10:11 PM on Saturday, May 31. 2008
Lightbulb!
I'm convinced that the best and possibly the only way to get people to pay attention to your art is by being consistent.
Probably talent is good, too, but stay with me now.
If your habits are totally chaotic and nothing is together, you don't have a general theme or system going, and you're just way out there, then you're going to drive away potential readers/buyers/fan girls because they'll get bored wading through your chaos. The trick is to do things in a timely manner, and to keep things on the same general theme.
My problem is that chaos is my tattooed on my eyelids, pretty much. I'm all over the place, all the time. Seems like I get a new idea every other day to make myself noticed, and I go and give up my old idea to try the new one. None of them work, of course, because I'm not sticking to any of them long enough, and I'm not putting enough effort into it at all.
So, stay consistent. Figure out what people like and want and follow those paths. The artist in me is screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!" and tries to make me do only the art I want, but I realize that if you want to live off of your talents, you have to make a few sacrifices. They don't have to be unpleasant. There's a niche for everything, these days. You just have to find out what you like and see if that fits in with what other people like.
And post in blogs often. Don't post garbage, of course, but don't wait around for that perfect thought to hit you, either, because it never will. Or when it does, you won't have any audiance. So keep it steady and interesting. Or at least as much as you can.
And that is my bright idea for the day.
Probably talent is good, too, but stay with me now.
If your habits are totally chaotic and nothing is together, you don't have a general theme or system going, and you're just way out there, then you're going to drive away potential readers/buyers/fan girls because they'll get bored wading through your chaos. The trick is to do things in a timely manner, and to keep things on the same general theme.
My problem is that chaos is my tattooed on my eyelids, pretty much. I'm all over the place, all the time. Seems like I get a new idea every other day to make myself noticed, and I go and give up my old idea to try the new one. None of them work, of course, because I'm not sticking to any of them long enough, and I'm not putting enough effort into it at all.
So, stay consistent. Figure out what people like and want and follow those paths. The artist in me is screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!" and tries to make me do only the art I want, but I realize that if you want to live off of your talents, you have to make a few sacrifices. They don't have to be unpleasant. There's a niche for everything, these days. You just have to find out what you like and see if that fits in with what other people like.
And post in blogs often. Don't post garbage, of course, but don't wait around for that perfect thought to hit you, either, because it never will. Or when it does, you won't have any audiance. So keep it steady and interesting. Or at least as much as you can.
And that is my bright idea for the day.
My life is art. When I dream, my imagination flies, and when I wake, it tells its story on paper with pen. And when I look out a window, I see endless possibilities. But I have a long way to go still on my journey through the clouds of art and imagination. Won't you join me?
Comments
Posting consistently is a drag. But I agree, in my experience, readers and commenters disappear when the posts stop appearing.
As for consistency in art work, one of my good friends who I often go out photographing with has taken to giving me crap about having too much consistency. After 600+ of the same basic urban(rural) decay shot with loads of fuzziness, I'm considering agreeing with her.
I think the trick is balancing ones inner artist of chaos against the theme. It's important to try new things, as failure equals learning.
Well, I would have to agree with that example. There's only so much falling down stuff you can take pictures of before you've seen it all. But on the other hand, you don't want to do two totally different forms of art, such as still life painting and cutesy game art. That would be a little weird.
Of course, it's eccentricities like that that make an artist interesting, so maybe I should, as you said, try to balance it out.