Being a process junkie and using process to your advantage...

     I love watching other artists in my and related fields display their process in instructional videos, books, demos, and the like.  I've watched a ton of footage regarding comic creation, concept art, design, etc.  I'm just a geek for it.  I always learn something but I must say that the most important lesson I've ever learned from watching all of these great artists is an underlying one.
     Sure you can pick apart a great artist's process bit by bit and say well I really want to do what he does and be great like him so I'm going to do my artwork exactly lie he does and in no time I'll be kicking ass and taking names like him.  This mindset is all too common these days in the arts and in short it is akin to simply missing the point.  When you see a great artist or better yet a number of great artists demonstrating their ways of accomplishing the artistically incredible, they are essentially letting you in on the way they problem solve throughout a project.  This is helpful in many ways, and you can always learn something from a great artist if you pay attention.  The truly meaningful lessons we glean from educational material in the arts are those one or two solid things we can really incorporate into our very own, and very personal process.  You must establish your own 'pipeline'(to what degree really is subjective in terms of each artist) but your artwork will always lack something if you simply try to be someone else and never establish your own set of problem solving skills and hence your own style.  You may even produce some cool work that looks like this guy or that but deep down you will never feel that it is your own.  I mean really watch a guy like James Clyne, or Aaron Limonick, Christin Lorenz Schurer,  Mikael LungneGard, Ryan Church, Syd Mead, Feng Zhu, Etc.  They are great for one reason they toiled through the hard, difficult and often times lonely process of each finding their own style and working methods.  They may have gleaned a tip or two from here or there but they don't copy anyone in any fashion.  Their various instructional materials are meant to inspire, educate, and show that it is indeed possible to create great artwork, but there are no shortcuts, and it is a lot of work to acheive any level of greatness in any field, especially those in the arts.  We all need to have enough confidence in ourselves to walk our own artistic path and at the end of every project know that on the next one we can indeed do better by some measure.   I think that finding out who you aren't is just as important as finding out who you are as an artist so indeed read, watch, learn, work hard and be proud of yourself every day for your accomplishments.

Below are links to a few vids that I've found rather helpful over the years...