3 Things I Learned As An Artist That Helped Me In My Life
Today’s guest blog is by Nemo. Nemo is an artist that was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He has a background in architectural and graphic design and is currently working as a professional artist. He and his wife, Hannah, are currently on a kick ass RV Tour through the country. Follow along at ArtByNemo.com.
1. KISS Method: Keep It Simple Stupid
Oh man how this simple rule has made me a better artist and a better person. I follow this rule as much as I can from my art to my life. To start off with I’m a pretty simple guy, I draw, I eat and drink, I draw and I sleep, not much to it. In my art I use the most basic things – pencil and paper – and I draw with the most common shape, a circle, big whoop, that’s it!
How simple can you get? I work hard at simplifying as much as I can, I buy new high quality clothes and I weed out what ever I don’t wear to have only a few shirts and pants. Everyday I get rid of one thing, this one is the big one for you folks who live in clutter, when I get up the first thing on my mind is to throw something into the trash or to put something in the goodwill box. I try not to have anything around me I don’t use. Less is more.
2. Balance
Working 70 to 90 hours a week has its benefits for an artist who is on the right track, but you must balance yourself between many different things to be a successful artist and person. Most people think art is all about painting and having fun and dressing and acting weird and having people say “its ok they’re an artist”. But its not all fun and games, actually very little is fun, but it is a game and if you learn how to play it you can win.
Ok, before you start thinking you need to balance work and the rest of your, life you’re wrong – you need to balance work with more work. Being an artist isn’t something you can turn on and off. As artists, most of us don’t have lives outside art. You can’t spend your whole day drawing or painting, you must get in on marketing and PR as much as you can. You have to put yourself and your work out there as much as possible and as hard as you work on it.
I spend most of my work days right here on the computer on e-mail, myspace, facebook and twitter and about 5 to 10 other lesser social media sites chatting it up with whoever about whatever. Sure I bring up my art as much as possible but I don’t overwhelm people with it, I just let them know if they ever need any art I’m here for them. I also spend about one day every month calling around and talking to all my gallery owners and of course I pound the pavement a few times a month to get out there and meet new people. Every time I meet some one new I make sure they know I’m an artist and I never go overboard with it unless I’m asked.
I also try to spend an hour every morning writing, just getting everything out and most of it ends up on my blog. I work very closely with my wife and we already eat meals together, go for walks and other stuff happy couples do. And somehow I mange to sneak in 8 hours of sleep in there too!
3. Put in the work
The thing that I have learned that seems to work the most is work, you gotta put in the work. I know, I know, you say you put in the time but you need to double that then work a little more. If you wanna be the best at anything, I don’t care what it is, you gotta put in the time. Once you stop or even slow down about a hundred people will pass you up. So if you pick up anything from this blog, it’s to work and work hard. You can rest when you’re dead.