7 Habits of Effective Artists

Summary

The speaker shares their experience with a motivational bet that led to mastering 2D painting and drawing. They discovered the power of 'Loss Aversion' and learned seven key habits for effective art creation: daily work, focusing on volume over perfection, learning from others' work, conscious learning, taking rest periods, seeking feedback, and creating work fueled by personal interest. These habits, adopted by professionals like Stephen King and Pixar, emphasize the importance of consistent effort, learning, and passion in artistic growth.

Takeaways

• 🎨 **Daily Consistency**: The speaker emphasizes the importance of working on art every single day, even if it's just a small amount, to build the habit and maintain momentum.
• 🚀 **Loss Aversion Motivation**: The concept of 'loss aversion' is used as a motivational tool to push through learning obstacles, as the fear of losing can be a powerful driver.
• 👀 **Volume Over Perfection**: The script suggests that producing a large volume of work is more beneficial for growth than striving for perfection in a single piece.
• 🤔 **Stealing for Inspiration**: It's encouraged to 'steal' ideas from many sources to create original work, rather than copying from a single source which could be seen as plagiarism.
• 📚 **Conscious Learning**: The speaker highlights the need for conscious learning, where one actively seeks to understand and improve upon their weaknesses, rather than just practicing without purpose.
• 🧘 **Rest for Creativity**: Taking breaks is presented as a valuable strategy to return to work with fresh eyes and potentially find new solutions to creative problems.
• 🗣️ **Feedback is Crucial**: Seeking and valuing feedback from others is a key habit of successful artists, as it provides different perspectives and insights for improvement.
• 💖 **Create What You Love**: The importance of creating art that the artist is personally passionate about is underscored, as this intrinsic motivation leads to better and more motivated work.
• 🔄 **Iterative Process**: Success in art often comes from an iterative process of creating, receiving feedback, and refining, rather than achieving perfection on the first attempt.
• 🌟 **Influence of Idols**: The speaker shares personal experiences of using idols' work as a source of inspiration and reference, which helped in improving their own art skills.
• 🔄 **Rest Periods for Perspective**: Similar to the point on rest, the script mentions the benefits of stepping away from work to gain a new perspective, which can lead to breakthroughs in creativity.

Q & A

What was the bet made by the speaker with his younger cousin?

The speaker bet his younger cousin that he could get 1,000 likes on ArtStation within six months for his 2D paintings and drawings, despite not being good at it. If he succeeded, he would get nothing, but if he failed, he would have to give his cousin $1,000.

What concept did the speaker learn about that motivated him to take up the challenge?

The speaker learned about 'Loss Aversion', which is the idea that people are more motivated to stick with something when they have something to lose.

How did the speaker approach his daily work on the challenge?

The speaker committed to working on his artwork every single day. He also started with the smallest possible task, like drawing one line, to overcome the initial resistance to start working.

Why is daily work considered more effective than working in large blocks of time?

Daily work is more effective because large blocks of time that people imagine rarely pan out. Consistent daily work allows for gradual progress and helps maintain momentum.

What is the significance of volume over perfection in the context of artistic growth?

Volume is important because it allows artists to go through a greater number of works, which in turn provides more opportunities for learning and growth. Perfectionism can hinder progress by focusing too much on the final details at the expense of overall development.

How did the speaker use the work of others to improve his own skills?

The speaker 'stole' from his idols by copying and pasting their work into an Evernote file. He used this as both reference and inspiration, learning from their techniques and styles.

What is the difference between good theft and bad theft in the context of artistic creation?

Good theft involves stealing from many sources, which can lead to original work that is influenced by a broad range of styles. Bad theft, or plagiarism, involves copying directly from one source without adding any original contribution.

Why is conscious learning emphasized over mere practice?

Conscious learning involves actively identifying and addressing weaknesses and misunderstandings. It leads to more significant improvements than mere practice, which can sometimes lead to stagnation if not combined with learning.

What role does rest play in the creative process according to the speaker?

Rest is crucial as it allows the mind to detach from the work, leading to fresh perspectives and solutions. Taking breaks can help artists see their work from a different angle and make improvements they might not have considered while working continuously.

How does seeking feedback contribute to the success of artists and professionals?

Seeking feedback allows artists to gain insights and perspectives from others, which can lead to improvements and refinements in their work. It is a key part of the creative process and can significantly enhance the quality of the final product.

What advice does the speaker give regarding the subject matter of one's art?

The speaker advises artists to create what they love. He believes that working on subjects that genuinely interest the artist leads to better work and helps maintain motivation in the long run.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Artistic Bet and the Power of Loss Aversion

The speaker recounts a personal bet with his cousin to gain 1,000 likes on ArtStation within six months, using a skill he was not proficient in. The bet was designed to leverage the concept of 'loss aversion', where the fear of losing something motivates action. The speaker succeeded, learning not just about art but also about effective artistic habits. He then introduces seven key habits used by world-class professionals, including Stephen King, Pixar, and Kanye West, to foster creativity and effectiveness.

05:01

📅 The Importance of Daily Work Over Perfection

The speaker emphasizes the importance of daily work on one's creative projects, rather than waiting for large blocks of time. Historically successful artists, such as J.K. Rowling and Jerry Seinfeld, are highlighted as examples of this habit. The speaker also discusses the struggle with starting work after a tiring day and suggests beginning with the smallest possible task to overcome inertia and often leading to extended periods of productivity.

10:06

🤹‍♂️ Embracing Imperfection and the Volume of Work

Discussing the common issue of perfectionism among artists, the speaker argues that striving for perfection can hinder growth by preventing artists from moving on to the next project. Citing Ira Glass and the extensive volume of work by Picasso, the speaker suggests that the key to artistic success is producing a large body of work. Research on musical compositions is also mentioned to support the idea that a higher volume of work correlates with increased chances of creating a hit.

15:07

🔄 The Art of Creative Stealing

The concept of 'stealing' in the artistic process is introduced, where the speaker explains that great artists often build upon the ideas of their predecessors. The speaker differentiates between bad plagiarism and good 'theft' by borrowing from multiple sources to create something original. The advice includes creating a file of work one admires for reference and inspiration, as the speaker did during his challenge.

20:08

🧠 Conscious Learning Over Mindless Practice

Disputing the notion that 'practice makes perfect', the speaker argues for the importance of conscious learning. He shares his experience of ineffective doodling while listening to podcasts, which led to a realization that he needed to address fundamental mistakes in his work. The speaker advocates for learning and understanding the weaknesses in one's work, rather than just repeating the same actions without improvement.

25:09

🛌 The Value of Rest and Fresh Perspectives

The speaker discusses the benefits of taking breaks from work to gain fresh perspectives, as evidenced by the strategies of Stephen King and Pixar. He shares personal experiences where stepping away from a project allowed for innovative solutions to emerge. The practice of working on multiple projects simultaneously is also introduced as a way to maintain perspective and creativity.

🗣️ The Crucial Role of Feedback in Artistic Growth

Feedback is highlighted as an essential component of artistic development, contrary to the common belief that great artists work in isolation. The speaker cites Pixar's 'Brain Trust' and Kanye West's collaborative album creation process as examples of successful feedback utilization. The speaker also shares his experience seeking and benefiting from critical feedback at a Gnomon event.

💖 Creating Work Fueled by Personal Passion

The final lesson focuses on the importance of creating work that the artist is personally passionate about. The speaker argues against creating work to please others and shares his own experiences of trying to diversify his subject matter, only to find that his heart was not in it. He encourages artists to pursue their interests, as this is where true motivation and creativity lie.

Keywords

💡Loss Aversion

Loss aversion is a concept in behavioral economics that people prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. In the video, the speaker uses loss aversion as a motivational tool to learn 2D painting and drawing by setting up a bet where they would lose money if they failed to achieve their goal, which is a clever way to ensure commitment and progress towards their artistic endeavor.

💡Daily Work

Daily work refers to the habit of engaging in a task or creative process every day without fail. The video emphasizes the importance of this habit for consistent progress in any artistic field. The speaker shares personal experiences and examples of successful individuals like J.K. Rowling and Jerry Seinfeld, who achieved their accomplishments by working on their projects daily, even if it was just a small amount.

💡Volume

Volume, in the context of the video, highlights the significance of producing a large quantity of work over striving for perfection in a single piece. The speaker argues that creating a high volume of work is more conducive to growth and learning. The example of Picasso is used to illustrate the point that a large body of work increases the likelihood of success and learning opportunities.

💡Perfectionism

Perfectionism is the tendency to pursue flawlessness in one's work. The video discusses how perfectionism can hinder artistic growth by preventing artists from moving on to new projects and learning experiences. The speaker contrasts the pursuit of perfection with the benefits of focusing on volume and continuous creation.

💡Steal

To 'steal' in the artistic sense, as discussed in the video, means to borrow or be inspired by the work of others to create something new. The speaker explains that many successful artists and creators have built upon the ideas of those who came before them. The term is used positively to encourage learning from and being influenced by a wide range of sources, rather than plagiarism.

💡Conscious Learning

Conscious learning is the act of deliberately seeking to understand and improve one's skills through focused study and practice. The video illustrates that mindless practice without an intention to learn and improve can lead to stagnation. The speaker shares their experience of realizing the importance of conscious learning after noticing a lack of progress despite consistent practice.

💡Rest

Rest is the concept of taking breaks from work to allow for mental recovery and fresh perspectives. The video describes how professional artists, like Stephen King, use rest as a strategy to return to their work with new insights. The speaker's personal experience with taking a break from a drawing led to a creative breakthrough, underscoring the value of rest in the creative process.

💡Feedback

Feedback in the video refers to the process of seeking and incorporating critiques and suggestions from others to improve one's work. The speaker highlights the importance of feedback in the success of organizations like Pixar and individuals like Kanye West. They share a personal story of receiving valuable feedback from a professional artist that significantly improved their work.

💡Create What You Love

Creating what you love is the idea of pursuing artistic projects that genuinely interest and motivate the creator. The video argues that intrinsic motivation leads to better work and sustained interest over time. The speaker shares their own journey of ignoring external pressures and returning to drawing subjects they were passionate about, which resulted in more fulfilling and successful work.

💡Habit Building

Habit building is the process of establishing regular practices that contribute to long-term goals. In the video, the speaker discusses the importance of daily work as a habit that leads to success in artistic pursuits. The concept is integral to the video's theme, as it underpins the speaker's strategy for achieving their goal and is presented as a key lesson for viewers to implement in their own creative journeys.

Highlights

The speaker made a $1,000 bet with his cousin to gain 1,000 likes on ArtStation within six months in a field he was not proficient in.

The bet was designed to motivate the speaker to learn 2D painting and drawing, using the concept of 'Loss Aversion'.

The speaker succeeded in the challenge, learning a lot about drawing, painting, and being an effective artist.

The speaker distilled 7 biggest lessons from his experience into a presentation.

Daily work is crucial for achieving creative goals, as it builds habit and consistency.

Large blocks of time for work are often unrealistic, making daily small efforts more effective.

J.K. Rowling and Jerry Seinfeld exemplify the success of daily work habits in their respective fields.

Starting with the smallest task can lead to significant progress, overcoming the initial barrier of getting started.

Volume of work is more important than striving for perfection, as it allows for growth and learning.

Picasso's extensive body of work demonstrates the importance of volume in achieving notable success.

Stealing ideas from multiple sources is encouraged as a way to create original work.

David Bowie, Steve Jobs, and Banksy exemplify the practice of 'stealing' ideas to create original work.

Conscious learning is emphasized over mere practice, as it leads to more significant improvement.

Taking breaks and resting can lead to new insights and solutions in creative work.

Feedback is crucial for improvement, as seen in the practices of Pixar and Kanye West.

Creating work that one is personally interested in is key to maintaining motivation and producing high-quality art.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on personal interests in art to achieve genuine success and satisfaction.

Transcripts

Hello!

Last year I made a $1,000 bet with my younger cousin.

Normally when siblings make bets it's over something fun

like doing a backflip on a motorcycle or something crazy like that.

But mine was purely artistic.

So the bet was: I had to get 1,000 likes on ArtStation, within six months

for something that I'm terrible at which is 2D painting and drawing.

And to make things more interesting, if I actually succeded,

I would actually get nothing.

The deal was: if I failed I would give him $1,000

and if I succeeded I would get nothing.

So why would I do that, right? Why put myself through that?

Basically, I've always wanted to learn painting

but somehow the motivation was never there.

And then I learned about "Loss Aversion".

Which is that you're much more motivated to stick with something

when you have something to lose.

And it worked!

For the next six months, almost every single day

I was drawing, painting, going to drawing classes on weekends,

all sorts of things.

Learning to draw.

And I'm pleased to say that, with just 3 days left in the challenge,

I disappointed my cousin

by reaching the 1,000 likes on ArtStation.

Now, I don't say this to impress anyone, of course.

I say it because, while I learned a lot about drawing and painting,

I learned a lot more about how to be an effective artist.

Because, previous to this,

the way I learned Blender was the way most people learn new things.

Which is: they learn it when they have time,

they drift around, they watch tutorials, whatever.

But when you have something to lose, like $1,000,

it really throws things into question.

So what I've done is: I've distilled down the 7 biggest lessons,

the 7 biggest habits into this presentation.

And throughout it I also talk about

the habits that some of the world class professionals today use.

You'll learn what, for example, Stephen King, Pixar

and even Kanye West have in common.

So, you guys interested?

Alright, good, yay!

The first habit is deceptively simple:

Daily work.

You need to be working on your task, your artwork,

whatever creative goal you have, every single day.

Now, you think of this and think "Why every single day?",

"Why can't I just do it when I have time?"

"If I worked 1 hour monday to friday by the weekend that's just 5 hours.

Why can't I just do 5 hours on saturday or sunday?"

Well, the thing is that these large blocks of time

that we imagine, they very rarely ever pan out.

And this is why most great artists across history

achieve whatever it is that they do, writing books, music, whatever it is,

by putting in time every single day.

So, for example, J.K. Rowling wrote the world of Hogwarts,

Harry Potter, across 5 years. And she did that whilst raising a child.

And instead of waiting for these big, grand moments where she'd have free time

on a weekend far away when she could block it off with the childs

and the babysitter, she worked on it every spare chance she had, every single day.

Jerry Seinfeld wrote the Seinfeld series by putting an X on the count of

every single day that he wrote jokes. And then, after he had

a couple of days in a row, his next goal was to just not break that chain.

Mike Birbiglia, another comedian and a screenwriter,

found that he was putting off writing his movie scripts

because he had too many meetings with other people.

So, instead, he did something interesting which was to make himself a meeting

with his script. Everyday at the cafe. To sit down for 2 hours at a laptop

and type away. He found, by doing that,

he wouldn't put it off.

And personally, from a first-hand experience, I can speak on daily work

in that it sounds simple. Who wouldn't want to work every single day?

Everybody would want to do it. Why don't people do it?

And the thing is: after you've worked the whole day at the office,

listening to your boss ramble about stuff, you come home, you're tired,

the last thing you want to do is punish yourself by learning something new.

Instead, you end up on Netflix, Reddit, videogames, whatever it is.

So one thing that I found worked for me was to agree to do the smallest amount

of work possible. So, in my case it was to put the pencil on a paper

and draw one line.

So in days when I felt like "I can't do anything, I don't wanna do anything."

"I've had such a tough day I just wanna sit and relax"

I'd say "Alright, can I do one line?" So I go "I can do one line."

The thing is, by the time you clear the table, get the notebook out,

you get all your pencils ready, you get the sharpener, the eraser,

you get the chair, the lighting, you sit down.

By the time you do all that, of course you don't stop at one line.

Before you know it, you've done a couple of hours.

And you've just lost track of time.

So that "getting started" is often the hardest part about it.

Once you can do that, it's always fine.

That's what worked for me. Obviously it's a much bigger topic, "Motivation",

there's a bunch of books on it if you're interested.

Daily Work! It always trumps short sprints.

The world "trump" looks funny now, doesn't it?

It's like it changed its meaning.

Number 2: Volume, not perfection.

Honestly speaking, who here would consider himselves a bit of a perfectionist

when it comes to their artwork? Show of hands.

Most people, right?

Most artists have this affliction. And a lot of artists would actually

consider one of their strengths. To be a perfectionist.

Now, while you should be striving for a high standard of excellence

and for bettering the work that you did last,

being a perfectionist actually undermines your growth.

Because it prevents you from reaching the next epiphany

the next lesson.

Ira Glass, from the famous "This American Life" radio show

said it best by saying that the most important thing you can do

is a lot of work. It's only by going through a volume of work

that you're gonna close the gap.

I want to give a more well-known example. Think of Picasso.

Most people can really only pinpoint sort of a handful of his work.

So they go like "Yeah, that's Picasso, we know that."

But actually his library of work includes 800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures,

2,800 ceramics, 12,000 drawings, and this isn't including prints, rugs

or tapestries.

So Picasso has a huge volume of work, and most of us can really only pinpoint

the hits, the big ones that really went on to success.

So he has this huge volume of work. And if you're wondering

if the volume of work had anything to do with the success,

researches say that it did. They did a study on 15,000

musical compositions from Beethoven, Mozart, things like that,

and they found that the more compositions that a composer produced

in a 5 year period, the greater spike in the odds that they actually created a hit.

So, volume is very important.

Speaking from a personal standpoint, I found that when I was creating these

2D works, the perfectionism stage - that last little bit where you've done

most of the work, but is tweaking it, zooming in really closelly, and getting

the fine details in the shadows and the lightning, all that kind of stuff -

it eats up a lot of time. An interesting thing is that

you don't actually learn a lot in that last bit.

The majority of the learning comes in the stuff before it.

When you're putting down the big shapes, getting the anatomy of the face...

All that stuff. That's the stuff that you learn the most from.

The stuff at the end, that's easy. It's putting reference next to the thing,

zooming in closely, and just painting over it.

And that's the stuff that eats up a lot of time.

My point is that if you're a perfectionist, you're not able to

get to the next lesson, to get to the next big epiphany.

Volume, not perfection. Get on with your next work.

That's number two.

Number three: Steal.

Right.

It's common to look at the work of our idols and just assume that they

were born to do whatever it is they do. That Rembrandt,

first time he started painting, he just had this idea for how to

paint light and shadow. Or that Quentin Tarantino was born to

make these fun, interesting stories.

But that's not how the human brain works.

It's always built upon the ideas before it.

Our idols, the stuff that we look at and go like "They're such an original!

how do they do this thing?" They built upon stuff from their idols,

stuff that they loved.

And this is why, if you look across history, you'll find that

most great artists recommend stealing.

David Bowie says "The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from."

Steve Jobs openly admitted in an interview that they are shameless about stealing

their great ideas."

And you've got Banksy stealing the stealing quote from Pablo Picasso.

Quote: "The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal."

Love that one.

So if you're curious, "Why are all those people suggesting stealing?"

Stealing is immoral. That's what we grew up with. That's wrong.

Well, there's a difference between good theft and bad theft.

And this is outlined in the book "Steal like an artist".

There's a list there, but the one that really stands out to me,

the most important one is third from the top:

Stealing from many versus stealing from one person.

Steal from one person and that's called plagiarism.

Steal from many, people can't tell.

Or, as Gary Panter put it best, "If you have one person

you're influenced by, everyone will say you're the next whoever.

But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original!"

So one thing I would recommend is: find your idols. Find things that

you truly love right now. And this is very easy to do with the internet

world today. You can just go on ArtStation and find stuff you love.

So this is what I did: at the start of my challenge, I started an evernote file

I and just went to ArtStation and I just copy-pasted

the stuff that I love and put it into one file.

Don't overthink it, don't over discriminate.

I didn't even quote the authors. I don't know who some of those people

even are. I just copied and pasted it. And this worked as both reference

and inspiration in the future. So when I was making a face

and something wasn't right about the eyes, I just opened this up, went to all these

different ones, and I'm like "Oh, that's how they did that,

that's how they did that."

And then on really dark days, when I really wasn't motivated to work,

this also works as inspiration. Because opening it up reminds you

why you got started. Stuff that you love, truly.

Not thinking about traditional painters or anything like that.

Stuff that you truly love.

That's "Steal". Find your idols and steal from them.

#4 Conscious Learning. So, show of hands,

who has heard that "practice makes perfect."

Most people! The other one of course

is "if you want to get good at something, if you want to

master something, you need 10,000 hours of practice", right?

Well, I used to think this was the case. And this was the advice that I gave

to people in my podcast or my tutorials. If someone emails and says:

"I want to get good at Blender", I say "You gotta practice!"

"Practice, practice, practice..."

But that's not all that is.

Because the human brain is wired to avoid pain.

So practice can actually, if you're not carefull about it,

it can become a source of procrastination.

We tend to think of practice like this: The more time I put in,

The greater the results will be and it'll be a linear graph.

But really it sort of becomes a little bit like this:

You get a little bit of growth at the start,

but after that you can sort of stagnate, with just pure practice.

Before I started my challenge I just e-mailed some people that I liked

and I was like "Hey, can I ask you a couple of questions about painting?"

And one of them was the artist Efflam Mercier. I love his work.

And he said something I never heard of before, which was that

One of the biggest wastes of time is not being conscious of what you're doing.

Or, in other words, "doodling around".

And it really didn't ocurr to me, until later on, what he actually meant.

One thing I like to do, by myself when I'm working at home.

Just on the computer. It's very lonely work what I do.

I don't talk with a lot of people. And so, at the end of the day,

sometimes what I like to do is I just like to hear people talk.

So I put on my headphones and I listen to podcasts.

Bill Burr or Your Mom's House Podcast... A lot of comedian talk.

And it's relaxing to me. So what I do is: I open up a notepad,

I put on the earbuds, and I listen to podcasts and I would just... sketch.

Not really a goal in mind, but I would just sketch.

And what I was doing was not good. It was really quite horrible actually.

Some of them don't even look like people.

But I thought, you know, the age old mantra:

"Practice makes perfect." If I just keep at it, I'll get better.

But I look through the previous work, I flip through the pages,

and I notice that from a couple of weeks ago

there wasn't any difference between them.

I wasn't getting better over time. They were sort of about the same.

And I thought "I'm putting in more and more hours here,

but I'm not learning." So I thought "Okay, I've got to go back

and I gotta learn something."

I actually hate watching some tutorials.

Some tutorials, especially drawing theory videos

can be incredibly dry stuff.

My wife took this photo of me when I was watching a facial anatomy course.

One of the most boring courses I ever sat through.

But I did this, and I hated it. At the end of the day I don't want to

challenge myself. And I'm sure you can relate to it. After you've done

a hard day, if you're gonna sit down with Blender, sometimes you just want to

do what you know, right?

And I hated doing this stuff. But in this process I learned,

I discovered that I completely misremembered several facial measurements.

I was drawing faces that were totally wrong.

And they never would've gotten better unless I learned this.

After I completed this, my faces improved almost immediately.

Just like that. Because I stopped to relearn. Had I continued

just praticing, "practice makes perfect", It wouldn't have got better.

So, really, this graph looks a bit better like this.

When you include conscious learning in it, you go up a step.

Your areas really improve at greater amounts than if you were just

doing practice alone. Practice is important, don't get me wrong.

But practice alone makes perfect? I don't agree with it.

It's conscious learning! It's not always fun, but it's the fastest way to grow.

Rest!

Who here has had an experience where maybe you're working on a scene in Blender

and then you're just stuck. You hit a brick wall.

You don't really know what's going on and you're stressed out.

Who's had that experience before?

Oh, yeah, lots! Okay, that's good to see! Not alone there.

I have this a lot. And you've probably had this experience as well.

That maybe you walk away and start doing the dishes,

and then suddenly you come up with the solution. It's weird.

Maybe you're in the shower. You're somewhere and you just go

like "Oh yeah, I could put the lightning on the other side,

I could change the color of the shirt, that will match the thing!"

And you just think of this thing when you're removed from the work.

This is actually a strategy that most professional artists use.

For example, Stephen King, he reckons

What would he know?

Stephen King, he says that any novel, regardless of its size

shouldn't take longer than three months to complete the first draft.

But then, after the three months, you should stop work

and not look at it for six weeks. Six weeks, do something else,

go on a holiday or start another book. Do something else. Then after that,

when you come back to it, it's like you're reading somebody else's work.

You see it from a completely different perspective. One that you would

never have gotten had you just sat there and just continued to type away.

From a personal experience, I drew this Rey from Star Wars over a couple of nights

and I didn't really know where to go with it. I was like

"Hmm, black and white. Traditional, got a black background, whatever."

I didn't really know where to go from there. So I took a 3 day break.

I went and I just started some other drawings and did some other stuff.

Then after 3 days I came back to it. And I remember feeling

completely detached from it. In a good way.

In that I could work on it like I wasn't "in it" anymore.

Like I could experiment with it. So I remember seeing a brush

that I'd never seen before in Photoshop, and I just drew over the top of it.

And I was like "Oooh, that was kind of interesting."

And then within about fifteen minutes I had this interesting effect.

This sort of "force", kind of a weird aura about it.

And I never would've gotten there had I continued to work beyond those 2 days.

That break, that rest period, gave me a period where I felt detached from it.

Having this rest period is very important.

It's also what we actually do now at Blender Guru as a strategy.

So if we got 3 artworks we want to create, for like a trailer,

like "Grass Essentials" trailer, or something. Instead of doing

all 3 of them. Like: we complete one to completion, then start the next one

and then the next one to completion, then start the next one. We do all 3 of them

simultaneously. We work on this one for 1 day, this one for the next day,

this one for the next day... Then loop back.

And every time you loop back to it, and you repeat the cycle, and go

through it one by one again, you see things that

you never would have seen before. And I'm sure you can all

relate to this feeling, So that's Rest.

Take a break, and see your work with fresh eyes.

#6 is Feedback.

We sort of imagine, when we think of "original thinkers", great artists

across history, that they were originals, so they had to

thumb their nose to the critics, the naysayers, the people that said

"Oh, that's not good, you shouldn't do that." And they had to just do

because they knew what they were doing was the right thing.

But if you actually look at professional artists and you listen to interviews

or biographies, you find that the exact opposite is true.

They seek feedback more than anyone.

And that's the one thing I found true looking across musicians, writers,

anything like that. They all seek incredible amounts of feedback.

So, for example, Pixar, they have a room called the "Brain Trust", which is that

when you walk in the room, your role is removed and you are free to

speak your mind. You could be a junior artist at Day 1, and you could

sit down and you could say "This movie sucks!"

Sitting next to you could be the CEO of Disney.

And you both have equal say and you're not gonna get fired.

You're not gonna get any repercussions. It's a free process

to speak your mind. And this, Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar,

says is one of the most crucial parts to their success.

Because their early movie suck. And he went on to great lenghts

to remind people how bad the first versions of their movies are.

He said they are not these great masterpieces that they just come out

from day one and just make it. It's through a process of

iteration and feedback. They change the movie to be totally different

from what they've started with. That's the only way that it gets there.

And in terms of people seeking feedback, the one person you would imagine that

would be least inclined, maybe, to seek feedback, would be this guy.

Guy that's sort of sure of where he's going. Kanye West.

If you look at his most popular, most celebrated album,

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, this album was unanimously loved

by critics. Some people say it's the best hip-hop album of the last decade.

Or decades, or of our generation. Just unanimously loved by all critics.

This was the work of several artists. I actually had a look, there was 38

artists and producers that contributed to the album. He actually rented

a studio in Hawaii and then flew in his favorite artists. People like Jay-Z,

Rihanna, Drake, a bunch of people to come and both contribute to the album

but also critique it. Pusha T mentioned in an interview the process for it.

Which was that he would basically take people in a room and say

"What do you think of this?" And he was sincerely interested

in what they had to say. And when you compare this with Pixar

it sounds a very similar process. No one is going to be persecuted,

it's true honest feedback. And that's what can contribute to the success.

To give a 3D example, this is sort of a 3D conference,

Gnomon School. Who knows Gnomon? You guys heard of Gnomon?

They are the #1 CG school in the world. I think they have a 97% placement rate.

And I think the second school underneath that is like 50%.

Crazy, they're doing some amazing stuff there. And I actually came

to Australia, to Melbourne, and they had a weekend event. And I went there

and I was talking with Alex Álvarez, who is the founder. He was saying that

although all students there have a high standard of excellence

in every classroom there's about 1 or 2 people that are the rockstars.

That will go on to huge amounts of success and have no problem

finding work in the future. And so I asked him

"What separates the rockstars from all the other students?"

And without missing a beat he said: "They seek criticism, and

they actually listen to it." He didn't mention composition,

lighting, storytelling, any of that stuff. It was the sole thing that actually

separates the rockstars from the rest of the pack.

Very interesting. And from a personal standpoint I can vouch and say that

I had this work here, wasn't happy with it. I posted on Twitter,

and I got a bit of feedback, but I wasn't really sure where to go with it.

I was actually at the Gnomon event, and there was Dylan Ekren, who is a

character artist from Disney. And I came up to him and I'm like "Hey,

can I show you some work? You know, bust my balls telling

what you think of it?" And he said "Sure!"

I took out my iPhone, and straight away he pointed at it

and goes "You got two different sources of lighting" it's very odd, back-lit

and front-lit, doesn't match. "And also you got two different styles.

You've got a cartoony style face and then you've got some realistic hair.

You have to match them up." Interesting.

Straight away, I knew exactly what he meant. And it only took like a minute

but it saved me hours of work. I worked on this and it improved a lot.

I hope to say it improved a bit. So that's "Get Feedback".

It's worth its weight in gold.

#7 is to create what you love. I personally think that motivation is a

hugely overlooked area of art. We tend to imagine that the great artists

you could give them any topic and they could make it great.

That's what we sort of imagine. But really if you look at the work

that the great artists and musicians of today are making, it's stuff that

they are personally interested in.

Christopher Nolan, he makes movies about things that he is really interested in.

About the state of mind and being trapped in things and sci-fi sort of elements.

He is really interested in this stuff. And he builds these stories and these

worlds that have a depth that you often don't find in some similar movies.

Elon Musk! He's not an artist, but somewhat successful.

His 3 companies, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity, he created these companies because

he has an interest in humanity and seeing it succeed.

So this is a personal, intrinsic motivation. And it's stuff that he's

interested in. I'm sure if he started a bakery, I'm sure it would suck.

He's not a genius... Well, he's a genius. But the Midas touch, that myth thing

I think it's really themes that a particular artist is interested in.

To give a more artistic example, Brian Eno, he's a great artist,

make this ambient music, he said he got into it because he was

interested in listening to music that he wanted to hear. And that

really shows through his music.

And from a personal story, I remember when I was doing some drawings,

I was posting them up on Twitter and Facebook. These little sketches

and things. And pretty soon, after a couple of months, people said

"So you're only going to draw cute girls?" And I was like "Oh", it affected me.

I'm like "Oh, no, I'm gonna become one of those guys who

just draws cute girls." And this was family members telling me.

People online, people on Instagram, "Why you just draw girls?"

And I was like "I gotta balance it out, I gotta start drawing some dudes."

So I started drawing some guys. It just didn't work!

My heart wasn't in it. Hector Salamanca, I love this series.

But I just wasn't interested in it. And the effort required to

make something look good... You need that intrinsic motivation.

My heart just wasn't in it. And I remember there was a...

It was around the time that Myth Busters was hitting their decade of being on air

or something like that. And I don't really watch Myth Busters.

I know it's a cool show and "Science!" all that stuff. But I wasn't into it.

But I thought all the people would like it if I probably drew a nice picture of

the two guys on it.

Didn't really work. And I get, my heart wasn't in it.

It's a great show, but I just don't watch it.

After a while of having these failed attempts,

I was eating time - I've got 6 months to achieve this thing,

I was wasting time, and then I had this epiphany:

Who gives a shit what people think? Who cares?

And so I went back and I started doing the stuff that I really loved.

Honestly, I find girls to be a lot more of an attractive subject than most guys.

That is what I think! And there's enough red tape in life. The government telling

you what you can do. Your boss telling what you can work on.

Art is one of the few fields where you get to do what you truly are interested in.

And so I personally think that when you start letting other people

interfere and tell you what you should and shouldn't do, I think it's a big mistake.

So, create what you love. You'll make better work - honestly you will - and

you will stay motivated in the long run.

That's the summary! Daily work, putting work every single day.

Focus on habit building, very important. Don't be a perfectionist, although

you think it's a good thing, it's generally not.

Find your idols, steal from them. Conscious learning, although it

kind of sucks, you do need to go through and find what your weaknesses are

and attack them. Have a break, that's often better than just working through it.

Get feedback from everybody. It's not a good thing to be putting your

head in the sand and going through it. And then, finally, create what you love.

Thank you!