Success and Failure

This has been bugging me for quite a while. The issue is too well-known to many artists: (un) supportive environment.

Regardless of your circumstances, there is one thing to be aware of : if you don't give up on yourself, you will always win in the end. If you have the desire to create, you need to know that it's a rare gift; few people have the courage to practice and develop it.

I'm sharing this with those who have the same drive and passion as I do, yet are not blessed with the loving and supportive environment that almost every successful artist had by virtue of having a caring family, or by creating it themselves. Becoming a good artist is not easy; some say it's as difficult as becoming a neurosurgeon. It goes without saying, there will be many setbacks and "failures" along the way. But those are not real failures, they are lessons to show you what you need to improve in your art; we all have to deal with these problems: hours and hours of additional practice makes those flaws go away. It's not impossible.

The only real failure is to stop trying, surrendering and giving up.

Being an artist is not just a profession or a craft, it's who you are. It's a lot like being left-handed: you can be re-trained, you can learn to act just like everybody else, you can write with your right hand all your life, but it doesn't change the fact that you were born and you will die a lefty. 

Removing the negativity that robs you of the energy and the will to create, surrounding yourself with courage, strength and inspiration: that is the only way an artist can overcome the environment and develop the full potential of the creative being inside.

Never stop trying, never give up.

End of CGMA 2012 Fall Quarter

My Dynamic Sketching class is coming to a close. It was incredibly tough and extremely rewarding. I feel I've made tremendous progress in the last 8 weeks. This week is dedicated to tidying up all the work done through the quarter and completing the final redesign.

On that note, here are some highlights from the last 2 months of my training:

Not only did I make a few nice drawings, I also get to put my design skills to good use.

For the final redesign (the submersible craft) I decided to make a full circle and use a very basic organic shape. My goal was to apply all the techniques and principles that I've learned in the past 2 months and turn a simple abstract shape into a representation of an object. I hope the final result makes sense.