When Should You Abandon A Project?
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Art by Beverly HoltzemShould I give up on my book? Is social media essential? What’s the best way to make a master copy? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions and more in this episode.
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I really feel what Lee was saying about - How do you do social media when you're on a long project and there's nothing to post.
I (regrettably) let it spiral into killing my social media posting mojo, which I've still not clawed back from. -
Another great episode gents!
Great podcast Art Beverly!
I’ve been focusing on “being so good they can’t ignore me”, but so far they are still ignoring me. Haha! Great book by Cal Newport!
I’m enjoying learning and getting better, especially because I’m very late to Art, like in my 40’s late.
And to close, SpongeBob?! Seven deadly sins?! What?!
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@jake-parker So I have a question related to something I've heard you guys say more than once lately. You say that people in their 20s are more creative, that young people are coming up with their great lifelong themes, and that they should concentrate on x and not y. So my question is, is this advice for beginning illustrators of any age, or just people who are still at a beginning stage chronologically?
How should a person who is older ( much, much older, not 30 or even 40!) adapt this advice? I like to think that my mind is still young and that my life experience will help me, but admittedly there are some opportunities that have probably passed me by just because I don't still have 40 working years ahead.
Thoughts?
P.S. Nice artwork, Beverly!
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@lauraa I'm right there with you Laura. I'm not sure I agree with the statement that younger people are more creative. I think that's a skill you can cultivate with exercises that teach you how to explore more interesting/creative ideas and I also think that the experience of age gives you more life situations and stories to draw from....IMHO anyway.
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Great episode but it did raise some questions for me. I don’t understand the whole posting others artwork thing for your own social media. That’s fine for a curation page or something of the like but otherwise your followers won’t follow you for your work and when you do start posting your work that shift in content might turn off a lot of followers. I really don’t see how this could work.
I’ve also been wondering if having a large social media following is essential right now because of COVID. A few months ago I learned from a discussion on the forum that many art directors aren’t working in house anymore so there’s no one to send postcards to get ourselves out there. I’ve read many interviews with art directors and they all say they way the find artists is by postcards, social media, and referral. So what I’m asking is, how the heck are we supposed to get out there and get work right now?
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@lauraa This is definitely a case of me not agreeing with whoever said that people in their 20's are more creative (was is jake?). I feel like I'm way more creative now than I was back then.
I actually think the opposite from that. I think as you age you get more depth and can cull through ideas quicker than when you are young. I think the most creative work can happen when you get old. Look at Picasso, Monet, Da Vinci, and a whole ton of other artists. I say full steam ahead!!!! : )
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@randarrington I do believe we probably have a more fresh and out of the box view when we are younger, on the other hand, let's not forget that our brain is a muscle we can train. So if we train our brain to be creative it will improve more and more at this skill and we humans are able to learn a life time. So the power to form how our brain works and our lives lies in our hands and it's not something we are powerless in.
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@griffin One idea: Gina Perry started a #kidlitartpostcard tag on Twitter! Not sure it's quote a substitute for traditional postcards, but you might enjoy participating. The first time I participated in the SCBWI portfolio showcase, I also got contacted, though a lot of it was for self-publishing. I still think it might get at least some eyeballs on your work. And some art directors (not all) accept email submissions. If anyone else has other ideas, I'm listening for sure. I was just thinking it was time to send out my first traditional postcards when COVID hit.
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@lee-white Thank you for the encouragement, Lee! I do think there is a tradeoff between having pure agility and having life experience/accumulated skill. At any rate, I'm not about to quit now!
And I also think that if you could bottle your ability to brush off rejection (as you talked about in a recent YouTube clip), you would never lack for income!
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@randarrington I have been actively looking for these ideation exercises, so if anyone has some, I'll all eyes!
I have also took the ideation and turbocharging classes when they were offered, because I know this is an area where I need to build brain muscle.
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@lee-white I think it was Jake...and to be fair, he's not exactly wrong. Kids have an ability of unfiltered creativity but that type of creativity isn't always useful commercially. I think you guys did a podcast about why we as creatives need limits and rules
I love the show by the way. Thank you all for doing it. It's certainly motivated me to start working on my art again so I owe you guys
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Hi @Lee-White , and everyone. Thank you for making these shows!
Unfortunately, the link to your master copy checklist leads to an inspiration board rather than to the checklist. Could you share the real checklist, please?
Thank you for your effort, highly appreciated. -
@mrfox I noticed that too. I was wondering whether I had misunderstood!
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@randarrington @LauraA I am checking on that now. It Is definitely the wrong link. Here's the actual pdf if you want to see it Bart Forbes.pdf
Note: this is a very formal approach to doing a master copy, yours doesn't have to be nearly this wordy. But I thought I'd include all of it anyway so you guys can see how it looks to really break down a style before doing a master copy of the work.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
Thanks for sharing @lee-white!
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@lauraa I totally agree it’s much easier now I’m older and have different creative solution to reach for. My only thought is that while doing part of an art degree in my 20s I was quite creative due to the course content and prompts and look back at that work for inspiration now.
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@lee-white THANK YOU!!!
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@lee-white Thank you!
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@lauraa I also am in my late 40s and I find that it's physical stamina and 'adulting' obligations that are putting limits on my creativity. Like those all-nighters I used to pull when all the inspiration starts to fire up in the wee quiet hours, you know? Realistically I can't do that now because I have to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for my day job and my eyes go blurry at 9:30pm. I agree with other posters that creativity is a skill that gets better with practice and experience. Also something that goes with it is practicing the workflow of generating ideas without censoring them, and exchanging critique with colleagues. I am still working on that - not being afraid of making bad art and putting it out there to strengthen it.
