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I am in utter and complete despair about painting pyos… I thought I was at least ‘fair’ but seeing everyone else’s work makes me feel totally and completely inadequate… Now I know that at age 46 I should be over such feelings, but I long to be at least ‘good’. What a complete waste of time for my professors in Uni. My degree is in literature, fine art and theatre and even if I paint, draw, sculpt, whatever, every day like I was taught, I’m no where near being able to do/sculpt/draw/paint what I ‘see’ in my head… *sigh* I guess maybe my talent lies in the realm of looking at/feeling something and knowing it is good; but it’s really hard to let go of that long held and hoped for dream…
tdm
tdm
Me too, TDM. You’re not alone in that boat (but it’s ok, I brought cookies! 😀 ). I WANT to join the next PYO swap SO bad, but I look at the ones I’ve already done and think that I would be out of my league to join.
I feel the same way. I’m always so excited to do a PYO…then I finish and put the photo up…and it’s always horrid 🙁 I would love to do a swap, but I would feel badly cause mine wouldn’t be as good as the others.
On another note…I used my Christmas money and ordered myself two more muses today, gonna try to follow BD’s ‘how to’ thread. 😳
Me three. I’m all thumbs and knuckles and my sense of color is way off. 🙁 I’m at least having fun doing muses even if they look like a coat of many colors. Move over please, I’m bringing flowers and chocolates. We’ll sit and be the “peanut gallery” for all those whose work we see out there. *sigh*
twindragonsmum wrote:I am in utter and complete despair about painting pyos… I thought I was at least ‘fair’ but seeing everyone else’s work makes me feel totally and completely inadequate… Now I know that at age 46 I should be over such feelings, but I long to be at least ‘good’. What a complete waist of time for my professors in Uni. My degree is in literature, fine art and theatre and even if I paint, draw, sculpt, whatever, every day like I was taught, I’m no where near being able to do/sculpt/draw/paint what I ‘see’ in my head… *sigh* I guess maybe my talent lies in the realm of looking at/feeling something and knowing it is good; but it’s really hard to let go of that long held and hoped for dream…
tdm
Maybe you are not yet at the right stage in life to realize your dream. Wait until the kids are in college, that can make a tremendous difference in how much psychic and emotional energy you have to devote to other things. At least that was my experience – looking back at 46 from my current age of 58. 🙂
I’m the same way with using a paint brush to paint PYO’s… As soon as I put a brush to one of mine, I’m spending double the time trying to correct my mistakes.
I find me being able to use an airbrush a LOT better than a regular brush. I don’t know what it is about it. :shrug:You are good from what I’ve seen of your work. I think alot of us are kinda of in that same boat you are, myself included. We keep comparing our work to the handful of awesome painters then don’t feel like our work is good enough when it is. I know I’ll never paint like some of those who post their pyo’s here. Don’t ask me to draw/paint anything on a flat surface it may look like a 7 year old did it. I do my best to accept the fact that I’m not that talented or I just haven’t found my true calling yet. I’m typically average to good and occasionally not so good but never great at whatever I happen to be doing. All I or anybody else can do is their best.
And peoples don’t let your painting skill (real or perceived) stop you from entering swaps. They’re not about how good you are. They’re about having fun and trying new things. I know I enter them to see what someone else will come up with for me. Which will probably be totally different than what I would have come up with for myself. I’m not an awesome painter nor do I expect anyone else to be. I don’t even expect you have have any experience painting. All I ask is you have fun and your best. Besides if the only people who participated in the swaps are the ones who are or think they are very talented painters we wouldn’t have much of a swap.
I can understand where you’re coming from – when I first joined the forums and started looking at people’s work I’d see Grayfire’s and Koishii’s, Jennifer’s and drag0n’s PYO’s and think “oh lordy.. I could never do something that detailed and gorgeous!”. I also have not had ONE (not even one) PYO come out the way that I intended it to. I start from point A, I get to point B, and I scratch my head and wonder how in the heck it got there when I had something so different in my head?!
The amazing thing about PYO’s in my opinion is that you are painting on something that is ALREADY gorgeous. I’ve never once seen a PYO that I’ve hated because they’re all painted on sculpts that I adore.
My favorite part of painting a PYO is … (surprise) the entire process of painting it. I’m generally proud of the work that I do, but I don’t ever get as much joy out of a piece as when I’ve got it in my hands and I’m painting it. I don’t paint things for the end result, I paint because I love to. If you get even a modicum of enjoyment from painting them I say you buck up and do it!
Besides – if those 2 dragons in your avatar are done by you, stop comparing your work to other people’s that you feel do better, because your stuff is awesome TDM 🙂
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Please visit My Webpage to see my art and PYO's that I've done in the past!Awe, I’m sad that you are so down in feelings. I can relate though, when I first came here I felt that way with my first pyo. My sister had felt that way watching me paint. Some times I still feel that way when I see some one elses art.*points to Nam*
Actualy it is a VERY normal feeling, and it does not mean you are a bad artist or will never improve.*hugs* Art is not easy…and there are a LOT of times where you can feel like there is no improvement. But I can promise you that you do learn from each piece you do, and it is a tiny step to getting better.
I would always remember a chinese story when I was feeling like I was not getting any better while all these other artists were getting better themselve:
A man comes to an Art master and says,” Master! How do I become a great artist like you?” The master replies,” go, paint 100 paintings, then when you are finished, bring them back here.”
The man goes. He paints 100 paintings. When he brings them back, he says,” I did as you said? Now what do I do?” The master replied to him with out looking at the paintings,” Good. No go back, paint 100 more paintings. Keep doing that.”Like Koi’s story said, practice makes better.
Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htmtwindragonsmum wrote:My degree is in literature, fine art and theatre and even if I paint, draw, sculpt, whatever, every day like I was taught, I’m no where near being able to do/sculpt/draw/paint what I ‘see’ in my head… *sigh* I guess maybe my talent lies in the realm of looking at/feeling something and knowing it is good; but it’s really hard to let go of that long held and hoped for dream…
tdm
I can never paint what I see in my head. I am disappointed with nearly everything I create because it is not what I envisioned. And I have been doing this ‘full time’ (10+ hours a day usually) for over 5 years, and had been painting seriously ‘part time’ for 7 years before that. That’s something in the range of over 20,000 hours. But I just keep trying. Maybe someday I’ll get there.
KoishiiKitty wrote:A man comes to an Art master and says,” Master! How do I become a great artist like you?” The master replies,” go, paint 100 paintings, then when you are finished, bring them back here.”
The man goes. He paints 100 paintings. When he brings them back, he says,” I did as you said? Now what do I do?” The master replied to him with out looking at the paintings,” Good. No go back, paint 100 more paintings. Keep doing that.”The missing part of this story: the artist thought those 100 paintings were crap!
It is easy to look at someone’s work and be starstruck and be green over their innate ability and talent. And some people DO seem to have a touch more innate ability than others.
But for nearly everyone, every speck of that ability was won not through the magic of ‘born talent’ but with hard work and practice, and probably hundreds of drawings (or paintings or whatever) that you never see.Volunteer mod- I'm here to help! Email me for the best response: nambroth at gmail.com
My art: featherdust.comVERY good point Nam! A friend of mine in high school was a year younger than me. We were what-16 years old and she could draw dragons, unicorns, creatures of all kinds with CRAZY amazing talent. And she could sketch things out of her head. I was always blown away. BUT she had been drawing since she could literally hold a pencil and had been under the instruction of an art teacher since she was like 5-so YES after 10 or so years, she was really good. And from when I met her in middle school (14 years old) until we were 18, I saw her improve even more.
Ive even seen some of you talented artists here get better. I too think, “Man, I wish I could paint like ______________” but yeah, HOW many PYO’s has _____________ done? 50 or so? Even 20 or so is a lot of Windstones to paint. And if you’re worried about “screwing up” on a Windstone, there are lots of ceramic un painted pieces to practice on that are cheap and easy to come by at Walmart, Hobby Lobby etc.
I have an awesome “flion” candle lamp I got off ebay for less than $10 and I have seen a cute mare and foal set at Walmart.I guess part of the problem is that me boyohs, now freshmen in high school, are both enrolled in art classes. Their art teacher very, very rarely gives A grades in his classes and at parent teacher conference both boys are getting high B grades; very close to A’s. Roddy and I surrounded them with art of all types, music from classical to satyrical to modern, we encouraged them to write. Roddy is a Mechanical Engineer and a brilliant one at that, and then there’s me who still can’t decide what I want to be when I grow up. I don’t want to offend anyone but I guess I feel like men still have the upper hand in choosing what it is they want to do and then they can focus on that nearly exclusively while women still have most of the ‘traditional’ jobs that go along with caring for family and home. Don’t get me wrong, I conciously made the choice to be a wife, mother, homemaker and I am blessed enough that I do not have to work outside the home to help support the family, but by the end of the day I’m so tired I fall into bed with my head buzzing about the things I didn’t get done and what needs to be taken care of tomorrow… Luckily it’s the off season for cross country but track is starting soon and that just cuts into any spare time for art. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to whinge, I just would like to have a talent that is worth something — But being able to enjoy other folks work doesn’t hurt… Speaking of that, any of you that live close to me or close to the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah might be interested in going to see the showing they are having at the University art museum of the works of Carl H. Bloch. He was a Danish painter who lived from 1834-1890 and his work is stunning. A lot of it has a religious theme to it like most artists of that time but it is well worth seeing. I’d love to go with some of you….
And Yeral, thank you – those 2 dragons I did for me boyohs. The green one belongs to Sean (twindragon2) and the red is Ethan’s (twindragon1)
tdm
tdm
twindragonsmum wrote:but I guess I feel like men still have the upper hand in choosing what it is they want to do and then they can focus on that nearly exclusively while women still have most of the ‘traditional’ jobs that go along with caring for family and home.
i kinda have to disagree with you here… i am DEFINITELY in the same position as you are here. my husband runs a big technology company here and i stay home with the kid and take care of the home stuff. yet, i feel that i have so much more freedom than he does. when he comes home from work, he’s so mentally exhausted and has no desire to do much else than sit and watch tv. at the end of my day, when the kid is in bed, all my creative energy from the day has built up and i can sit and do my art projects at night. people are amazed at how i can turn out so much artwork in the very few hours that i set aside for it each day. i think its all about priorities… if you want to make art a priority in your life, you have to consciously do it. that whole analogy of fitting the big rocks and the pebbles into the big jar of life. is there something that you do during the day that is meaningless? like surf the net, watch tv, etc? something that you could easily give up in order to devote 20-30 minutes to sketching or dabbing some paint on a pyo? bring a sketchbook wherever you go and if you have a few minutes or a strike of inspiration, jot it down. no one can expect changes over night… and getting better takes time you just have to be patient and it will come. exactly one year ago i gave up my evening tv routine in order to pursue my art after being away from it for over 10 years. and i have to say, i’m pretty happy with the result. if its really something you want to do, just put your mind to it and it will come… study the artists you admire very carefully and try to incorporate what you learn into your art.
and… to address your original concern, i was once told that even the greatest artists think their art sucks at times. there’s always going to be someone better, no matter who or how great you are. you have to make it about yourself and not everyone else… and it will be so much more satisfying..
i wish i lived closer! i would definitely come visit and check out the museums with you 🙂
<3
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