State of the Art

I decided to jump right in today and begin putting together my mailing list. I pushed through the hustle and bustle of Barnes & Noble toward the art section, where I grabbed the 2010 edition of The Artist’s and Graphic Designers Market. I planned on copying down every art director’s name and contact info I thought might be right for what I want to do. But by the time I was only in the ‘B’ magazine listings, I realized that I’m not ready for this.

Looking through those listings made me realize two important things: 1. Most publications are looking for something rather specific–if not in content, then surely in style–and 2. pieces from new or up-and-coming artists don’t seem to make up a very large margin of purchased work. No, this isn’t just me being down on myself. It’s me trying to be realistic. I decided then that I need to do a bit more focusing inward before I start looking outward. And this brings me to the current state of my artwork.

Concepts

I have never felt particularly strong in my conceptual abilities as an artist. I think this is something that I can fix by working harder at crafting ideas before I even begin sketching. I usually just put pencil to paper absent-mindedly and doodle. I end up drawing the same lines and shapes every time, never really challenging myself.

Another issue here is that I’ve often felt like I produce better images when I’m doing it for someone else rather than for myself. Perhaps this seems a bit backward, but I think it goes along with what I just said, about absent-mindedly doodling. It’s much easier to begin sketching and thumbnailing when someone else gives me some guidelines or jumping-off points. The challenge now is to try to do this for myself, working within guidelines or with a story in mind and to work as if the piece is for someone else. I need to make my personal work a bit better if I want to catch the eye of an art director or potential client.

The Follow-Through

I settle for things too often in my work. I often call the piece “done” when it could probably benefit from a bit more attention. What I’m really saying here is: I’m lazy. When I see work from other artists that really excite and inspire me, it’s easy to look past the amount of time it probably took to complete the piece. I’m impatient when I draw and always want instant gratification. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they probably worked on building it every day.

Next Steps

Think more, sketch more, have a message, tell a story, work it until it’s done, and basically just be more conscious of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’ll deal with this mailing list stuff later.

I’ll leave it at this for now. I could nitpick my bad practices and attitudes all day, but I won’t bore you with it all at once. I’m just trying to identify these things for myself so that I can fix them and move forward. So the trip to B&N wasn’t successful for what I had originally set out for today, but it did get me thinking more about what I need to do to get to that point. And I did get a free bite of cheesecake and a free dixie cup of coffee while I was there, so it wasn’t a total waste.