Great lessons

[cmalidore]

I'm sorta digging for motivation today (it's been a pretty brutal week here) so I thought I'd ask people about some of their learning success stories, so to speak. Was there any sort of defining lesson or critique from another artist (perhaps even non artist?) that really flipped things around for you in a positive way?

Perhaps an amazing critique, a new philosophy, somebody telling you to squint with one eye and jump around a lil between brush strokes - whatever. Just interested in hearing some good positive stories instead of "I suck at life" posts.

Anybody got anything like that stored away in their memories? I just can't imagine with the level of skill and experience in this forum that there aren't neat experiences tucked away in there somewhere ;)

[Alex Chow]

http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1798617&postcount=22

[cmalidore]

http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1798617&postcount=22

Some neat information there. Very cool :)

[feifeicreate]

The first thing pup in my mind was way back...my second year at college, in advance life painting class. There's one really really strict teacher, the toughest and harshest in the entire fine art department. He gives mean critique, and every mid-term and final critique, some one in his class end up crying. But he's also one of the best painter around here, and I feel that he's one of the few teachers who actually teachs skills and technique. Everytime he has new students, he would start his class by saying "you're not here to develope your own style, I don't care about your style. You're here to learn how to paint like I do, I'll teach you nothing but technique, you want to learn how to paint? start with the basics and then you can have your style. When you're in my class, you paint my way, you paint your way, I'll fail you." We know he's serious, he failed people regularly.

At the final critique, we all put on our portrait, gave a little presentation, and then he'll critique. Anyway, at the time, I'm not sure what my style would be, I don't know where I'd go with my art. So during my presentation, I said I'm not happy with this art (it's true, I'm not happy with anything I've done at the time). So he asked me how I want to paint. I said "I want to paint like Michael Parkes". He became instantly annoyed and irritated. And he said "you have something really unique going on here! Something I've never seen. why do you want to paint like someone else?!" And he went on saying how he liked my light and shadow, and imagination. LOL...I was completely in shock. That's like the greatest compliment I've got. I had a lot of people compliment my work, sure...we all get that. but from this perticular teacher, that really means something. I guess what matters the most is that he believed I have something unique, and I should go for it (even he hates personal style...LOL)

So when I get depressed, I think of that life painting teacher, and I just keep going.

Don't know if this is what you're looking for, but there you have it. :D

[cmalidore]

The first thing pup in my mind was way back...my second year at college, in advance life painting class. There's one really really strict teacher, the toughest and harshest in the entire fine art department. He gives mean critique, and every mid-term and final critique, some one in his class end up crying. But he's also one of the best painter around here, and I feel that he's one of the few teachers who actually teachs skills and technique. Everytime he has new students, he would start his class by saying "you're not here to develope your own style, I don't care about your style. You're here to learn how to paint like I do, I'll teach you nothing but technique, you want to learn how to paint? start with the basics and then you can have your style. When you're in my class, you paint my way, you paint your way, I'll fail you." We know he's serious, he failed people regularly.

At the final critique, we all put on our portrait, gave a little presentation, and then he'll critique. Anyway, at the time, I'm not sure what my style would be, I don't know where I'd go with my art. So during my presentation, I said I'm not happy with this art (it's true, I'm not happy with anything I've done at the time). So he asked me how I want to paint. I said "I want to paint like Michael Parkes". He became instantly annoyed and irritated. And he said "you have something really unique going on here! Something I've never seen. why do you want to paint like someone else?!" And he went on saying how he liked my light and shadow, and imagination. LOL...I was completely in shock. That's like the greatest compliment I've got. I had a lot of people compliment my work, sure...we all get that. but from this perticular teacher, that really means something. I guess what matters the most is that he believed I have something unique, and I should go for it (even he hates personal style...LOL)

So when I get depressed, I think of that life painting teacher, and I just keep going.

Don't know if this is what you're looking for, but there you have it. :D

That's exactly what I like to hear about - those little things turn us into who we are as artists because they mean something to us. They linger. There's something very very neat about experiences like that.

Great story. Funny to think that if you hadn't said what you said to him, perhaps you'd never have known that he believed in you.

[feifeicreate]

Thanks :D you have one yourself? let's hear it!

[bleupencil]

This may not be very inspirational, but sometimes even horrible things said to you can be motivating.

Some years ago I was doing an illustration course. In this one class a design teacher looked at my work and said in a voice just above a whisper, that I'd be nothing but a bag lady under a bridge when I grew up.

I haven't given up since that day and even though she's probably retired or passed on, I still plan to prove her wrong.

[cmalidore]

Thanks :D you have one yourself? let's hear it!

A fine gentleman told me once that one of the roots of the word illustrate was illuminate - or to bring light to. And that always stuck with me as a reminder to not approach an image as just a picture, but a way of conveying something new. And while originality isn't always an easy find - we as artists do have our own take on something if we dig deep enough. I was always very fond of that.

There was also my very first time in an artist alley at a convention selling prints.... never having done any real big major art gigs before (lot of small personal commissions, rpg players from hell and all that) where some established illustrators really took me under their wing to help guide me with information and support. It was truly the first time I'd felt accepted as an artist, let alone in years. So that meant a lot. Not to mention I received about a year of work from that show.

So those are two really defining experiences that I like to smile at occasionally.

This may not be very inspirational, but sometimes even horrible things said to you can be motivating.

Some years ago I was doing an illustration course. In this one class a design teacher looked at my work and said in a voice just above a whisper, that I'd be nothing but a bag lady under a bridge when I grew up.

I haven't given up since that day and even though she's probably retired or passed on, I still plan to prove her wrong.

Oh those can be pretty driving. I never had any on that level, but I did have the standard family member "Y'know you can't actually make a LIVING off of drawing, right?" talk once when I was young. I can only imagine what that statement you got would do lol.

Thanks for sharing!

[Psychotime]

This may not be very inspirational, but sometimes even horrible things said to you can be motivating.

Some years ago I was doing an illustration course. In this one class a design teacher looked at my work and said in a voice just above a whisper, that I'd be nothing but a bag lady under a bridge when I grew up.

I haven't given up since that day and even though she's probably retired or passed on, I still plan to prove her wrong.

Ever consider that she said that TO drive you to never give up? Just a guess. Maybe I'm thinking too positive today.

[Farvus]

There was recently some mall thing that made me look more positively at my efforts with art.

I always had this habit of constantly changing everything even though I have something that works when it comes to painting/drawing. It always made me frustrated that I can't just focus on one tool, technique, subject and get really good at it. It sometimes feels to me like constantly reinventing wheel and learning to draw wrom zero. Later however I was reading one interview on 3dtotal with concept artist John Wu (http://www.3dtotal.com/team/interviews/John_Wu/John_Wu_01.asp) and to question "What skills do you regard as being important when working as a Concept Artist in your chosen field?" he answered like this:

"I believe the most important skill to have for a concept artist is to not be fixed to any particular art style. Granted we all draw and paint differently, but from my experience, it's the skill of adapting to styles that allows me to guide the art direction on multiple projects. These projects can range from realistic to cartoon-y, to even abstract. So having a branded style of my own can be somewhat of a handicap, at least I find. “Be like water, my friend”, as Bruce would say. Additional skills to have is to gain at least some experience in production because it will increase a concept artist's work efficiency. Wouldn't you rather paint over a 3D landscape rather than create one from scratch?"

And then later I watched trailer of el coro's "Cinematic Storyboarding" instructional video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXg2reSswpA) on youtube and he mentioned the importance of intentionally breaking things and trying not to get too predictable or procedural.

So right now I'm starting to really get what it's all about and it puts all those my habits in positive light.

[armando]

I enjoy reading the posts of kevferrara, chrisbennet, briggsy@ashtons, ccsears. There are some other people I occasionally pick stuff up from , but those are the most consistently good.

Not specifically art related: I find the articles here interesting: http://www.geoffthompson.com/

[kool-ka-lang]

My "fuck yeah" thread is the only thing I think i can contribute from me personally. :/

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=135551

read it and tell me what you think. :yayca: