Okay, gonna preface this with a warning—this is a bit of a rant mixed in with personal ick. my intentions when writing this are not to gain attention or pity, but instead to point out that calling an artist talented undermines the time and effort they’ve put into shaping their skills.
i hate being called talented.
weird, i know, but as a mostly self-taught artist i feel that my efforts to learn/improve my art are undermined every time someone looks at my sketch book and says “Wow! You’re so talented!” I’m sorry—(on second thought, i’m not sorry, people should know the difference between talent and skill)—, but if you look up the definition of the word talent you will see that it is something someone is naturally born with. i was not born with talent. i have spent the last eight years teaching myself how to draw. That is, again, not talent. it is a honed skill. this isn’t a mistake people who attended (at the bare minimum) elementary school should be making.
for those who can’t think of logical alternatives to the “you’re so talented” compliment, just replace talented with skilled, like so:
“you’re so skilled”
for anyone who finished reading this, take this how you will, this is just my stance on something i hear a lot/am getting sick of hearing, as well as a very easy solution for anyone who cares enough to correct themselves or others.
(I’m fully aware of the two art posts on my account, they are shameful, i update my instagram more frequently, it’s user_was.here for those who want to check it out)