while ago, so if there are errors, grammatical or otherwise let me know and I’ll edit. Remember…caring, is sharing =)
