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The Art of Patience
6 years ago
To the Edge of Imagination and BEYOND
Sitting down to even write this post is taking concentration and exercise I'm not sure I'm actually in the mood for. But, there in lays the issue. Somehow over the years living in constricted situations for too long made me start to not feel as though I ever had the time to start my own projects, or if I did, that I would have any time at all to spend on them.
I was living the life of a nearly purely production based artist! ... on the side of whatever other full time job I had going...
The very effort to sit down and contemplate worlds and characters in any greater capacity weight on my mind like a lead weight instead of giving me endless hours of what felt like effortless joy surging through my veins and waiting to explode out my finger tips and onto the page.
In the last year and approx. 8 or so months I've been given a very strange blessing in disguise.
A 100% art free full time job.
But Saber?! How in the name of any dimension does a full time job that doesn't have anything to do with art help you achieve your art goals?
There's a lot to it guys.... Hours of entering data and stringing together bits of information is completely colorless. It feels like a grayscape that is also devoid of 1-20% value and 80-100% value. It means at the end of the day, we're YEARNING with every fibre of our multiple selves to dive into HUE SATURATED WORLDS. It means I'm willing to push the boundaries, and it SHOWS so heavily in my recent works.
It also means I have 8 hours a day to put art ideas on that beautiful slow simmer burner that we all sort of half forget about, but can always feel and hear it going. It's easy to check in on that slow burner, and see what might be brewing inside of it without completely breaking the concentration I have going on the current task. It's the same feeling as being able to type a completely different sentence while you are singing a song playing on Spotify. One is done out of "pure joy" and slow burns effortlessly away while we tend to other more aggressive fires of the day.
Most importantly, it means I have to heavily practice a great deal of practice. In many ways.
-I can't break my work to constantly work on my art, this would be a disservice to my work mind. It also sharpens how long I can stay on any 1 task, which, as everyone knows can be difficult. When you have Dissociative Identity Disorder and are a functioning "small village" in 1 body, just holding thought through an entire sentence can feel like a chore on a bad day.
When we finally sit down to the task of creating something just for us, there are moments we freeze. Over the years as a production for others based artist, I became used to the sensation of "someones waiting." "someomes still waiting." "this has to get done, someones waiting." That feeling became more viral then helpful, continually circling around in my mind until all I could do was pour everything I had in the project, throw it out the door and mentally try to recover only to have the next project land on my plate. I had to get out for my own mental health and I'm glad I did.
Does it mean that I'm producing less?
Oddly, no.
I'm producing WAY MORE. Here's why:
When I was finally able to slow down, and allow myself patience, it allowed my brain to start coming untangled from every pipeline I'd been slung down. Which in turn meant I actually had time to start looking at just what kind of art I was creating.
PROCESS. HEAVY. OVER. BURDENED. WOOOOOOORK.
I dove into looking at more tutorials, at more artist talks, listened to podcasts, and took a deep long breath.
When I went back to art this time, there was a little bit of that old magic. Patience. In that patience I was allowing myself to have, with myself, and what I wanted to create, allowed me to focus and decide: What did I want to create?
The comic I'm creating I hope to see the art continue to evolve and become so much more than I have ever done before. There have been so many fears I've been hiding behind because "they take too much time to create." In reality, I was afraid of approaching new processes.
Though I've actually been creating more than I have in a long time, I'm sitting on it. I'm waiting until things are completed and I'm letting them work themselves out to being completed. One of the Youtube video's I recently watched was actually on how the artist realized their slowed process made a comic they'd assigned themselves 3 years to create, take 11 years instead. We're not doing that... What we ARE doing, is setting a relaxed, but productive minded work space where we can create the best visual story we can while honoring all that we are learning along the way.
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and try to launch before we're truly ready, but every false start means disqualification from the race. Just as with Speedskating, I'll BLAZE off of that start line, when the time is right. Until then, I wait with as much anticipation as you all for what is about to come. <3
Have patience with yourselves, in all you do. You will find a higher quality of your work, and a truer appreciation for all you've accomplished in getting there.
Stay Magical! Light and Love!
-The Saber Crew
dont mind this, reference for later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdN.....&t=390
just needed a place to store it XD
I was living the life of a nearly purely production based artist! ... on the side of whatever other full time job I had going...
The very effort to sit down and contemplate worlds and characters in any greater capacity weight on my mind like a lead weight instead of giving me endless hours of what felt like effortless joy surging through my veins and waiting to explode out my finger tips and onto the page.
In the last year and approx. 8 or so months I've been given a very strange blessing in disguise.
A 100% art free full time job.
But Saber?! How in the name of any dimension does a full time job that doesn't have anything to do with art help you achieve your art goals?
There's a lot to it guys.... Hours of entering data and stringing together bits of information is completely colorless. It feels like a grayscape that is also devoid of 1-20% value and 80-100% value. It means at the end of the day, we're YEARNING with every fibre of our multiple selves to dive into HUE SATURATED WORLDS. It means I'm willing to push the boundaries, and it SHOWS so heavily in my recent works.
It also means I have 8 hours a day to put art ideas on that beautiful slow simmer burner that we all sort of half forget about, but can always feel and hear it going. It's easy to check in on that slow burner, and see what might be brewing inside of it without completely breaking the concentration I have going on the current task. It's the same feeling as being able to type a completely different sentence while you are singing a song playing on Spotify. One is done out of "pure joy" and slow burns effortlessly away while we tend to other more aggressive fires of the day.
Most importantly, it means I have to heavily practice a great deal of practice. In many ways.
-I can't break my work to constantly work on my art, this would be a disservice to my work mind. It also sharpens how long I can stay on any 1 task, which, as everyone knows can be difficult. When you have Dissociative Identity Disorder and are a functioning "small village" in 1 body, just holding thought through an entire sentence can feel like a chore on a bad day.
When we finally sit down to the task of creating something just for us, there are moments we freeze. Over the years as a production for others based artist, I became used to the sensation of "someones waiting." "someomes still waiting." "this has to get done, someones waiting." That feeling became more viral then helpful, continually circling around in my mind until all I could do was pour everything I had in the project, throw it out the door and mentally try to recover only to have the next project land on my plate. I had to get out for my own mental health and I'm glad I did.
Does it mean that I'm producing less?
Oddly, no.
I'm producing WAY MORE. Here's why:
When I was finally able to slow down, and allow myself patience, it allowed my brain to start coming untangled from every pipeline I'd been slung down. Which in turn meant I actually had time to start looking at just what kind of art I was creating.
PROCESS. HEAVY. OVER. BURDENED. WOOOOOOORK.
I dove into looking at more tutorials, at more artist talks, listened to podcasts, and took a deep long breath.
When I went back to art this time, there was a little bit of that old magic. Patience. In that patience I was allowing myself to have, with myself, and what I wanted to create, allowed me to focus and decide: What did I want to create?
The comic I'm creating I hope to see the art continue to evolve and become so much more than I have ever done before. There have been so many fears I've been hiding behind because "they take too much time to create." In reality, I was afraid of approaching new processes.
Though I've actually been creating more than I have in a long time, I'm sitting on it. I'm waiting until things are completed and I'm letting them work themselves out to being completed. One of the Youtube video's I recently watched was actually on how the artist realized their slowed process made a comic they'd assigned themselves 3 years to create, take 11 years instead. We're not doing that... What we ARE doing, is setting a relaxed, but productive minded work space where we can create the best visual story we can while honoring all that we are learning along the way.
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and try to launch before we're truly ready, but every false start means disqualification from the race. Just as with Speedskating, I'll BLAZE off of that start line, when the time is right. Until then, I wait with as much anticipation as you all for what is about to come. <3
Have patience with yourselves, in all you do. You will find a higher quality of your work, and a truer appreciation for all you've accomplished in getting there.
Stay Magical! Light and Love!
-The Saber Crew
dont mind this, reference for later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdN.....&t=390
just needed a place to store it XD
Best of luck to you!