Hereās some of the most amazing and invaluable advice youāll most-likely ever get from one of my good colleagues and legends in comics/gaming, creator JOE MADUREIRA. Itās what iāve been preaching to you aspiring artists since i arrived on DA, but i think his POV says it perfectly:
*WARNING: SOME MATURE LANGUAGE*
āDO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE A SUCCESSFUL ARTIST?Ā
Or a successful WORKING PROFESSIONAL?
Believe it or not there is a difference. Iām not usually a soapbox type guy, I donāt like instructing people, and I think Iām a terrible teacher. But hey, itās Friday and Iām in a strange mood. So here goes:
Iāve noticed that a good number of my fans happen to be aspiring artists themselves. This is for all you guys. I get asked constantly: āWhere should I go to school?ā āWhat classes should I take?ā āWhat should I study for anatomy?ā āWhat pencils and paper do you use?ā āShould I be working digitally now instead of traditionally?ā āHow do I fix my poses? Learn composition? Perspective?ā āWhen am I going to develop my own style?ā āWho were your influences?ā āTeach me how to draw hands!ā The list goes onā¦
Hereās the deal. All of that stuff *is* important, and it may nudge you in the right direction. A lot of it you will discover for yourself. What works best for one person doesnāt work for another. Thatās the beauty of art. Itās personal. Itās discovery. DONāT WORRY ABOUT ALL THAT CRAP!
Instead Iām going to answer the questions that you *SHOULD* be asking, but arenāt. These are things that have only recently occurred to me, after doing this for 20+ years. These things seem so obvious, but apparently they elude a lot of people, because I am surprised at how many ridiculously talented artists are āfailingā professionally. Or just unhappy. The beauty of what Iām about to tell you is that it doesnāt matter what field youāre in or what your art style is.
1) DO WHAT YOU LOVE. If you are passionate about what youāre doing, it shows. If youāre having fun, it shows. If youāre bored, IT SHOWS. Some guys are able to work on stuff they have zero interest in, and still pull off great work, but I find that when I do this my motivation takes a huge hit. And Motivation is key. Money is not a great motivator. Itās temporary like everything else. And honestly, Iāve gotten paid the most money for some of the shittiest work I have ever done. That may sound awesome, but itās not. And hereās whyā¦
2) You MUST stay Excited and Motivated. Have you noticed that there are days you canāt draw a god damned thing? And some days you feel like you can draw anything? Itās 4am but you donāt notice because you are in the ZONE. Your hand is racing ahead of your mind and you can do no wrong?! Maybe itās some new paper you got. Or a new program youāve been wanting to try out. Or you just found some amazing shit on DeviantArt, or watched some movie that just makes you want to run straight to your board. This relates to the above because while it is possible to involve yourself in projects you arenāt excited aboutāmaybe you need the cash, or think it will look good on your resume, whatever it isāitās not going to last. You need to stay fresh. Expose yourself to new things. New techniques. You should be getting tired of your own shit on a fairly regular basis. Otherwise other people will.
3) Check your Ego. If you think youāre the shit, youāre already doomed. You may be really, really good at what you do, but thereās someone better. Sorry. Thereās always plenty to learn, even for us old dogs. So when I meet young upstarts who have this sense of entitlement, or a know-it-all attitude, I just have to laugh. Some of the biggest egos Iāve ever witnessed were from people who have accomplished the least. Meanwhile, most guys who are supremely talented AND successful, and have EARNED the RIGHT to have an ego and throw their weight around, donāt. Why is that? Itās becauseā¦
4) RELATIONSHIPS ARE IMPORTANT. This may be one of the biggest lessons Iāve had to learn. Early on, I didnāt value my relationships with people. Creatively or otherwise. I felt like I didnāt need anyoneās help and I could figure everything out on my own. Letās face it, many of us become artists because we are reclusive, social misfits. Weād rather stay inside and draw shit than go outside and play. We like to live inside our own minds. Why not?! Itās awesome in there! And sometimes we donāt want to let other people in. But like I saidāyou canāt do it alone. I can honestly say that as much as I try to stay current, as much as I try to push my work and draw kick ass shit that will excite people, I would not be where I am today if it werenāt for all the other people Iāve met and learned from along the way. Guys who pulled strings for me. Took risks on me. Believed I was the right guy for the job. You need to manage your relationships. You need to network, and meet people. Drawing comics is still a pretty good place for reclusive typesābut if you want to work in big studiosāMaking games, Films, animation, basically any other type of job on the planet, youād better start making some connections. Be likeable. Be professional. That doesnāt mean be an opportunistic ladder climber. Fake people lose in the end. Be yourself, but be professional. Itās no secret that when people are hiring, our first instinct is to bring in people we know. Itās human nature. I donāt like unknowns, even if their portfolio is awesome. If we have a mutual connection, if they have great things to say about you, youāre in. If you have AMAZING artwork to show, and I call your last employer and they tell me what a pain in the ass you are to work with, youāre done. Talent and skill only get you so far. I am literally amazed at how often I meet guys that are total assholes and think they are going to get anywhere.
5) Hereās the BIG ONE. The greatest obstacle you will ever have to overcome IS YOURSELF. And the Fear that you are creating in your own head. Stay positive. Stop defeating yourself. There are artists I know that are so damn good they make me pee my pants. I look up to these mofos. I study their shit and I want to draw like them. And they are almost NEVER working on their DREAM project. Andābig surprise, they arenāt happy in their job. āWhy NOT?! WTF is WRONG WITH YOU?!ā is usually my reaction. And the answer is almost always āThe market isnāt great right nowā āOther stories/games/comics like mine donāt do very wellā āThe shit thatās hot right now is nothing like mine, Itās just going to fail.ā āIām not sure Iām good enough.ā āI need the money.ā āToo Risky.ā āI tried it before and failed. ā It doesnāt matter what words they use, they are afraid for one reason or another. I know. Iāve been there.
But hereās the deal. YOU NEED TO TAKE RISKS. Guess what? YOU ARE MOST LIKELY GOING TO FAIL. If you want itāREALLY want it, that wonāt stop you. You will learn A LOT. My good friend Tim constantly jokes about how I jump out of planes without a parachute and worry about the landing on the way down. You may think that Iām lucky, that itās easy for me to say because Iām already successful, that Iām in a different situation than you all are. But itās not true. Risk is risk, no matter what level youāre at. If youāre already successful, you just take even bigger risks. But they never go away. Everything in life is Risk vs. Reward. Not just in your career. LIFE. Youād better get used to it.
I didnāt know what the hell I was doing when I got into comics. I left the #1 selling book at the time ( Uncanny X-men ) to work on Battle Chasers during a time when āConanā was about the only fantasy comic people knew. And no one was buying it. I wanted to work in games, so I started a game company. I had NO IDEA WTF I was doing. I just wanted it, really bad. We tanked. It failed. No big surprise. But the people I worked with got hired elsewhere and rehired me. I started ANOTHER game Company. We had 4 people and a dream, and some publishers wouldnāt even meet with us, because their ānext gen consoleā teams had 90+ people on them. I literally got hung up on. āStick to handheld games, itās smaller, maybe you can handle thatā¦ā one MAJOR publisher told us. I donāt blame them. But we didnāt let it stop us. Thank god we didnāt listen to them. Vigil was born. Darksiders happened, AND we got to make a sequel. It stands shoulder to shoulder with the best games in the industry, and the most elite and experienced game dev studios in the world. How is that possible?!!! Hardly any of us had even worked on a console game before. Iāll be honest, I was thinking we would fail the whole time. I just didnāt care. If I had to play the odds on this one, Iād bet against us.
Why am I telling you all this shit? This is not me patting myself on the back. Itās just stuff that has somehow only dawned on me recently when itās been staring me in the face for so long. I feel like I need to wake you guys up!!! Iāve been limiting myself. Iāve gotten afraid. Iāve taken less risks. I saw my career going places I didnāt want to go. I wasnāt happy and I wasnāt excited. And Iāve realized, that all that stuff I just talked about is the reason I am where I am today. Not because I have a manga style, or I draw cool hands, or thereās energy in my drawings, or all the other things people rattle off to me. There are other guys that do all that same shit, and do it better. And amazingly, those same guys constantly tell me āMan, I wish I could do what you are doing.ā āSO DO IT!!!!!ā PLEASE listen to meābecause I want you guys to make it. I want to look to one of you people for inspiration some day when itās 2am and I need to keep drawing. Stop worrying about all the other stuffāthe pencils, the paper, the anatomy, all that shit. It will only get you so far. Youāve already got most of what you need. I hope this helps some people. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the support over the years. You are all one of the greatest motivating forces in my life and my career. Sappy but true. Ok, letās go draw some shit!!!ā
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