An argument against being an Art Monk
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I posted this on my blog deal. Figured I'd repost on here since aside from my Mom (I hope) I don't think many people here visit my blog. I would really love to hear what all of you on here have to say about the subject of art time vs/and relaxation time. C&C would be great.
Artists are a motivated breed. Well maybe not in the traditional sense of what youre thinking motivation is. Maybe we dont strive to climb a corporate ladder or max out our 401ks. But Artists want eat, breathe, and live their art. We, as Artists have a desire to learn new techniques, push ourselves to new limits, be pushed by peers, and generally improve in our art. Ideally that is wonderful and every Artist should strive and achieve this goal of being the absolute best Artist they can be. But that is not a realistic or healthy goal.
Think about it for a second. At least one of your parents worked. Maybe your Father was an Accountant or your Mother was a Doctor. What if your parents did not feed you, clothe you, or take care of your skinned knees because they focused 100% of their energy on being the best Accountant or Doctor they could be? You most likely would be dead by now. At the very least you would have skinned up knees, be naked, and really hungry. So why should you and your approach be any different with your life?
Now please do not read the previous sentences and think this guy wrote a great piece for me to validate slacking off and not doing any art for 6 months. Because that could not be farther from the truth. You should stay focused and dedicated to your craft (game art I imagine if youre reading this). You should also have a balance to the process of becoming that great Artist you want to.
Achieving that balance is the hardest part of this whole thing. I recommend for those of you that like the sort of thing that you make a schedule and stick to it. It sounds lame. But 8-10 hours of crunching polygons, textures, and animations gets you 2 hours of video game, movie, or significant other time. Maybe that whole process is a bit rigid for you. Something like make a new project then take 2-4 days off and then rinse and repeat. That is the way I tend to work nowadays. Knee deep in 3D painting, sculpting, and modeling for a couple days, month, whatever. After that an appropriate (emphasis should be on appropriate) time off. Taking 1/5 or 1/6 of the time you worked on the project off is another healthy approach.
Having this balance makes you a more rounded person, candidate for a job, and also prevents you from being burnt out. Which is when youve focused so long and so much on one task or set of tasks that you have trouble finding the drive to complete those tasks anymore. That is something as an Artist pushing yourself and your art to the zenith of its potential should avoid at all costs. You can relate it to being a runner and overtraining yourself so much that you get injured and cannot even compete.
Do you art push-ups, get your artistic abilities as maxed out as possible. Just dont be afraid to relax every now and then. Please feel free to comment below on this.
link: http://blog.environmentartist.com/?p=851
Artists are a motivated breed. Well maybe not in the traditional sense of what youre thinking motivation is. Maybe we dont strive to climb a corporate ladder or max out our 401ks. But Artists want eat, breathe, and live their art. We, as Artists have a desire to learn new techniques, push ourselves to new limits, be pushed by peers, and generally improve in our art. Ideally that is wonderful and every Artist should strive and achieve this goal of being the absolute best Artist they can be. But that is not a realistic or healthy goal.
Think about it for a second. At least one of your parents worked. Maybe your Father was an Accountant or your Mother was a Doctor. What if your parents did not feed you, clothe you, or take care of your skinned knees because they focused 100% of their energy on being the best Accountant or Doctor they could be? You most likely would be dead by now. At the very least you would have skinned up knees, be naked, and really hungry. So why should you and your approach be any different with your life?
Now please do not read the previous sentences and think this guy wrote a great piece for me to validate slacking off and not doing any art for 6 months. Because that could not be farther from the truth. You should stay focused and dedicated to your craft (game art I imagine if youre reading this). You should also have a balance to the process of becoming that great Artist you want to.
Achieving that balance is the hardest part of this whole thing. I recommend for those of you that like the sort of thing that you make a schedule and stick to it. It sounds lame. But 8-10 hours of crunching polygons, textures, and animations gets you 2 hours of video game, movie, or significant other time. Maybe that whole process is a bit rigid for you. Something like make a new project then take 2-4 days off and then rinse and repeat. That is the way I tend to work nowadays. Knee deep in 3D painting, sculpting, and modeling for a couple days, month, whatever. After that an appropriate (emphasis should be on appropriate) time off. Taking 1/5 or 1/6 of the time you worked on the project off is another healthy approach.
Having this balance makes you a more rounded person, candidate for a job, and also prevents you from being burnt out. Which is when youve focused so long and so much on one task or set of tasks that you have trouble finding the drive to complete those tasks anymore. That is something as an Artist pushing yourself and your art to the zenith of its potential should avoid at all costs. You can relate it to being a runner and overtraining yourself so much that you get injured and cannot even compete.
Do you art push-ups, get your artistic abilities as maxed out as possible. Just dont be afraid to relax every now and then. Please feel free to comment below on this.
link: http://blog.environmentartist.com/?p=851
Replies
I've gone from really hardcore always working on things as a student, to a bit more relaxed way of life when I got a teaching job (still did multiple projects at the same time, often too many), to now actually being in the industry. And doing only one digital project, preferring to spend my free time elsewhere.
I.e. if you were into parkour im sure that would benefit level designers outlook in some way
- Or general life experience and moral choice scenarios / Im sure penny arcade had something to say about some things from Heavy Rain and how being a parent effected their experience.
- What kind of painter wont go out and marvel at nature / architecture
Point is, what kind of artist is just grinding things out 100% without considering how life experience can benefit their work?
...Cant quite word this right, but I think the actual art "monk" is someone whos not just doing drills, which is what you seem to be implying?
For my part of my process of inspiration, I like to out and doing things and experiencing the world. Then I can turn around and put my experiences into my art to form new stories that I can share with others.
But it's true, you risk burning out. I felt like shit this week, my sleep cycles are all fucked again. It's 3am and I'm still up working on something, and I have to get up in the morning to go to work, that may have something to do with being a night owl but it's no excuse for you to not look after yourself I guess.
Have to do something about it, "8 hour work, 8 hour play and 8 hour sleep" is what I'm aiming at. I'm about to hit a very important milestone in my (professional) life and I'll use it as my turning point for a more healthy life.
Also, for all your workaholics out there, make sure you make at least one or two coffee breaks per day. I have the habit of working hours in a row after lunch, all the way up to dinner time; this week I decided to go downstairs for a coffee and some fresh air and I came back refreshed and pumped to continue working. And I thought to myself, why the fuck don't I do this more often. I'm feeling that if I work long hours I end up being not productive at all, so yeah PAUSES, very important!
I'm not saying take a lot of time off. Risk of getting burnt out, and discouraged would be my main argument for that. It would be hard for someone trying to break in that just can't get themselves to make art for a period of time.
Yeah I agree Jackwhat it's a bit extreme. That was to prove a point. Probably could have found a better analogy for that. I really like what you bring up about using aspects of your life outside of art to make art (parkour, etc). Great point there too Gannon.
Art "monk" I meant someone that just lives, breathes, and sleeps art. Doesn't seem like a healthy lifestyle to do anything at that pace. I see entry people and students trying to have that attitude and the work suffers and so does the person. That's the main motivation for writing it.
HP yes bad writing here and there. I make words go boom! Prolly could reword a decent portion. Thanks for the feedback on that aspect.
Sorry to hear about the feeling like shit. That's tough. Milestones definitely help. I worked at one company that I had an hour and half commute to work. I was miserable and at my heaviest weight ever. I got a different job on one of my dream IPs and a 30 minute commute. I used the extra time to exercise and get in a little early. Needless to say that was the happiest point in my professional career because I had more balance than before even though I wasn't making art for that commute. It still felt like work.
those smoke and coffee breaks are what it's all about man
Where I wanted to go with my thing is that someone can live and breath art without grinding out work at a desk, the way I see it is that everything factors into your growth as an artist. To call this being an art monk seems wrong, but this is probably just me being fussy with words. Like you say though, you see entry level people do it... they arent what id call a monk, this writeup seems more about how being a workaholic without experiencing other things can be detrimental, but you seem to associate that with living and breathing art, which are different things to me.
Model stuff. Make game assets, hunt for more tutorials modded games etc. it was my first time exploring the CG World and it was to awesome to just take a break from. I lost all my muscle. Stopped hanging with all my friends. got healed back 3 years in school from skipping to stay home and indulge in 3D, I ignored this girl whom i had madly loved and stopped visiting my grandmother.
Ive made soo many models and used so much software Ive forgotten names and birthdays of my family.
I love CG sooo dam much its addicting but i seen the light not to long ago and is Currently correcting my mistakes while portioning my 3D Time. its working out better this way
It really sounds a bit sad man, sorry to say that
I made a few edits based on what all of you were suggesting. I tried to take into account the entry level people and outside influences on art. C&C is again always great.
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Artists are extremely motivated people. Well maybe not in the traditional sense of what you’re thinking motivation is. Maybe we don’t strive to climb a corporate ladder or max out our 401ks. But Artists want to eat, breathe, and live their art. We, as Artists have a desire to learn new techniques, push ourselves to new limits, be motivated by peers, and generally improve in our art. Ideally that is wonderful and every Artist should strive and achieve this goal of being the absolute best Artist they can be. But that is not a realistic or healthy goal even when first entering the field.
Starting out as a student or entry level Artist is extremely difficult. Not only is the act of obtaining a job hard, but also keeping the motivation, pace, and not burning out. At first glance if you want X then work, eat, and sleep X so you’ll continually get better at that and be able to start getting paid to do X. That’s a fine approach for students. The risk that comes with that amount of immersion is massive burn out, becoming stagnated, and not having time to let your artistic ‘eye’ take a break. If you are in school, work, work, work, and take a day off once a month or something similar. If you are working a day job and making art at night then do the same. Taking a day off once a month is ok. Even if it’s taking your significant other out on a date every week or two that is more than enough of a break.
Now please do not read this and think “this guy wrote a great piece for me to validate slacking off and not doing any art for 6 months”. That could not be farther from the truth. You should stay focused and dedicated to your craft (game art I imagine if you’re reading this). You should also have a balance to the process of becoming that great Artist you want to be.
Achieving that balance is the hardest part of this whole thing. I recommend for those of you that like schedules make one and stick to it. It sounds lame. But 8-10 hours of crunching polygons, textures, and animations gets you 2 hours of video game, movie, or significant other time. Maybe that whole process is a bit rigid for you. Create a new project then 2-4 days off and then rinse and repeat. That is the way I tend to work nowadays. Knee deep in 3D painting, sculpting, and modeling for a couple days, month, whatever the course of the piece or project takes. After that take an appropriate (emphasis should be on appropriate) time off and relax for a bit. Taking 1/5 or 1/6 of the time you worked on the project off is another healthy approach.
Having this balance makes you a well-rounded person, better candidate for a job, and also prevents you from becoming burnt out. Which is when you’ve focused so long and so much on one task or set of tasks that you have trouble finding the drive to complete those tasks anymore. That is something as an Artist pushing yourself and your art to the zenith of it’s potential should be avoided at all costs. You can relate it to being a runner and overtraining yourself so much that you get injured and cannot even compete.
Taking that time off also allows you to bring other influences into your art. Go to Disneyland (if you’re near by) and try to not be inspired to want to make art with all the amazing set designs. Go see a movie and work in some of the places, concepts, and ideas from that movie into a future piece. Taking that all-important break will motivate you in areas you were not previously thinking about. Incorporating a hobby into your art is another amazing motivating thing to do. If you like to skateboard on the weekends take a day and go to a skate park. Maybe take pictures of the park and make that your next project. It will force you to take time off to do some “research”.
Do you art push-ups, get your artistic abilities as maxed out as possible. Just don’t be afraid to relax every now and then.
also in game art you spend a large amount of time essentially trying to recreate elements of the world in meshes and textures, so even if your not creating something new, you should be using the world around you for a reference.
also don't know if it's just me but i find i tend to feel more creative and have better ideas, when i come back to things fresh after spending a few days with my significant other, or have been doing something active, your body and brain just work better if you exercise all parts of them, and not point your self down a narrow path for weeks on end.
EDIT:
Also Jeff as i just realized when looking at your blog, you're a course director at full sail, im a student at full sail and up until september i was an on campus student, right now im Tim Bowsers Teachers Assistant and working with him for the second time on ESPN work, it makes me feel even better to see someone from school, course director or student its nice, thank you, really
dpaynter26 hopefully you get things worked out. Sounds like you're moving forward. Just keep making art and make sure to keep a balance to life. That's extremely important. Glad this made sense and hopefully helps you moving forward.
Some people are level 60 specced out in L337 gear from birth. They have +win mod enabled, and are just awesome (Let's call them Russian-Koreans). While others have friends and peers that can help uber level them to get to level 65+.
The higher up you go, the harder it is to get there, and the more time it will take.
Unfortunately, most people start from level 1, (but some well rounded life experience will start you at level 20).
Anyways, if the goal is to become a level 85, most people just have to grind grind grind instances to get there. The danger in that, is they might end up as a shitty player who is good at nothing but instances. Others dabble in some PvP, level up their cooking/fishing skills, do some weekly raids and do their dailies. You will also become better at WoW when you play different classes, understand the theories of how the different roles within a team work, optimizing your playtime, and knowing the in's and out's of every role will allow you to become better at your main one.
The point I'm trying to get at, is I god damn I miss playing WoW, and I can't wait till Diablo 3 comes out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Monk