Goal setting and art

[Tac-Tics]

Hi.

I'm fairly new to drawing. I drew on and off since I was a kid, but last year, I've started taking it seriously. And by seriously, I mean that I've been making honest attempts to practice a few times every week and that I've started taking classes at the community college. So I'm not at the same intensity as many other artists here, and it won't be my life's work, but I am still looking for advice suited for an art major ;-)

I've been reading about goal-setting techniques recently. The key, so everyone says, is that goals need to be very definite and tangible. It should be absolutely clear at any point whether or not you've met the goal. You can't just want to "get good at drawing the figure." That's not a good goal, because it's too vague, and it's not clear when you have reached that goal. There will always be room for improvement, but the idea is you set a well-established mark in the sand to know when you've worked hard enough, and you can set a harder goal or try something new.

My problem is I have no clue what might make a GOOD art goal. I was wondering if anyone on these forums had any good suggestions on this.

Actually, I lied a little bit. Most of the goals I can think of are timed ones. Draw a picture a day for a month. (I almost did it last November, save maybe 5 days). But the snag I came across with that was I sometimes like to start a drawing one day, work on it a few hours, then save it for another day.

So I guess I'm just looking for a variety of ideas. A brainstorm on how to measure my own progress in art. Any help would be awesome.

[FraserMcT]

There is no real way to measure skill. Just try improve on the last thing you did, then repeat.

[Tac-Tics]

There is no real way to measure skill. Just try improve on the last thing you did, then repeat.

That's not really my point. I'm not looking for a way to measure my skill. It's more like a way to measure my effort. But it should be phrased in a way which will make me (or anyone) naturally want to work towards it.

[jhofferle]

Certain types of goals don't work well with something as subjective as art. A runner could set a goal to get 10% faster over a period of time, but there isn't a good way to tell if you are drawing 10% better.

I think the best goals keep you working on getting better, but isn't necessarily "fun." If you know drawing from life is helping you improve, but always seem to skip it and spend time drawing from imagination, then maybe that's a candidate. Decide that you will draw a certain number of still lifes every week. If you need work on your figure drawing, then make yourself do a certain number of those every week.

[J Wilson]

You say art won't be your life's work, but what IS it for you? An interesting hobby? A creative release? A way to make cheap, yet personal, gifts? A fun way to earn a little extra cash on the side? If you can determine what role art will ideally play in your life, maybe a goal can be created from that.

One of my early art goals was to get published. When I got published locally it became to get published in something that could be seen nation wide (or even internationally). A freelance goal was to make X amount of dollars in a year. Currently my goals are to work with certain publishers, and to add X amount more names to my client list.

These are just example goals, obviously yours may be different. Maybe it will be to get an art show, or to sell a piece of art that will show publicly (say library or coffee shop or something). It could be to get a mention in the newspaper for art, or to make all of this year's Christmas gifts.

[Goog]

good draftsmanship isn't subjective. I assume this is what you are aiming for. Make goals for yourself that put you in this direction. Remember, mileage is key.

[Tac-Tics]

You say art won't be your life's work, but what IS it for you? An interesting hobby? A creative release? A way to make cheap, yet personal, gifts? A fun way to earn a little extra cash on the side? If you can determine what role art will ideally play in your life, maybe a goal can be created from that.

I like how you turned that around on me ;-)

That's a good question, and most likely an excellent place to start. It's a hobby for sure. A creative release, I don't even know if I could call it that! I think I had something to express when I was younger, but I don't feel it so strongly any more.

I have always been interested in sequential stuff, like comics, but not really cartoony or manga. I've always thought that something like starting my own web comic would be kind of fun.

One of my early art goals was to get published. When I got published locally it became to get published in something that could be seen nation wide (or even internationally). A freelance goal was to make X amount of dollars in a year. Currently my goals are to work with certain publishers, and to add X amount more names to my client list.

Very cool. What kind of art did you get published? Something like a magazine cover?

These are just example goals, obviously yours may be different. Maybe it will be to get an art show, or to sell a piece of art that will show publicly (say library or coffee shop or something). It could be to get a mention in the newspaper for art, or to make all of this year's Christmas gifts.

These are all amazing ideas.

[the_jos]

To be honest, I don't know what goals to set.
Let me explain.
Assume I would want to learn to drive a car. It involves a lot of things that are hard to measure. Steering, throtle/break, shifting gears, looking around, watching mirrors. All are part of driving. And most are not easy to measure because it's the combination that matters.

There are some basics in art that can be viewed like this.

But the true question is: why do you want to learn to drive?
If you will only drive on a closed circuit or part of land in a very old car, who cares about technique.
If you want to driver in some competition you need completely different skills than for regular home-work traffic.

If you know your goal, you know what to practice.

I will give you one small advice.
If you want to set goals, take goals that have to do with inspiration and expressing feelings.
Everyone can learn to drive, that is the basic techniques in art, but your feelings and way of looking at things is unique. Learn to express those.

Examples of goals:
- Draw one of your feelings at least twice a week
- Draw a situation you encoutered once a day, but make the situation funny.
- Take a timer on watch or stopwatch, set some random time and do whatever you do. The moment you hear the alarm you draw/sketch the thing you see (or your current thoughts).

Besides that, just practice a lot. You don't learn how to drive a car by studying the books and looking at how they drive. Just get behind the steering wheel and drive. Make mistakes, notice them and improve your driving.
But remember that driving isn't the goal, it's a way of getting somewhere.

Where? That's up to you.

[J Wilson]

I like how you turned that around on me ;-)

That's a good question, and most likely an excellent place to start. It's a hobby for sure. A creative release, I don't even know if I could call it that! I think I had something to express when I was younger, but I don't feel it so strongly any more.

I have always been interested in sequential stuff, like comics, but not really cartoony or manga. I've always thought that something like starting my own web comic would be kind of fun.

If it's mostly a creative release your goals could be fairly simple. Maybe creating 10 pieces and having a small show (coffee shops are an easy first outlet). Or it could be to do one that you are happy with and enter it into a local art competition. You needn't win, entering alone could be a goal. Or maybe get into a juried art show.

Something more cartoony or sequencial could be to produce one comic strip (or page) per week for X number of weeks. Remember they don't need to be great, just the habit of getting into a routine will probably help you improve.



Very cool. What kind of art did you get published? Something like a magazine cover?



These are all amazing ideas.

I think the first thing I had published was an editorial cartoon in a local newspaper back in high school (it was probably a class assignment that I went ahead and submitted for the hell of it). Shortly after high school I ran into some guys who were doing a small anthology horror magazine with art and stories, and I got into that. I think it did get picked up by a comic's distributor, but I'd be surprised if it sold many outside my local area (not that it sold many there either haha).

Either way it was a small step, but I knew it wouldn't be until I had been published in something serious that it would really feel like an accomplishment. I think the first SERIOUS publication i got into was Spectrum right out of art school. It was a pretty cool thing to be in a book next to my artistic idols.

[George Abraham]

Goal:To see if you can do it?
Motivation:Whatever works
Direction is part fantacy and reality so that's gotto go into the Whatever works category.

[Frublz]

There is no real way to measure skill. Just try improve on the last thing you did, then repeat.Yap, I know some-one who is obsessed with reaching 'perfection' for herself constantly blaming herself for not studying enough, training enough on all sorts of fields. I told her to reach perfection is to reach 'infinity', you can't reach it, you can't even approach infinity, what you can do is get further and further from zero, you'll never come closer to infinity because the distance between a real number and infinity is not even a defined object. The best aim is just to get higher and higher, if you set your goal as perfection you will never reach it, if you set it as a real point you will one day get past it and then what? Don't set a goal is my advice, just keep training and get higher and higher.

[George Abraham]

I think to see what you are capable of and just how much satisfaction you can give yourself is maybe better than to se if you can do it.

If you don't get personal kicks out of stuff down the journey, why the hell do it?

And the secretly wanting to kick arse and crush competition but I feel a humble and more personal approach will be better for my health at this stage.
:asskisser:

And who can say, they are banned from competitions because their art is too good? Well, I think quite a few, but that only means there are bigger fish to fry out there. That is if you want to treat art like a sport(I think Adobe, Wakom and Corel is smiling down on that one)