Importance of Confidence

Alex_J

Two student artist enter an Artstation challenge. They both choose the same concept.

As Sue begins, she is thinking, "eh, I'm definitely not gonna win this thing... everybody is sooo much better than me. I feel embarrassed even trying."

This makes her feel bad, and she procrastinates the first few days of the competition before building herself up and getting started.

She mostly stays consistent the rest of the time, and outputs a D- character.

As Bill begins, he is thinking, "eh, I probably won't win this thing but... I could. No reason I shouldn't be able to do as well as anybody else." He knows that if he said something like this out loud people would laugh at him. Because he's a noob and his work sucks. But he doesn't think any further into it because he's feeling good and he's got work to do.

He starts his work, does his best, and outputs a D- character.

Neither Sue or Bill win anything or gain much recognition at all for their efforts. But they are each in very different places, despite the similar outcome.

Sue is in a dark place. She spends hours scrolling through all the winners until she can't stand it, shuts down the computer, and does nothing art related for a week. When she finally builds herself up to begin a new project, she struggles with procrastination and ends up quitting before it's finished.

Bill is not in a dark place. He's in his happy place. He is looking very closely at his character side by side with the winners. Now he can see exactly what his work is lacking, but also he can see the similarities. He did some things pretty well! There is no one patting Bill on his back, so he gives himself a little love. Nothing wrong with that at all. Now he is feeling more energetic than he was before the competition. "Oh man, once I fix these issues, my next work is gonna be fucking stellar!"

Sue enters the next competition but never gets started. She spends her study time searching for expensive schooling with bold promises, but she can't afford it so this makes her more sad.

Bill enters the next competition, works hard, and outputs a D+ character.

Brian "Panda" Choi

So how should Sue go about gaining grit?

Alex_J

that's a novel.

Very simply, I believe confidence is a perfectly natural state of being. So you find what is detracting from the confidence and figure out how to deal with it. You do this simply by experimentation. Same as anything else. Try some random idea. Does it help or not? If it does, keep it. If not, move on with your next idea (or get ideas from others.)

Example : you didn't do well in school and even your own parents said you are "slow." Maybe it's scientifically true, maybe it isn't. So what? Does it help to have a ready-made excuse for failures? So you try self-talking yourself and that helps a little but not all the way. Then you try jumping into action whenever that lame excuse starts popping up in your mind, and this really helps a lot. Eventually you overcome this habit of saying, "i''ll never get the job because I'm slower than others," and you get a lot more high focus study done because of it.

It's not enough to have goals. Even very clear and specific goals. You must believe in your ability to meet your goals. So if you do not fully believe in your ability to meet your goals, you got to make that your first goal.

NikhilR

I'd like to add, that when it comes to game art, its important to learn the fundamentals, have a solid foundation in the basics, understand anatomy, be comfortable with the programs, be adept with the workflow.etc

That helps with confidence and also betters the result during the challenge.

Personally while I'm okay with competitions, I feel that the artstation challenges are more subjective like the cube brush art wars, so your work might not necessary be a lower grade to everyone, and many of the submissions might not even be comparable since there's such a wide assortment of work.

It can however be a good learning experience for everyone and a great incentive for adding to an art portfolio.

Alex_J

For sure. As with anything, human politics is always a major factor.

Confidence isn't a matter of divorcing yourself from reality -- just trusting in your ability to achieve your goals. And in that regard, a little bit of bullshit is totally fine. It's just to manage the emotions, so that the emotions are not managing your work.

The thing is, if you lack confidence and don't expect to gain in until you are an awesome artist.... it might effect your studies. Slow you down. Or screw you up entirely. So you got to develop some kind of confidence in the interim, before fan girls are begging you to autograph their tits.

NikhilR

before fan girls are begging you to autograph their tits.

Lol I doubt anyone here is going to get that far. 

Alex_J

let me believe!

NikhilR

I'm thinking have more well endowed models might get fans to sign their names on it. That is more likely given the field we're in.
That and the fact that those sort of models certainly jump to the front of the line on artstation.

Alex_J

yeah. but at least that's something you can count on.... well, i had some more to say but it could get OT in a bad way real fast, so I'll snip it there.

PixelMasher

I'm not sure if I shared this one here, but its pretty relevant for moving past failure and building confidence as an artist. 
https://youtu.be/XP7Lc38Naec

Alex_J

I remember that video but it was worth a second watch.

Two big ideas from that that are super helpful and have become part of my standard working practice :

One, expect failure on the first try. And two, end on a positive note. They kind of go hand in hand like this : Even if what I am doing is something pretty mundane, I always take a dry run at it first with the intent that I'll do it again. The first try is just to work out the kinks and put my plan to the test.

It seems like it would waste time, but it always ends up saving me time and headache, and also helps up the overall quality.

So always beginning the work with a test run helps end things on a positive note as it clears up any uncertainties. Then where ever you leave off doesn't matter cause you know exactly how things are gonna go down from there.

Dreyzie

I've been Sue's position before and it's still something I struggle with today. That little voice in the back of my head is always there telling me I'm not good enough, but I try my best to silence it and keep going. An important aspect of improving as an artist is networking and learning from others, which is why Bill's mindset is something I want to strive for. He's not afraid to compare his work to others with much more experience, and by doing so he's probably going to learn some neat tricks along the way.

Alex_J

yeah. I don't think the struggle ever goes away. Like Tim is saying in his video, he's been doing this for so many years and still suffers imposter syndrome. But I think the key is simply understanding that it is there.

it's good to have that pressure but you cannot let it get out of control. That's why I think for the beginner it is probably best to just focus on developing a habit of finishing work as the top priority. This will force them to find some ways to deal with their own insecurities. once you can reliably finish work in spite of whatever issues you face, then it's just a matter of refinement. Like, maybe you finish work and generally do your best, but 3/4 of the way through a project you always hit a wall where the second-guessing come full force and that's usually where you let the quality slip and start to half-ass things.

For myself, the biggest thing that slows me down is uncertainty. Like, if I don't have a super clear design or reference, or the workflow is unclear or new to me, thats when I'm gonna procrastinate. But what I found is to just recognize that and dive right into the work, fully expecting to do it over again once I get things sorted out.

NikhilR

PixelMasher said:

I'm not sure if I shared this one here, but its pretty relevant for moving past failure and building confidence as an artist. 
https://youtu.be/XP7Lc38Naec

Great video! Patience is so important in our line of work! Its great when every setback gives more meaning to a future successful endeavour.

zachagreg

I think this would be a great time for my signature.

sacboi

I recollect the origin of that quote. 

Alex_J

Heh. Lacking confidence, a world-devouring quest for revenge may do.

zachagreg

BIGTIMEMASTER said:

Heh. Lacking confidence, a world-devouring quest for revenge may do.

Screaming, maniacal, confidence. It's what gets you through those hours in the middle of the night where you're trying to get your project over that mental hill. Also it helps to have some people around you to support you.

sacboi said:

I recollect the origin of that quote. 

I think everyone involved in that remembers that 200 IQ thread.

Alex_J

Maniacally, I worked thirty hours over the weekend to rebuild part of my portfolio project 3 times, taking an extremely long detour only to basically arrive back where I started  but with some very small changes.

Makes me think back to some times during those long, solo land navigation test in which all hope is lost and you just want to lay down and die, but you're in the middle of fucking nowhere so the only thing to do is walk in any direction for miiiiiles until something happens. And then, somehow, you make it. Experiences like that are where you learn the value of simple phrases, like "just don't quit."

sacboi

Self discipline!...when all else fails or nano seconds before the urge to chuck the monitor through an open window takes hold...

zachagreg

That's essentially what it comes down to. Practicing the human's hidden muscle of willpower and self discipline. It gets stronger as you use it. Somethings in life never get an easier, it just gets easier to keep doing them. No matter how many times Max crashes putting a UVW Modifier on an object!