I’m 31 now, and I still want to try and do… everything. I have always been curious by nature and love crafting stuff with my own two hands. I love working. In some ways, I think this has been passed down by my father. The true emulator, who loved to take some skill whatever it might be, and fidget around with it until he figured it out. He was doing photography with analog cameras and film. He was painting the scenery with all kinds of paints, painting huge murals on ice cream shops, inking using negative spaces only, sculpting pirates, devils, and crocodiles out of clay. He was a great fisherman and hunter. Played every instrument he got his hands on such as piano, guitars, accordion, zither, and harmonica. He loved building things and renovating as well. Was he master of all those things? Probably not, yet he was pretty damn great at them all. Why? Because he loved doing them. They brought him joy and that is a key to everything.
It is interesting to me to know that he wanted to become a “real” artist and applied to a prestigious art school taught by a master and was turned down. It turned out that only a select few were accepted at that time, most of which needed to pull some strings and have contacts to get in. I think he took that as a big fuck you and wanted to prove them all wrong. That was his fuck you fuel for learning by doing. Crafting his skills, his way and no one could stop him.
Can masters be out mastered? What makes you one? Is it some official title that grants you the status or is it your works and your skills? People love to compare, but to me, art is an individual journey. As an observer, you either can appreciate it or not. Do you even need to master something to live a rich and fulfilling life? I think my father certainly had fun. He never knew boredom, he happily crafted and did things that brought him joy. Life is too short to be concerned about what if I never achieve this or that or become the true master. Do what you love anyway.
You know, I rather am the master of none and still have fun in this life. It still stings a bit from time to time when I show something I have been working on for days or weeks to my mother and poured my heart out in it, and she says something along the lines you need to learn to shade, maybe go take some courses with some master, or oh you should see this artist’s work, they paint these realistic looking flowers. Things like that. How I should focus on getting serious about living xD Good thing is that I have realized that my life is my own.
I wonder what my father would say to me now.
While lately, my blog here has been more silent than usual, don’t be alarmed. I am not going anywhere. They should create a feature, where you can leave a message that pops up like a banner on top of your feed - be back soon, busy learning how to properly poke a digital drawing tablet or something, ha!
But here are some supplies that just arrived. I am so excited to put these to good use! It’s called… I was running low on sketching paper xD
Until next time, thank you for reading and stopping by! Hopefully, soon I will have some more works to share using these supplies perhaps! ^^
Song of the day: Firewind - Maniac
That's always good fuel and I can relate. There will always be those folks who want to hold others back. They don't change when you change though.
Years ago I spoke to a few people, talking about wanting to pursue writing and art again. They tried to talk me down saying it wouldn't amount to anything, I'd be wasting my time, yadda yadda yadda. I've improved over the years. People from all over the world have seen and read my work.
Those same people who wanted to hold me back now point to the fact I'm not a New York Times best selling author, nor is my art seen in some fancy gallery, yadda yadda yadda. Could make a million and they'd complain I never made ten million, so therefore it was a waste of time.
I personally don't see how attempting to hold others back in life can be a productive thing to do. I see it's not getting them far. But I guess that's where they want to be, since they're the experts.
Maybe it makes them feel better about themselves or something, not sure how that works exactly. Some of them might even think they are encouraging while saying those things.
Keep going, it is your journey, not theirs. No time is wasted when doing what you love.
The act of giving a shit can be one of the hardest and least rewarding behaviors.
Excuse me? You're about to get hit by a bus. "Don't tell me how to walk and where!" Splat.
But I don't think those naysayer types are giving a shit when attempting to protect one from something that won't hurt to try. It's their own fear of failure, I think. They don't want others to go through that pain. But all that will ever lead to is a world of nothingness, where nothing gets done.
LOL! I'm just trying to sound smart.
Ooo new supplies, exciting! I look forward to seeing some of your new creations.
You might be interested to hear the master of one quote in its entirety, maybe it will change your perspective on the idea? I'm not sure why it has been paired down over the years but the original quote goes "A Jack of all trades is a master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one."
Aww. Thank you, hopefully soon.
I like it. It makes more sense to me now :) It certainly adds interesting bits and perspectives to great many things.
I also want to do EVERYTHING! One thing that helps me is to understand that getting really good at any one thing makes me better at everything. Like, going DEEP on a single topic makes it easier when I set off on a new path later on. Sometimes when younger I was moving from one thing to the next too quickly, at least as an adult I know to push a little further past my limits. I want to learn, to reach something new, before I switch to a different endeavor.
Thank you for your comment @quixoticflux! Oh that's for sure, for example, sculpting helps me a lot with drawing. When something does not work on 2d piece I look at it and think like - how would I go about this if I were to make it of clay. But that is also the same about non art related things, you are absolutely right. I think as we are younger we have not developed the patience to push past the uncomfortable parts of learning a new skill which makes us drop it way too soon.
Cheers to going deep and doing everything!
Funny thing that I am also 31 and just like you, I want to explore it all. I think that your father would be very proud of you because you realized that your life is your own. Naysayers will always find a flaw, no matter how much you strive to perfection.
You got your stash of art supplies pumped. Awesome! I was thinking about ordering watercolour paper too, thought about Arches as I have heard oh so joyous reviews about it.
A post ending with a book recommandation😍 Can this be any better? Absence can be needed as we artists are moody and feel the need to get back in our cocoon once in a while
Aww thank you for saying that @creativemary. I dunno, it just seems so harsh sometimes. Maybe they mean well, maybe I just don't have thick enough skin yet, but my life is my own and so is my journey. It does spark joy to me despite criticism.
Arches look so good, I looked it up just now xD Hope they work out well for you and your amazing creations.
Hehe. It is pretty great and helps me understand the ways my brain works and why it appears to have blindspots in my memory recently which is linked to how I spend my brainpower lately. Pretty fascinating stuff.
Yep, no doubt. I am cocooning here and there. It is like a survival mechanism or what keeps me sane.
Criticism is one of the worst things, I avoid people who constantly criticize, nothing good comes out of that. I also look at myself and try to notice if I get into critique mode and when I do, I shut it off. A good soft kind word goes a long way
Song of the Grey ;-)
should be featured in beat saber ;-)
I had no clue they had such tradition. I would probably lose my fingers one by one trying something like that xD Are the blades blunt? Looks like a great fun tho.
Oh there are so many songs I wish were featured, I probably need to get a pc cable for my headset to get more choices in music there.
I have thought about mixed reality recordings, but I would need a lot more space than what I have right now. Maybe in future, who knows :)
@osavi showed me synth riders recently, similar concept but ... no blades ;-(
still, I'd prefer sword vs blades ;-)
Balls in synth riders aren't as powerfull as swords but in synth riders I can more dance with songs. For me - synth riders is the winner.
More dancing sounds fun, not so much room for that in Beat Saber. Now I really want to try that one :)
I've already scratch one wall because I waved too strong in Beat saber xD
and true - you need some space for play in VR or your wall can suprise you.
I will try attache short vid with my or my boyfriend when we played on synth riders :D
I saw that one too, but haven't tried yet. They have music from one of my favorite band's of all times Muse, which is why I probably will end up playing that sooner or later, but no blades thing sounds sucky xD
You are going to have a great time with those - but more importantly, I love the pictures. The texture of the grain on the desk is perfect :)
I hope so, was out of sketching paper for a while now.
Is this early April Fools joke, or you really love my desk? :P Because I love my desk hence it features in almost every post of mine, haha. It is old oak tree, has many battle scars and coffee mug stains.
No really, I love it. The texture is excellent for the black and whites especially. I don't think i have commented on it before, but I should have :*
In that case, yay, thank you for loving my desk :* It has a character for sure, not the most comfortable since the gap between the drawers is too tiny to move chair close enough to sit at it in ergonomically correct way, probably because it was made in different times.
Totally agree with @tarazkp it is a nice texture for sure. What about these drawers can't you relocate them a tiny bit so your chair does fit in between them? How do they connect to the desk?
But ontopic, nice to see some new supplies! Looking forward to some new creations by your hand😍
Unfortunately the design does not allow that since the drawers act as legs and base of the the table. This desk is probably, well.. not even probably, it is older than me xD
I am expanding my frontiers with digital lately, but even before I got my tablet I decided that I will not stop working with physical materials no matter how tempting the other mediums might be. Besides there are such things when working with papers and paints and inks that can't really be replicated digitally. I love it so much and can't ever get enough.
Nice blog
Thanks, I work hard on every post.