This week is a nice quote from Norman Vincent Peale. He was a pastor and motivational speaker. I found a few of his quotes motivational, but I feel this one fits being an artist best.
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities!
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy”
Norman Vincent Peale
Norm-aly I just sketch out the quote, they are more so I can have something to post twice a week. Sometimes it is for practice.
Today is a bit different.
Today I am frustrated with people. Mostly people who buy art or say they buy art.
I spend hours researching and planning 90% of my art. Then I spend many more hours working on it. Agonizing over the lines, colors, textures, and composition. I rarely have a piece that took less than 8 hours. Most of my art ranges between 20 and 80 hours.
You would thing with all the “OMG! that is so great” or “You are so talented” and “That would look great (insert room here)” comments that someone out there would be willing to pay a measly $150 for something that would cost $282.xx charging minimum wage and the cost of materials.
No… they are not. You tell them the original is $150 and the go “hmmm” or their eyebrows go up so high they are lost in their hair line.
Then real kicker is about an hour later they walk past your booth with a painting from the “preforming artist” who is wearing a blindfold and throwing paint at a wall, hoping to hit a row of canvases. This person ends up spending less than 10 minutes on each canvas, never sees them and people are spending $50 or more on them. There is not thought in is type of art. There is certainly no agonizing over the art. I do not see the soul, emotions, or drive in that kind of art.
The only real thing I will “give” this is that it is original (as much as art can be.)
The stuff that really drives me crazy is people paying for “fan art.” I think artists that only do fan art are lazy and thieves. They have the talent to do their own original art, and yet feel compelled to steal money and ideas from established characters and artists.
Doing fan art is fine to show your skills or even practice. I have a few that I have done. Just do not do get prints and sell them. The idea was not yours, it belongs to some other artist.
Get off your ass and create your own!
Spend hours agonizing on them, imbue them with your emotions. Breath life into them. Stop taking short cuts and stealing from people who worked hard on the creation.
Of course the real problem is people buy this stuff. The thoughtless, meaningless art and the ideas stolen by others. If people would get out of their little boxes and support original and thoughtful art the market place would not be flooded with so much garbage.
I know I am a good artist. It is one of the few things that I do that make me feel good about myself.
I would like to see more original artists succeed off their own art and not have to stoop to stealing art or creating thoughtless art.
This took four hours, about an hour to do the pencil lines and three hours to ink. I will send another 6-10 hours coloring it in. I would hope to sell it for $40. I should charge a minimum of $130 for time and supplies. I have no illusions that anyone is going to pay that.