can i tell you guys a secret i hardly ever make art anymore i call myself an
illustrator and a graphic designer and while at the graphic design territory i'm doing alright
i feel like my illustrative works and artistic skills hasn't really been improving for the last
couple years now every year i do this little new year's resolution kind of thing in january
claiming that this year this year is going to be my year it's going to be the year where i
maxed out my art skills get to the absolute top of my game and kickstart my career as a
freelance illustrator superstar then you blink twice the year goes by and in late december you
look back how you spend the time and all you can feel is higher half empty sketchbooks and
untouched art supplies are quietly but surely judging you does any of that sound familiar we
all have been there so i thought you know what this year let's do something about it
hey you guys welcome back to our channel the number one place for people who love design
all things creative you are watching Dantier and Balogh's channel my name is Laszlo
and in this video i want to talk about how to get back into creating
if you have stopped for whatever reason how to rediscover your art and how to get inspired to
create again i feel like we talk about design and generic creative advice on this channel
all the time and somewhere along the lines i neglected talking about art and now you know
why it's because i genuinely neglected art in my personal life for the last year or so
so i thought i would share with you guys three tips three little things that i am planning to
incorporate into my creative practice this year in order to find my artistic voice again just so by
the end of this year i don't have to look back and feel guilty about all the half-empty sketchbooks
okay let's get straight into it what is the biggest obstacle that stops us from making art
time we don't have any we are all too busy or to be a bit more accurate we are not willing to
make time for art we let the days weeks sometimes months go by thinking that yeah maybe next weekend
i'm going to get my watercolors out or my graphics tablet and then it's actually finally saturday and
you would have the time for it you decide that actually you know what i deserve a rest so let's
just put netflix on and just chill for the rest of the day and so the time goes by and your skills
remain unchallenged just so when the odd occasion comes and you do sit down to create something you
feel like you have lost your abilities and that is a massive problem by itself art is not like riding
a bike it's more like learning a language if you don't practice and use your skills on the regular
you will get rustier and rustier as time goes by so what can we do about it well first of all i
think we all have more time on our hands than we think does your phone do this thing you know how
it sends you a notification giving you like a full breakdown how much time you have spent on certain
apps during the week on average isn't that just the meanest worst invention ever every sunday i
have to face how much time i have spent on social media you know scrolling those endless scrolls
that's all time i could have spent better working on my portfolio secondly i think we should change
our mindsets in regards to how we think about time i think the lack of time should be introduced to
our lives as a challenge rather than an obstacle in our way do you guys know jack white the
musician from White Stripes i'm a big fan of his work and apparently within his circles he's quite
famous for having this insane work ethic that i really respect he records whole albums in the
fraction of the time most musical acts would do he talks about that in quite a lot of interviews
how how he very consciously doesn't make things easy for himself when it comes to his work and
his music in the documentary under the great white nod and lights he says having all the opportunity
and time in the world kills creativity deadlines and restrictions force you to work harder as well
as smarter i mean you hear it everywhere i know this is the advice that no one wants to hear which
is precisely why that is the best advice you just have to sit down and do the work i think a lot of
people have this misconception that creativity is like you know it's like fairy dust an unobtainable
unicorn and you just have to wait around go for a relaxing bath and wait until the stars align
so you get this one amazing idea that's going to be like a game changer for your creative career
and you know if you're just a hobbyist by all means wait but if you want to make a career
out of your creative skills you can't afford to waste time just sitting around you need to
force yourself and work your way to the top by doing hours and hours of week and mediocre work
unfortunately okay the second thing i'm going to try this year is to copy more artists like
straight up copying apparently our chosen youtube design god Mr. Chris Do makes his students do this
exercise of creating a master copy of a piece of work that they really like you can learn an awful
lot by copying other artists it just makes sense right now i hope it goes without saying that you
should never ever plagiarize and if you listen to me and do this exercise i wouldn't even post it on
social media just so you avoid even the suspicion of being afraid i mean that is exactly why i never
actually sat down and straight up copied another artist's work before i mean even the torah just
makes me feel a little dirty but i see the value in that i mean ask anyone who plays an instrument
what was the first couple songs they have learned to play i reckon 9 out of 10 times they're gonna
say something like oh you know just the classics you know songs by the beatles the rolling stones
smoke on the water by the deep purple you wouldn't expect them to say oh you know i just you know
i touched the guitar on my day one and i wrote this amazing song no one does that except Mozart
so i'm planning to copy someone and i see where that takes me that being said i think mindlessly
duplicating someone else's work won't teach you much if you don't understand the original creative
ideas and decisions which has led to the final piece now the amazing thing about living in this
day and age is your heroes the people you look up to probably have social media accounts and
they are probably quite active on them that's the place where you can learn about their process see
their drafts and journeys and generally speaking just get a sense of what kind of people they are
you have the option to contact them if you like you can send them a direct message or leave a
thoughtful comment under their posts and chances are they will actually see it and respawn now
obviously if you choose some absolute superstar of your field they might be a bit too busy to answer
your questions like i don't think Stephen King would be down to do a one-on-one writing session
with you but you know what i mean i have messaged countless illustrators and designers in the past
and more often than not they do actually take the time to answer a genuine thoughtful message
just be kind and respectful that always helps okay and my third tip is to try doing something
new every time something you have never done before within your art i'm especially talking
about your subject matter here surprise yourself and you will surprise your audience as well i know
it sounds like contradictory advice just after we discussed straight up copying other people but you
know what they say about you know the rules and you know you have to break them or no you have to
you have to learn them before you you know what i mean once you know the rules break them back
when i was studying illustration i had this first year lecturer back at university he told me about
this story of how he in his earlier days used to work for this video game design studio as a
resident artist don't ask me which one doesn't matter anyway the studio was doing well it was
quite famous so young artists like ourselves would send their portfolios in for reviews right
in the hopes of getting jobs there as you know concept artists or illustrators that kind of thing
now apparently most of these student portfolios were so similar that they have basically turned
the whole portfolio review sessions into an actual drinking game like every time they would saw an
illustration of a dwarf with a big hammer they would do a shot every time they saw studio ghibli
fan art take a shot female warrior with a big sword and metal brow on shot! you get the point
right inspiration doesn't come from paths that have been discovered millions of times before
of course i'm not saying that there are certain things that you shouldn't draw you do anything it
takes you to get back into creating but don't be afraid to explore new seemingly untapped
territories within your art instead of drawing pretty girls draw someone ugly why not yeah that
war with the big hammer is old news but what if the dwarf was like you know maybe africa inspired
and he would have like a huge afro instead of the usual long braided viking style hair that would
be quite a cool drawing actually you know what you can catch me up on this if i don't have the
afro-dwarf as a drawing in my portfolio by the end of this year then i have failed my own test
some people say that there is nothing left in this world to discover that there are no
new stories or ideas really and i do see some truth in that but telling a familiar story from
your own unique perspective that's new to me no one else in the world can make the art you can
quite simply because no one else is you this idea by itself gets me inspired there is a whole world
of possibilities within you all you have to do is believe in yourself show up do the work and let
the creative magic out for the world to see okay how's that for motivation i hope you find some
inspiration in this video feel free to let me know what other simple tips you would include in a list
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