How to get motivated

Zombies are motivated for brains like you should be motivated towards your passion in life. Learn from them.

Monkey here:

Today I'm going to talk about drive and motivation. Now some tough-ass type of coaches, gurus, advisers, and other sorts of people might tell you that you either have it or you don't, but that's not really the full story.

Often times, we have the drive, but we just haven't found the endeavor worthy of that drive. Because our society often promotes certain fields and not others (math and hard science over philosophy, art, and social sciences), often times we label others (and get labeled ourselves) as "unmotivated," "lazy," "unfocused." I find that when it comes to calculus, physics, and drawing subject matters that don't interest me, I am unfocused (hello Bejeweled Blitz!), unmotivated ("hmm, maybe I'll scrub the toilet instead of working on this commission") and just plain lazy ("zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"). On the flip side, give me a day off and tell me to draw monsters and octopi and zombies all day? I'll be glued to my Wacom tablet an easy 8-12 hours no sweat.

So to all those people who tell others that they should be focusing on their work more, go shove it. And yes, all you artists out there with unsupportive parents - I really am telling your parents to shove it.

If you've ever heard "you should focus on XYZ" instead of art, where XYZ is something that you have no interest in, then you should make a deal with that person who just told you that. Pick something that they have absolutely no interest in, and tell them if they focus on that, you'll focus on XYZ. After all, fair's fair.

The point of all this is that just because someone is not interested in a certain field (like their current job) doesn't mean that they aren't driven - it's just hard to push yourself to do something that you essentially hate. The "trick" is that you have to figure out what you are passionate about and go after that. You have to be specific and not generalize. If you are passionate about art, are you passionate about studying 14th century oil paintings, or are you interested in wheatpasting posters around town? Two very different fields, but both would fall into the general category of "art."

Once you find what you love to do, you'll find that life gets a lot more fun, and "work" doesn't seem so much like work. Maybe you won't be able to land that dream job right away, but once you know the concrete details of your dream job, you'll then be able to start taking concrete actions in order to wean yourself off your current job and move to what you really want to do.

The next step is to take a lesson from zombies and learn to be relentless in your passion. It may hurt, it may take a long time, but in the end, when you're truly delving deep into what you love to do, that's when it's going to be all worth it.

What are you passionate about?

Try something new

Monkey had never used the rainbow gradient in Photoshop. Now he has.

Try something new. Be a beginner again.

Be thankful for what you have, but don't be satisfied. Especially with your art. It's important to continually grow and experiment in finding the best mediums to express yourself. Some of the best architects are also the best photographers. A sculptor is also a filmmaker. A painter is also a screenprinter. "Why," do you ask? Because no matter in what medium we work in, something translates. We can see color in painting and in photograph. We understand light through three dimensional sculpture. We understand movement because we understand stillness. Being an artist means constantly exploring the seeming "paradox," or the unknown.

Sure, if you've never tried drawing before you may not be happy with your first drawing in comparison to your skillful photographs, but that shouldn't stop anyone from trying something new. As an artist we try so damn hard to learn one thing in a lifetime, to become "masterful" at something. Although it's good to have a goal and be dedicated and focused towards that goal. But a goal for the sake of the goal becomes yet another work.

Art thrives on something new, something not yet formed, something you are trying to grasp but don't know how to communicate. It's quite frustrating, but it's valuable to be a beginner. Occasionally, we have to let loose, and stop taking the art so gosh darn serious.

It doesn't work to drag our artist self to the easel, hand it a brush and say, "now, paint." No. We have to start the creativity by doing something crude, crazy, totally "BAD" art. Something happens when you allow the artist self to create "bad art" and relieve it from the pressure of perfection. Only then, can we move on to exploring deeper ideas, delving deeper into our craft, and creating something that's meaningful to us.

So what's the big deal in trying something new? Never knitted? Draw? or taken photos? There is no big deal. Poop poop.

The things in life you will regret are the things yet to be tried. Figure out something new that you would like to try. What is it?

Procrastination

Procrastination:

Procrastination is self-sabotage. Even though we knows this and most of us don't like to procrastinate on art, yet we still do it. Whether we start the art on Sunday or Wednesday, it is almost always done minutes before deadline.Why is that? Psychologists say that procrastination is an avoidance of pain. Why are we so afraid of our art? Why is it painful to do art? and NOT to do art? Given how society views art, Seal is not surprised at these paralyzing fears.

Have you ever heard of the phrase,"starving artist?" Or how about, "artists are crazy, self-absorbed, over indulgent, selfish, selfish." Where did we get that? If you live on planet earth, then probably from our parents, our parents' friends, teachers, students, our peers, our co-workers. While a typical high school program grooms their young-ins in biology, English, or math, art is seen as an elective (and only the nerds, crazies, or indie kids take art!). Artists are already filled with doubts and fears before they begin, so it's not surprising that we stare at the blank canvas and a week has gone by before any mark is made.

Procrastination is not born, but learned. The Procrastinating artist is avoiding some sort of pain. There are three main categories of procrastination:

1. They want the rush of a deadline. They feel they are not creative otherwise.
2. They want to avoid failure or success, or any kind of visibility.
3. They don't want to make a decision on (what subjects to paint, what color, what to say in their canvas) so they can be absolved of any consequence and responsibility of the outcome (look what you have made).

Seal guesses that most artists who procrastinate have had to deal with shame. (How dare you make that art? Who do you think you are to create? You think you can actually be a successful artist? get real.) Any bad crit, look, or comment, can trigger such fears to the point that the artist will put off working on anything unless they absolutely have to.

Procrastination is the artists' last resort. To run away. To hide. To put off the canvas for another day. If you are a procrastinator, I'm sure people have probably already told you: "get a planner" "learn time management" "be more strict with your time" etc. etc.

Although the above suggestions help, Seal would like to also propose the following approach:
If you think you are struggling with one of the above issues: Congratulations. Admitting it is already a big step. Here are some things to keep in mind: 1) Since procrastination is learned, it can be unlearned. It will take time (no pun intended), but the payoff is your freedom. 2). Procrastinators don't like what they are doing and most (if not all) would like to change their behavior. (So no need to tell them "they need to change," etc. they know). Now here is the big secret, it's scary, but you can do it. And even the best time management courses do not cover this, and yet it can help you breakthrough your procrastination: you need to find out WHY you are procrastinating. What are you avoiding? Why are you in pain when you do art? Who or What has caused this pain?

Finally, what eases the pain? What makes it better? What makes you feel safe to create? Get more of it.

BE a kid again and your creativity will soar!

What are 3 of your favorite childhood snacks?

What did you liked to do as a kid? Were you encouraged to do it?

What are 3 things you would NEVER EVER do?

Now, buy yourself those childhood snacks. Do those things you liked to do. And do those things you said you will never do. Because our creativity thrives on generosity with ourselves. You'll be surprised at how stingy we are with our artist self. Do any of these sound familiar?

"I don't have time to draw for myself" "I can't afford to fix my camera, or get that sweater" "Stickers are for children (trans: I will not buy that sticker. I'm an adult now.)" "I can't sleep, I still have work to do!"

We deprive ourselves of rest, of money, of time, of care, enjoyment, of child-like adventures. If we keep doing that, sure we can still make art, but chances are you will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for inspiration. The artists needs to be constantly feed with new experiences AND experiences that you enjoy.

The reason we asked about "childhood" things, is that most of the time, during our childhood, our enjoyment was unadulterated. We found amusement in a simple box. We made it into a jet, a cafe, a dinosaur. As we grow into adults, we feel that we must "put away our childish toys, go to the bank, pay the bills, cook dinner, go to meetings, sign contracts, walk, talk, and do things like an adult."

This is the fastest way to tack on stress, build health problems, and basically deprive yourselves of the freedom of creating. When we make art, we need to tap into our visceral. The more our artist self feels safe to create, the more it will play/work for you.

When was the last time you did your favorite thing? Hopefully, recently. But if you are like most of the population, probably days, weeks, months, and sometimes years ago. So let's begin again.

What is 3 of your favorite childhood snacks?

What did you like to do as a kid? Were you encouraged to do it?

What are 3 things you will NEVER EVER do?

Make Art For You

Only show stuff like this to your clients if they happen to be some of your best friends.

Often time as we're first setting out to become professional artists, we fantasize over realizing that dream. We imagine how amazing it would be to just get paid to create. However, when the reality of paid illustration jobs or concept art positions sets in, you need to remember to keep making art for yourself.

Now don't get us wrong, it's a great privilege and amazing to be able to draw/illustrate/print for a living. However, when you spend 8-10 hours a day drawing stuff for other people, or printing t-shirts that you didn't design, you also have to remember to keep creating for yourself, lest the art you do for a living becomes "another job."

If you don't have time to create for yourself (although we guess you probably do, but that's another story), then you need to make the work you're doing for someone else for yourself as well. If you get hired to do an illustration, you need to make sure that there is something about that illustration that you're doing for yourself. Yes, you have a brief that tells you what needs to be in the illustration, but make sure that you're finding ways to enjoy the revisions and feedback. If anything, sometimes we will do a quick draft of the illustration in a completely experimental style (that you never have to show to your client) as a way to quickly inject the fun into the assignment, even if you might not be 100% enthusiastic about the illustration.

An example of this is the above Save the Date. Monkey was honored to be asked by his good friends from Berkeley to design their Save the Dates and the invitations for their wedding. While Monkey likes to do more non-traditional wedding invitations, they were looking for something more parent-friendly. Monkey was happy to oblige, but the patience and attention to detail with the typography and designing is not Monkey's strong point, and thus for the Save the Dates he created this crazy, over-the-top monster bunny-as-a-weapon design to keep things fun. After that, he was able to really focus and design something that his friends could love and he could be proud of. As a side note, to show how awesome Monkey's friends are, they actually sent this digital save the date to their close friends!

The lesson to learn here is that with art, just as with every job, assignment, or task, is to figure out a way to do it for yourself. Find something fun and exciting and new to learn or try, and keep it fresh. It makes for much happier creating.

Protecting Your Art

As an artist, it's important to protect yourself and your art during the early stages of creativity and surround yourself with people who support your dreams. Once you've got a good start and are towards the middle of your project, it is then helpful to ask other artists to constructively critique your work, in order to evolve.

As an artist, the art of creating is very personal and vulnerable. So it's important that especially during the first early stages to be selective in who you share your work with. Often, the art needs time to mature, to brew, to cultivate the right way of being expressed. Too many artists make the mistake of exposing this early idea to everyone they know. It's natural to want approval or encouragement/ feedback to keep going. But you want to make sure that it's the right person. At this early stage, it's better to jump and go ahead and explore the idea. Risk being wrong.

Have you ever had a brilliant idea, a wonderful dream, and you run to someone who you think would listen to you and tell them all about it, only to get the wet-blanket response, "eh." A complete and utter disregard, a crushing silence, or even a "well-meaning advice" of "well that's kind of already done before . . . " or "how about this, you can do it this way. . . " Too many projects are crushed this way. It's much to early even for you, the artist, to judge the work.

You need to draw a circle and protect the work. For example, time and time again, Seal had shown her early ideas to the wrong people. These were often the people closest to her, people whom she had trust. Sometimes they were straight out negative, competitive, or plain clueless in being able to help the artwork. Especially people who don't understand the process of art would look at the early scribbles, first knitted scarf, or failed experiments and judge it as if it was already finished. Or compare your beginning drawings to a great master. ("Well, this certainly isn't a Michelangelo"). Sometimes well-meaning friends and relatives would like to be "helpful" and push their advice unto you, without being asked. "It would be better if you did this." While you will need some of this constructive criticisms later on in the work, when you are just starting on a project, it's best to show it only to people who trusts in your abilities and potential.

Seal knows that she can show Monkey, her ugly-duckling early sketches of her work before they become full swans. She knows that Monkey will be supportive, and say "yeah, go ahead and explore that." (It may not be the "best idea in the world," but at least it's one more idea that was explored.) The worse thing that can happen is that it doesn't work out.

--

Once you get going on your project. You'll come to a point where you don't know where else to take it. Or you've come up to your limits regarding your skills/knowledge, etc. At this time, is a good time to get constructive criticism. People who won't just be "nice" and say the work is "cool," without giving you ways to improve upon it. You want to be surrounded by people who won't settle, who want to make their own artwork better. And at the same time, the criticisms must be done in such a way that is constructive, specific, and have a respect towards you, the artist, and the work.

There is a difference between specific objective criticisms to the work than a subjective comment. A bad criticism is when its shrouded in generality and attacks the person and not the art: "I don't know what to tell you, it just doesn't work." or "something about this is off" or "this is bad art." (any of these comments don't really tell you "why, they think the way they do" and "how to fix it."

An example of good criticism: My mentor would always look at my work and ask me first, "what's your intention here?" That way he understands where the work is coming from. Then he proceeds to give me concrete feedback based on an action I can take forward. "If your intention was X, here's Y in how to do it" With good criticisms, there is always 1) a truth (a-ha! I see that, yeah, you're right the color would be better if I saturate it, etc). and 2) specificity about the work itself (never about you the artist), and 3) a clue or answer on how to move forward with the work.

So again, in order to grow as an artist, we must be bold in the beginning stages, stretch our wings and really explore all aspects of our curiosity while being protective of it by only sharing it with people who will be supportive of you. Then after the art has got a good running start, we must find the right kind of people, preferably other creatives like ourselves, who can give us constructive feedback about how to evolve the work.

If Your Attitude Stinks, No Work For You

Part of being professional artists is more than just having a certain skill set or a strong portfolio. While many of us creatives would rather we just do what we do, paint when we want to paint, and basically have total freedom over every aspect of our lives, that is, unfortunately, not a reality for most of us. The truth of the matter is that we still have bills to pay, and to do that, someone needs to pay us. Even if we have the skillz to pay said billz, if there are no one to sell said skills to, then you're going to be out of luck.

Thus, we have to sell our art to designers, clients, art collectors, etc., etc. While a select few artists can be rude, crazy, and generally not fun to be around, Monkey + Seal think that their reputation will eventually work against them, no matter how "great" they might be. Basically, Monkey + Seal advise to be a professional.

By being a professional, we don't mean that you have to wear a suit and tie and act like you're some no-fun, all-business boring bum, but that you act with integrity and respect. Respond to business emails. Show up on time. Follow directions. Be a nice person. These things, while seemingly obvious and simple, are actually more rare than you might think.

As curators in their roles as Paper Hat Productions, Monkey + Seal have gotten a first-hand look on the other side of the fence - we often are looking for opportunities from other organizers, gallery curators, and the like, but with Paper Hat we get to see what it's like to get approached by artists looking to be featured in a future show. While we generally give everyone a chance (we at least check out everyone's work if they have it online), we most certainly do not curate people into shows if they have terrible attitudes.

At our first show, someone came up to Seal while she was live painting and insinuated that her work wasn't so great. Then, when he asked who she was, and she told him that she was one of the curators for the show, he suddenly changed his tone and introduced himself and gave her his business card and told her how great the show was and how he would love to get involved. Guess who isn't going to be in our future shows?

Now the reason why you being professional can get you ahead of the game (or more likely, being unprofessional can get you put on the poop-list) is that besides whether or not curators think that your art can sell, curators have to work with the artists. Curators send emails with info on where to drop off work, how sales will work, and if they're good, they'll want to interview you, get photos of your work to post up on their site for promotional material. They are going to send you postcards, digital flyers, promo material to put up on your blog. If they're doing their job, they're going to be doing their best to promote you, and if working with you is a pain in the butt, then they're not going to want to do it.

You have to think about the curator. Are you making it easy for them to want to work with you? If you are late, how much is that going to inconvenience the curator and the other artists? Are you going to show up and act like a diva and embarrass the curators? If you are making the curators' life hard, they are not going to want to work with you again. Most likely, if they're curating a show, they're going to have connections with other curators. Just as if we like to brag about how great other artists are, we're also quite vocal about how we've had bad experiences with person x and y. Word spreads fast, so do yourself a favor and make sure that you've got a clean reputation moving forward.

In saying this, we don't expect bribes or people sucking up to us (that turns us off just as quick as if you are rude or lazy), but we advise that you think about what sort of image you're giving off, and whether or not that image is going to help or hurt your career in the future.