How it all started

Reminder: this is how it all “started”. 6 months into my return to art back in 2021.

And by “started” I mean “restarted”.

People frequently ask me for advice about how to get better at drawing. They’ll ask for critiques of their work, show me a handful of drawings they did over the last few months and then want some secret insight into how to magically get better.

They’ll claim I’m so talented. They’ll claim they want to be “as good as you (me) one day”.

But they won’t practice like this.

Keep in mind, even when I restarted my journey into drawing I had been a full time free lancer from 2004-2017. Prior to that I had been drawing obsessively from the time I was 4-5 years old. I drew constantly all through high school. I studied cartooning and anatomy and comics for decades. I studied photography and lighting and perspective professionally.

NOTHING about skills like this comes easy. Talent means zero. Talent, in my mind, is a misused term to describe a basic interest. I could be the most talented artist in the world, but if I hadn’t spent 4 decades honing that “talent” I’d have zero skill.

You want to get better at art? At ANYTHING? Do it. Do it everyday. Do it as often as you can. Do it instead of playing video games or going to the bar or watching TV. Do it consistently for months, years, decades. And then, MAYBE you’ll be lucky enough to stand out amongst the tens and hundreds of thousands of others that have done the same thing.

This is not a brag. This is meant to be an awakening to prepare you for the road ahead. So that you may arm yourself mentally and steady your patience.

This is to help you understand how to win.

I’m rooting for you.