How do you know when you actually become a master?

[FallenGodX11]

How do you know when you actually become a master in your art? I've been asking myself how much skill I have compare to others? I know it seems no matter how far I try to get, there will always be bigger fish, but I've always wanted to someday surpass my teacher and peers someday. It's not that I want to be stronger for the sake of being strong or showing off, but I feel that I can only go professional at a certain level.

[ShroudStar]

It's not just you. I wonder that, too but I see myself putting at least three or more years into my studies (thinks about that estimated average of at least 10,000 hours to achieve mastery of a subject) until I can get to professional status. It's like it takes me a while to "get" something, but once I get it, I understand it.

Professional status just seems like a long way off, IMO. But that's why hard work always comes at a cost.

[Grief]

go draw.

[Ilaekae]

You'll know when all the little art maids bow when you go by...

[German-s]

go draw.
I couldn't have put it better myself.

[HunterKiller_]

When you wipe your ass and Jesus' face is on the tissue.

[Aaron Death]

Masters don't become masters by wanting to be masters.

The purpose of art is not to become a master.

This question is pointless.

[Not Pink]

first, I'll add to the discussion:

you will never know. you have to go on living your life as a little known artist and some hundred years after death, people will look back and claim you as a master.

now, I'll write what I thought when I saw the name of the thread.

usually after collecting all 8 badges and beating the elite four. some would consider that you have the pokedex filled to, but I don't know.

[the_jos]

How do you know when you actually become a master in your art?

Well, when your fifth or sixth reincarnation walks the earth and all of a sudden realises that he painted a lot of the paintings in a museum several lives ago. I think that's the point that you realise you are a master.
Or better, were a master. Since you didn't practice in those past lives between you forgot all that's important, so you need to start all over again.

This is not entirely true though. You also know you are a master when you can act like Dali and don't end up in jail or punched in the face for doing that.

Now get your head out of those clouds and start drawing again.

[rpace]

When you confront your former mentor and teacher within a moon-sized, spheroid spaceship and defeat him in a light sabre duel you will be a master. . .

Well, at least a master of evil.

~R

[Crane]

Marko tells you on monday, android tells you on tuesday, elwell tells you on wednesday, manley tells you on thursday, then da vinci, rembrant, dali and Michelangelo tell you on friday, on saturday you all have a huge art master feast and on sunday you wake the fuck up!

[DavePalumbo]

I feel that I can only go professional at a certain level

being a professional and being "a master" are not the same thing. Just try to do the best job you can as often as you can and try not to worry about questions like this

[Aly Fell]

"If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him!"

[Chris Bennett]

The more you know the more you realise you don't know.

[Dilated]

you grow an awesome beard

[lukey120292]

When you wipe your ass and Jesus' face is on the tissue.



Haha genius.

[Yng]

It's not that I want to be stronger for the sake of being strong or showing off, but I feel that I can only go professional at a certain level.

Let me guess.. There are things you feel like you're not good at drawing, and you're afraid of that becoming a problem when you start a career as a professional artist. And therefore you feel like you need to be at a point where you'll never get stuck while drawing before you feel comfortable taking jobs.
That's at least how I've felt at times, but I realized that if you're going to wait until you're at that level before you start doing art professionally, you'll be waiting a long long time. It'll probably take many years before you get there. That's normal. Until then, just do your best. :]

[LORD M]

you grow an awesome beard

Atleast I can check off one thing on the list.

[MarkWinters]

El Coro came to me in a vision and told me I was a master but I didn't believe him...

[Pezz]

When you're old and dead, and everyone finally likes your work... ;P

[OmenSpirits]

"When do you become a master?"

When you die.

[Elwell]

All the smartass answers are justified.
However...
I doubt anybody outside of a formalized guild system would ever consider themselves a "master." But, you do reach a point where you have basic mastery of the skills that you need for your chosen profession. I know there was a point when I realized that I finally knew how to paint. Whether I would be completely successful in applying that knowledge was another story (and looking back on my work, there are certainly plenty of times when I fell well short), but I either knew what to do or how to figure out what I didn't. So, when it happens, you'll know it, but it doesn't mean everything from there on in is easy; it's not the end, it's the beginning. It's kind of like falling in love.

[rapxic]

when there is no one else to battle in this enormous world of art

why be a master when you can be master of masters ?

[Baron Impossible]

I don't know when the time will come but it's always good to be prepared. I've already purchased a hooded black cloak and I've begun growing a beard which, I sincerely hope, will be waist-length and snowy white by the time I reach masterdom.

I also intend to commission the crafting of a cane topped with a giant crystal and a kosher wooden throne instead of this poxy leather chair, which although serves its purpose whilst I'm merely mortal is clearly unworthy to cradle the ass of a true master. Oh, and I wouldn't mind a pair of those turkish slippers that curl over at the toes, to add a bit of gravitas.

Unfortunately I won't be able to post confirmation of my attainment of my mastership, as usage of this blunt tool we call the internet will be beneath me, but it may please me to grant audience to those who crave and deserve it, upon receipt of a sealed letter of beseechment.

[JParrilla]

This question is really pointless. This is not something you as an artist should be worrying about. Why do you wanna know this? If someone told you "you are a master" and you were recognized as a "master" by the masses.. would you stop learning and bettering yourself? If the answer is yes.. youve got stuff all wrong. Who cares what it takes to become a master? after all.. what defines a master anyways? Just keep improving... FOREVER.

[dwilliams]

When you walk into the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's God will point at you instead of Adam.

[Ebony-chan]

Well most masters don't think about becoming masters. They only think about improving themselves until they die.

[J Wilson]

A certificate comes in the mail.

[OmenSpirits]

http://cdn.theurbandaily.blackplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/sho-nuff.jpeg

You...will be a Master...when you obtain..THE GLOW!

:D

[Cthogua]

Well....technically...when you graduate from Grad School with your "Masters" degree. :P

Seriously though, this question highlights a fundamental problem of ALOT of beginning artists, and young folks in general. Focusing on the the final product rather than the process. On top of that add the desire for something that is ultimately an interpersonal recognition, anyone who refers to themselves as a "Master" outside of a discussion regarding graduate degrees is only a master of one thing, douchebaggery. It's perfectly reasonable to enjoy recognition, but if this is your primary motivator then you're gonna have a hard time climbing the mountain that is artistic development.

Chris Bennett nailed it right on the head. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. I'll add to that, the minute you think you "know" something well enough, or perfectly, or whatever is the moment you stop learning. I don't know how you can tell when you "actually become an master," I do know that calling oneself that reveals one to be the opposite.

[Bowlin]

Sho'Nuff!!

[Flake]

"Kiss my Converse!!"

[Leari_79790]

All you have to do is select any of 4 balls in the order you think they'll be drawn from the Lottery ball machine plus the bonus ball and you win

[Elwell]

All you have to do is select any of 4 balls in the order you think they'll be drawn from the Lottery ball machine plus the bonus ball and you win

Yes, all masters have four balls.

[Jie Kageshinzo]

When you suddenly find yourself part of this crew:

http://www.networkmarketingjourney.com/wp-content/uploads/he-man-and-the-masters-of-universe.jpg

[MarkWinters]

I'm pretty much Orko now...

[polydrawer]

collect all chinpokomon and defeat the evil power aaaaaaaaa
http://media.southparkstudios.com/img/content/season3/310.jpg

[AeonPhoenix]

There is no master. Everything you know is a lie

[Clint Kisor]

Words like master, artist, poet, etc to me are gift words.

Just draw and you'll get there....if you work hard enough.

[The Pariano]

I don't believe this question is pointless. If so, only in the sense that all questions on this board are useless because it would be better to stop typing and go draw.

Basic mastery of all skills required to be an artist is only the first step of being a " master". After that I suspect it's just a matter of having something to say, perfecting compositional skills to make your art say that thing that you want to say; and saying it well.

[Blue]

Masters don't become masters by wanting to be masters.

The purpose of art is not to become a master.

This question is pointless.

If you remember your introduction to philosophy course, you'd know there is no such thing as a pointless question. Perhaps some questions are more worth time and effort to answer then others. However, why would one ask this question in the first place, is a much more interesting subject all together. Why is it necessary to be remembered and respected? Or to at the very least, outdo those before us?

Oh, and just to play devil's advocate: Unless we are masters ourselves, we cannot say what they deep down actually want. Also, to say that that becoming a m aster is not "the point" to art, you hint that art actually does have a point at all. Does it really?

To respond to the original question though: The term "master" in it's modern usage is somewhat ambiguous, but in the old days a master was the teacher, usually instructing an apprentice. So you will become a master the second you start to teach, or your work is so far advanced it instructs those who view it by itself, much how classic painter's art does today.

[Max Challie]

"From the time I was six, I was in the habit of sketching things I saw around me, and around the age of fifty, I began to work in earnest, producing numerous designs. It was not until after my seventieth year, however, that I produced anything of significance. At the age of seventy-three, I began to grasp the underlying structure of birds and animals, insects and fish, and the way trees and plants grow. Thus, if I keep up my efforts, I will have an even better understanding when I am eighty, and by ninety will have penetrated to the heart of things. At one hundred, I may reach a level of divine understanding, and if I live a decade beyond that, everything I paint-every dot and line-will be alive. I ask the god of longevity to grant me a life long enough to prove this true."
-Hokusai

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
-T. S. Eliot

By the time you're a master, you will be humbled enough not to care about having a title of any kind. I think a lot of people are more interested in the idea of being an artist, or "Professional", or master, than they are in the play/activity/fun of art itself. And Grandmassa Mr. Spect (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=82073), please don't thank me for this post. :)

[Jie Kageshinzo]

And Grandmassa Mr. Spect (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=82073), please don't thank me for this post. :)

Can I thank you for this, tho? XD

[Max Challie]

yeah, wahtever really lol haha. I just don't think it's necessary to thank every post out there

[Elwell]

That Hokusai quote is always deserving of thanks.

[arttorney]

I ask you. When do you think you will become a master? Your question makes me think you are not sure of your dream and are willing to let others decide it for you. Thoreau sez:

"if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."

So I ask again. When do you think you will become a master? Your dream. Your success. Your boundary. Your license. Why are you still reading this?

[Rabid]

Close your eyes, imagine the type of art, artspace, achievment your looking for. Hold that thought. Then open you eyes and get there...

You'll never be "the best artist" You should strive for your own consideration of mastery.
Personally if you ask me, when it comes to art your never the master, since there is always something new to learn. But you can always become a better student...

[droid84]

You can find real Masters inside Legends ... like Bruce-Lee!

[OmenSpirits]

"People think that they can clear up profound matters if they consider them deeply, but they exercise perverse thoughts and come to no good because they do their reflecting with only self-interest at the center."

-Hagakure

[d-woo]

Nobody can become the ultimate master of awesomeness in the real world, nobody's perfect...

I don't think this question is pointless, at least it lets the OP know that no artist can be a master.

[deepbluehue]

People will hire you even if you are not a master. Don't limit yourself to just getting to a professional level, keep working at it even if you reach your goal.