Don't call it anything....Do what you love.

As an artist first and foremost you have to do what you love to do. I know this might sound a tad contrite and I'm sure you may have heard it before, but I think in today's marketplace it is a really important fact that many artists out there are overlooking. So many people label themselves as this type of artist or that type of artist. I certainly denote what I feel my strongest areas are professionally when asked about what type of artwork I produce, but I never limit myself to any style or type of artwork. This in short means I don't limit myself or snob off any jobs that sound interesting simply because they don't fit into the idyll of some set artistic persona I wish to convey to the rest of the digital world at large. Taking on new and interesting challenges is fun for me. I love working in different ways and on different stuff all the time and really the only artistic truth about me is that I'm an artist for hire. You see it all the time these days, there are for example 'concept artists' everywhere and most of them don't have any idea what a concept artist really is. I mean you can argue that every painting is a concept of something, right? So if you can paint, you can concept right? Not so....As a professional concept artist you have to be able to paint story beats, characters in many angles, environments, revisions, and then be able to extract elements out of any of these and explode them as any draftsman would. You also have to know intimately how to communicate mood through your work in many different ways. It's all very deliberate, and very required of you. Painting nice pictures is cool, but it's only a fraction of the job. Really 'concept artist' is almost a misnomer. Most concept artists working in the industry would be the first to tell anyone that what they do is much more design than art. While we all use artistic technique to get the job done, it's the real design choices that make it all really happen. I recently heard Chris Oatley say that 'people want to be concept artists because they love the concept of being an artist.' This really rings true and brings me to my ultimate point. You have to do what you love as an artist without labels, especially if you are just starting out because that passion for what you are producing will carry you through hard times, rejection and more importantly give your work a very genuine aspect that most people's just doesn't have. If you truly follow your personal inspirations and influences in your own way you can become great. Nobody ever got there by copying another's style or really more to the point, they perceive as another's style. Doing that will always make you second rate. You might produce good paintings, but there will always be something missing. Don't worry about how to get the phat paycheck job, followers online, or votes on pieces, etc. When you start really putting your heart and soul into your work in a true way, drawing upon the things that have moved you throughout your life, then your work will eventually attract people. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes not, but you will gain a genuine audience, unlike the fad followers who will come and go. There are no shortcuts to getting great other than the obvious one which is an insane amount of hard work and struggle to get there, but that is something that every artist who has gotten there has been through and had to rely on the love of their craft and belief in themselves to get through. It's something that most artists think they can avoid or take a class and skip over. Trust me Gnomon has no dvd out there that addresses that particular doldrum. You have to practice, paint and draw your way through it. Show your work and honestly look for critique rather than praise. Critique will teach you lessons, praise offers you far less in terms of making you better. I'd take a good honest critique, rather than empty praise any day, even though people saying nice things about your work is really nice. I really write these endless rants hoping that I can help others out there get over the humps and bumps of this digital artistic age we live in and I hope this one while rambling and long has helped you gain a little insight into following your own path as an artist and the rewards that ultimately entails. All the best! IIId