Life
Sketching
Stephen Bergstrom
sbergstr@san.rr.com
Chapter
Two: Mota, mota, gotta lotta Motivation!
Anyone
who's been in ROTC or the armed forces completely understands
that title. Part of what the military understands about human
nature is the need for the individual to stay focused in order
to become part of the group, or unit, or division, or battalion,
or whatever is needed to get the task done. There are various
methods to achieve this, and one of the neater ones is the
chanting in unison during physical activity, in this case,
jogging.
There's something almost mystical about groups chanting in
unison. It helps to focus one's mind, to set it in a solitary
direction towards a common goal. The feeling of solidarity
it inspires is humbling, to say the least. Go to a citizenship
ceremony someday and listen to 300 or so people recite the
pledge of allegiance from the heart. It'll have a slightly
more profound effect than what you might remember from elementary
school.
What, one may ask, the heck does this have to do with graphic
design, or art, or anything I might be spewing? Well, it has
to do with staying focused. This is something that has managed
to elude me for the greater percentage of my life. My problem
is I don't stick with things, I don't hold jobs for more than
two years, and up until recently, I hadn't even managed a
stable relationship. Hey, I've even abandoned my PlayStation.
How's that for fickle?
So, I figure that in order to stay focused on getting a career
started in graphic design, I have to find a way to inspire
myself. Motivation is easy to sustain if one is inspired.
As many readers may know, once inspiration strikes, it nags
us until we satisfy it. Many a sleepless night has occurred
simply because I had to know what a certain concept would
look like correctly rendered on paper. I said "correctly" because that's usually what ended up taking all night. Again,
I feel that most of you reading this know where I'm coming
from.
Now, one would think that this would be a fairly difficult
task, wouldn't one?
Not so.
Think of something, anything, that you would like to see happen.
Some event that, in completion of your goal, that is likely
to occur. In my case, it's getting a job as a graphic designer,
but beyond that, a consequence of that event that would more
than make up for the hard work and sacrifice that it's going
to take in order to achieve this task. It doesn't have to
be a major event, or even necessarily an altruistic one. In
my case, the event I want to see happen as a consequence of
my becoming a graphic designer is petty, spiteful, and downright
non-humorous.
So I ain't sharing with y'all.
Does that make me a shallow, bitter, vindictive person? Probably.
Does that put me on a par with Darth Vader? Not even. He still
has a sharper wardrobe than I do. Plus he has that lightsaber.
Brrrrrr.
The point I'm trying to make here, is that without motivation,
inspiration, SOMETHING to drive one to the point of passion,
an artist is doomed to failure. This is either from doubt,
distraction from external or internal sources, or lack of
focus.
I'm dealing with the focus part of the equation now. Part
of it has to do with the relationship deadline I mentioned
in Part One, as well as the fact that I'm doing this column
in order to stay focused.
Has it worked so far? I think so. I'm still plugging away
at the artwork I plan on displaying at the Comic-Book Convention
that is now a little over a month away (which may or may not
give away the identity of the show, if you know these sorts
of things), and I'm now busily updating my portfolio, a thing
which has not seen any new artwork in it since Bush the Senior
was in office. Aside from the fact that having a fresh portfolio
increases my chances of landing a gig, shortly before I started
this column, I had been introduced to someone who works as
a programmer for a company that creates video games, and was
informed that they're always looking for artists.
Yes, the light went on over my head. Thus, the portfolio got
dragged out.
This brought me to the question of, what the &*%$*!! do
I put into this freakin' portfolio? All the websites had the
same standard boring-ass answers, i.e. "your best work
to date," "nothing more than six months old,"
"something bold and dynamic," and my favorite, "something
to get the editor's attention."
Well, a sketch of said editor's wife in the altogether oughta
do it.
The blinding fact is, while your best work ought to be presented
in your portfolio, the most important thing to represent is
your style. If you don't have a style, however vague and nebulous
that term is, then the best you can hope for is a steady stream
of freelance jobs. Finding the right style for you and sticking
with it, that's what's key. To put in a comic industry example,
a lot of people have heard of Todd MacFarlane by this point.
Yeah, the guy who bought Big Mac's balls. That's him. This
guy was a graphic artist in advertising who found a style
that translated well into comic books. His technical skill
in rendering the human body was anything but professional,
but his style was, well, bold and dynamic. The fans ate it
up. Now he doesn't have to work another day in his life, if
he doesn't want to.
God help me, I want to be just like him.
To sum up, stay focused, even if it means becoming a master
of the dark side of the force to do it, and don't let anything
distract you until you too can own someone's balls. More on
this next week.
Until
then, watch the night skies!
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