There are those times as an artist where you really wonder what and why to draw at all. Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Artstation; every avenue online is full of quality work created by an ever increasingly visible plethora of artists. It can be disheartening, and it can feel a little like it has all been done before. Artist Matt Rhodes once wrote a blog post that went viral, titled "I think the internet broke my brain.", detailing how the overexposure to art made him feel much the same way. When you've already been in photoshop all day at work making something someone else needs, but you still want to create something for yourself. When you sit down to do it, a stubborn voice in the back of your mind sometimes says:
"Seen it."
"Jaime Jones already did a better one."
"Vance Kovacs nailed that 8 years ago."
So when I recently hit a slump like that I thought about wise words I'd heard:
"Be authentic. Authenticity is more appealing than peculiarity."
"Do something you love and your love will come through in the work."
But after years of trying to guess what art directors are looking for and divining what clients don't even know they want; after years of striving to make your art comparable to your heroes work, it can be hard to even remember what you want to draw for yourself. My friend Aaron Beck recently posted a chronological timeline of his art all the way through his childhood up to the present day. It was super inspiring to see that his younger self was indeed interested in drawing much the same things as he makes his living doing now. Which made me think back to my childhood.
The first thought that really came to mind: Demons climbing out of mirrors.
That's right. There was a period during my early teens when I would draw them over and over, in the back of my maths books, in the margins of exam papers. While I don't have any of those images on hand to post, I thought I would create a new image in the same vein.
I hope you enjoy it.
Matt Rhodes' post: "I think the internet broke my brain.".
Aaron Beck's Instagram retrospective starts here at age 4.
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