necromancer120's avatar
I had a friend ask me last night how to get into art because his daughter, 20, liked art and wanted a career in it. The best advice i had was work and keep working. Everyday work because the industry is competitive.
I went to school originally for art just out of high school and failed miserably because i had no ethic, because RBI Baseball on the nintendo with friends was more important. 17 years later i got my shit together and went back to school for art where i labeled and overachiever. i pointed out that i wasnt an overachiever, i was simply working hard while they thought they were in high school and 'good enough' was ok for them. One of the points i made to the friend last night was that good enough was not enough. That an A in your classes was not enough. Then re-emphasized work.
So i graduated at the top of my class which also meant nothing, but i continued to work. Every night. all night. Took shitty freelance jobs, did free work, did personal work, but worked all the time. Missed nights with friends, missed nights with m family, continued to work. Eventually i started looking at my old work from school that everyone raved over and realized it was 'ok' and ok is not good enough.
Then all the work started to pay off. The freelance jobs were starting to come more regular and people were coming to me. You know what i did? I kept working. Every night. 3am, 4am, whatever.
Last fall one of the companies that i reallky wanted to work for posted a job that really fit me. Of course I applied. Short end of that story is I got the job. Some days I feel guilty for having such a great job, but then i think back to all my classmates half assing their work or doing just enough and realize that I got what i worked my ass for.
I get more questions now that ever and try to answer as best possible, but it always starts and finishes with 'keep working'.