I hear people say all the time, “I want to be a game developer! What do I need to do?”
My answer is always the same — if you want to be a game developer, make a game! You don’t need permission from anybody, and the information on how to do it is out there. And don’t worry if your first game (or 10) are horrible, that’s part of the process.
I’m not sure why I never took my advice when it comes to art work. I’ve always wanted to be an artist (sometime maybe I’ll tell you the story of me and my smock and my art studio when I was 10 years old), but figured I needed to go to school or something before I could do that.
I am planning on taking art courses starting this fall at UAA, but I decided to get started and draw something every day between now and then. Just something small. And I’m going to post it on my blog just to get used to the humiliation. Or rather, to try and get to the point where I just don’t care. 🙂
So attached to this post is my first drawing. Yes, I know his shoes are too big. And I know his face has very little detail. And on and on. But, I drew something today. So I win.
2 Comments on “Beating the Ego”
Jay, the best advice I was given during my Fine Art degree was to just keep drawing and not worry if it was crap; to draw what was in front of me everyday and not worry about finding “exciting” subject matter etc. That tutor said he would weigh our drawings and grade on that rather than look at the drawings. I think he was taking inspiration from the book “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland and applying the example of the ceramics teacher who split the class into students who were required to produce as much as possible and students who were required to produce the “best” work possible – I’m sure you’ve already read this and know the quantity students produced better work.
Now if only I could remember this every day and consistently apply it to my own work and cut the perfectionism 🙂
I look forward to seeing more of your drawings.
Thanks for the comments, Lesley. I know when I get into class I’ll be “forced” to draw vases and bowls full of fruit, so until then I’m going to shoot for more things like I might use in a game. I figure drawing is drawing (to a certain extent) so if I can draw a garden gnome well it will probably help me draw vases and apples. (Actually, the guy’s shoes are so big because I started with them and was thinking “garden gnome!” before I veered off into just a guy.) I’m kind of blocked right now in making my next game dev course due to perfectionism, so maybe this “show my stuff in public” experiment will help me stay away from that in my drawing. 🙂