Information Overload

[danlucas]

I just got information overload from looking at so much awesome websites and inspiration. Who else gets information overload (which i'm sure about everyone does) and what do you do about it? I'm probably going to have to pick a few things and just focus on them and filter everything else out. I'm sure its ok to take a look at all the awesome stuff out there on the web once in awhile but we can't do everything I guess.

[nauvice]

heh I can only handle a small dose of awesome inspiring art. Too much discourages me, I become too envious and dont think I will ever be as good and just cry myself to sleep..... yep

[Farvus]

I got it too. My latest method is very simple. I visit forum less frequently or focus on smaller communities/websites.
This thing worked perfectly for compulsive internet browsing - http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock.html

[Dile_]

haha same.. it doesn't help that i have a shelf filled up with gigantic sargent books that just laughs at me in my face everytime I sit down to paint :|

[DragonGX]

Happens to me all the time. Not just for art websites, but anything. Sometimes I end up looking at random stuff on wikipedia and forget what I even went there for in the first place. I remember one time I looked up something innocent and ended up on a page about the occult in Nazism. Wikipedia is the worst for that if you don't stay focused and leave when you find what you came for.

[nauvice]

I used to think the more information you know about other artists, the more that will reflect on your own art. from what I've experienced so far, doesnt seem to be true at all. There are people I know who are walking encyclopedias on artists in the field they're interested in, yet looking at the work they make you wouldn't know that (but they are all really great critics)

even for me, I've stared at and studied an artist's work and wips for houursss, and once I decide to make my own work inspired by them, my end result is still not as impressive :\

[Scribble King]

heh I can only handle a small dose of awesome inspiring art. Too much discourages me, I become too envious and dont think I will ever be as good and just cry myself to sleep..... yep

Wow, you too? I thought it was just me. :nohope:

[thespirals]

heh I can only handle a small dose of awesome inspiring art. Too much discourages me, I become too envious and dont think I will ever be as good and just cry myself to sleep..... yep

get to know your favorite artists and make friends with them! it really helps humble your view of them as a people. and the humility makes you feel more at level by seeing them as imperfect humans like yourself. i love to go to galleries and stare closely at the art, finding all the imperfections in a piece that could look perfect when standing far away. finding beauty in imperfections is a japanese art called wabi sabi.
i used to feel the way you do. sometimes i still do, but less now because the intensity of my dream is too much for me to keep putting myself down comparing myself to others anymore. strive to be like them, but dont put them on a pedestal...everyone here is human, no matter how much they get you to believe that they are the interdimensional alien spirit travellers that their art says they are ;) oh yeah and while you are a human on earth, your spirit is everywhere in every probability, so dont think that your level as an artist can prevent your spirit from travelling to the same places your favorite artists do.

i have had...lets see, 2..maybe 3 of these amazing artists i look up to say to me, it's not about what level you're on, what matters is that you're doing it!

[danlucas]

Interesting advice thespirals, i've personally never heard of wabi sabi, but the idea of humbling ourselves and viewing ourselves in humility makes a lot of sense. great insight. I'll have to come back to this and think about it when I have more time - as i just got off work and its very late.

zwarrior, I had a art professor who is exactly like what you explained here. He's a walking art encyclopedia and a better critic, but his art hardly reflects all that history and artists that he is knowledgable about.

And Farvus, thanks for that link, i need to use that addon. I think when I discovered what stumbleupon.com was about I started browsing new interesting websites and sometimes its just too much new information. Our minds get loaded with so much stimuli everyday its unbelievable. Thanks for sharing that here.

[Ian Barker]

Save it all to your hard drive... whenever you need an extra boost it will be there. :)

[danlucas]

Save it all to your hard drive... whenever you need an extra boost it will be there. :)

Haha!

Now where did I put those external Terabyte HDD's?

[Randis]

don't surf the pr0nsites too much