Becoming a professional artist: Tips

[Spenner]

Re: Becoming a professional artist: Tips

Exactly what the problem is with many people in my program at the moment, they're in there because they figured "Art was apparently my biggest interest in high school maybe on par with something more science related therefore I should choose art because it seems like my best option,,," meanwhile we are into 2nd year 2nd semester now and they are still pumping out the same generic designs they did in 1st year, or before, maybe with a kerned headline this time. Not to be narcissistic about it or anything but as far as I can tell, only me and 3 other people in my class have consistent improvement in our work, that is in and around or above the accepted design standards we have today.

On a side note, my school's a bit different-- we go through a lot of talk in our natural media illustration and the first year class "creative concepts" about how we can flex the creative side we already have, and into some topics of psychology on how we can make ideas connect through the means of visual metaphors. All things I normally do but still, for the people not quite there, it was worthwhile.

[Gundam-Dude]

Re: Becoming a professional artist: Tips

lmao Spenner I'm in the EXACT situation you are.

With all honestly more than 80% of the people in my program don't actually belong here and it baffles me what the **** they're doing here in the first place. Either I have high standards based off my own design skill or the quality of work those people produce are just ridiculously poor and half assed. It's already 2nd year 2nd semester and I -barely- see any improvement from most of the people in my program, aside from the notable people that I can deem actual designers who will actually succeed in the industry. I've even had one-on-one discussions with some of my professors (mainly my typography and layout profs) and they wholeheartedly agree that there is a HUGE gap between the students who will actually become successful designers and those who will graduate and end up working a shitty job completely irrelevant to what they studied.

As cocky as this sounds, luckily I fall into the handful of students that the professors can see succeeding in the industry after graduation. I don't **** around with my works and I usually I put my all into everything I do; I'm just that passionate about what I study. The works I'm most proud of are the ones I absolutely know will be well received by professors and peers in addition to getting good grades. I only wish that there were more people in my program that have this sort of mindset and motivation. I'm tired of seeing the same generic, half-assed SHIT being shat out every semester by students.

#GDiselitistandmad

[Nullifidian]

Re: Becoming a professional artist: Tips

Today a guy I know asked me for criticism on a song he's working on. Rather than listening to what I had to say he had to justify every point of criticism I made. After he was done ranting I told him I'm merely giving him my opinion, and he has every right to do nothing with it. I also told him he should open up to criticism more and not be so defensive about everything. He then proceeded to say that I am unable to handle criticism as well because I disagreed on ideas he had for some of my drawings in the past. Besides the fact that it's irrelevant to his case wether or not I am able to handle criticism, this ticked me off a bit so I'm going to elaborate my old post a bit on the point of criticism.


Inability to handle criticism is not the same as disagreeing with someone. Everyone will have positive and negative responses to their work and you have every right to disagree with someone's view as there's a lot of subjectivity and differences in taste involved. Not sharing someone's view does not mean you're unable to handle criticism.

However, even though you ultimately choose which responses you build further on, it is wise to listen and give some thought to everyone's opinion and their explanations (especially those with more experience) as they all hold some sort of truth and might just be a mind-blowing revelation for you. If you're new to any art form, you can't really form an educated opinion yet so you have nothing to defend. It's wise to follow up on any advice given at that point and try out different angles to tackle a problem.

That said, frantically defending yourself or lashing out at the person giving you criticism will make you look like an asshole who is insecure and unable to handle criticism. Keeping calm, giving arguments to your choices and using those arguments to conclude that you do or do not agree with his opinion however gives a much different impression.

It all depends on your personal (educated) judgement in the end. You can maintain an open mind to criticism, but If you have an intelligent, educated and thought out argument for a decision, you're allowed to disagree. Just make sure it's convincing enough. (unless it's your boss or a client demanding you to do it or you're ****ed lolol)

[Pseudo Enigma]

Re: Becoming a professional artist: Tips

Today a guy I know asked me for criticism on a song he's working on. Rather than listening to what I had to say he had to justify every point of criticism I made. After he was done ranting I told him I'm merely giving him my opinion, and he has every right to do nothing with it. I also told him he should open up to criticism more and not be so defensive about everything. He then proceeded to say that I am unable to handle criticism as well because I disagreed on ideas he had for some of my drawings in the past. Besides the fact that it's irrelevant to his case wether or not I am able to handle criticism, this ticked me off a bit so I'm going to elaborate my old post a bit on the point of criticism.


Inability to handle criticism is not the same as disagreeing with someone. Everyone will have positive and negative responses to their work and you have every right to disagree with someone's view as there's a lot of subjectivity and differences in taste involved. Not sharing someone's view does not mean you're unable to handle criticism.

A++ I was in a situation like that earlier this week.

Only through mistakes are we able to learn, and when we can't learn from our mistakes we are unable to move forward and improve. I try to take criticism seriously as a method of improving all the time and it HAS helped in the past and it most certainly will in the future.

Don't forget you have your inner critic always criticizing you too, whether you decide to listen to it is up to you. I try to.

P.S. I completely forgot this thread existed. All the stuff in here is very helpful.