One thing I see in students is the inability to be honest with themselves. This is not new of course, been going on for centuries, I'm sure. I saw it when I was in school (more than likely we all have done it to ourselves) and I see it now as a teacher.
In any given school you will find various strata of abilities within the student population:
1) Those who genuinely have great ability/talent and are people you like to know. They're few and far between. They don't have the bighead and don't lord it over others.
2) Those who can seemingly do just about anything and don't, at least outwardly, have to struggle all that much. They're very aware of their ability and are pretty cocky. They think they're better than everyone else.
3) Those who have great ability but work very hard for what they have. They're the quiet ones. You won't find them strutting around.
4) Those who don't have much ability, but have incredible drive and will make something of themselves through sheer hard work.
5) Those who have very little talent, tons of drive and perseverance, but will never "get it."
Group 1 does not need a lot of explanation. They have the goods. They were born with it, but that's not to say they haven't worked for it also. They nurtured it, they appreciate it and will do a lot with it.
Group 2 have some real ability out of the gate, too, and they tend to dance circles around everyone else when they first arrive in school. But they're so cocky that they don't work as hard as everyone around them and their talent tends to atrophy. Other students (Group 4) with lesser initial or innate ability will pass them by simply because they work harder for what they have. They tend to respect what they have more and not take it for granted. They'll make something of themselves because they're pretty aware of where they stand in the thick of things. Some of the second group will succeed but they'll piss off a lot of people along the way and will probably need an art rep to get them consistent work. Most will just vanish. By their senior year their work will pale in comparison to the others who are working harder and actually learning something. They'll still be pulling out their old bag of tricks that they learned when they were in junior high or high school.
Group 3 is pretty self-explanatory. They're similar in some ways to Group 1. They have innate talent, though not as great as Group 1, but have to work harder to get their chops down. They quietly get the work done and forge ahead.
Group 4 can sort of be grouped with the students in the Group 3. They work incredibly hard for what they possess, earn their stripes the hard way and make the most of everything they have. They'll get along through continued hard work.
Group 5 are the diehards who have more drive than most, who want it more than most, but whose abilities will never allow them to get beyond where they already are. These are the ones that deserve it most, but will never get it. That's hard to see as a teacher, though it's not impossible for them to make it, but the odds are totally against them. It ain't fair, that's for sure. But then life is anything but fair.
Be honest with yourself. Get out there and look at what's going on. Check out the magazine racks, the book racks, etc. Look at the current trends, the work that's winning the awards. How do you stack up? Where do you fit in? Don't lie to yourself, either. Where do you honestly fit in?
If you can put the ego aside and see where you really stand, that's a huge leap toward making your art better. So many students (and, yes, professionals) have an incredibly inflated opinion of themselves. Mom and the relatives put a lot of the drawings on the refrigerator and Junior feels pretty good about his talents. That's great. But the refrigerator isn't the world at large. It's not even the world of art school, where there are some great talents lurking about. If you don't allow your ego to get bruised in some serious ways during the critiques then an art career will be a trial for you. There will be incredibly harsh criticism coming your way and if you haven't spent the time in school toughening up your skin, you're in for it. You know what's wrong with the work, if you'll admit it. If you do know what's wrong, then fix it. Work on it. And surround yourself with people who are honest with you, not yes-men.
I was very lucky in that the buddies I found in art school were all straight shooters. They called it like they saw it and, though we certainly got our feathers ruffled now and then, we got better because of it. It helped that we trusted each other and respected what we were all trying to do. I don't think any of us fooled ourselves into thinking we were any better than we were, or better prepared than we needed to be. We could see that we needed a lot of work, but were so into the work it didn't matter. We were running on high adrenaline screwing up as much as we were succeeding. But we were homing in on what we were all about, honing our skills, finding our voices. Art is one place that, within reason, what you put into it you will get out of it.
Whatever habits you have now, good or bad, unless you work extremely hard at correcting the bad ones, you will carry with you from school into your professional life. I was king of the unfinished for longer than I care to remember. I would start all kinds of projects, paintings, what-have-you, and then start something else, etc. Invariably something would get left behind and never finished. I had to work awfully hard at correcting that bad habit of mine. I still have some of it in me, but I'm better than I was. I do lots of creative procrastination, but get to it when I have to. This surprises some people as they see me as very productive. I don't know.
But the long and the short of it is that you need to develop good working habits now. Drawing should not be a chore. Painting should not be a huge effort. Self-doubt can hit anyone. I don't know a single person/artist that it doesn't affect. Just make sure that at some point you shit or get off the pot. Draw and paint as much as you can. Find the enjoyment that makes it all good, however the work is going. You should be wanting to do it.
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shouts out to Joe Pasquale, Garman Herigstad, Chin-Cheng Hung, Jeff Markowsky
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