What I Learned for an Artist Block (Told by No One in Particular)
Link: Here
Script: One thing that most people don’t really know about me is that I’ve pretty creative… or at least I think I am. If you consider being creative as having multiple interests in artistic things, you know like music, art, video editing, that sort of thing, and not having a single ounce of talent to back that up… yeah that’s me.
Now you could make the argument that I’m relatively new to this, after all I’ve only been making music for about a year and a half now, and my drawing skills rival those of a child painting a picture with his eyes closed and only using his teeth… wait you’re telling me I’m not supposed to draw that way? Well go figure.
I don’t think too highly of my work, so for a long time I’ve wondered... “am I actually bad at almost everything I touch?” And today I’ve found out that the answer I was seeking… was correct. I am garbage at making music, I am garbage at drawing art, and I am garbage at video editing… because I tried way to hard to be something I’m not.
I don’t exactly have a set experience, no hallelujah moment that I realized this. It was more or less something that I become more aware of over time, and the more and more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
I want to quickly talk about the three biggest things that can hinder an artist, self-loathing, comparing yourself to others, and a conforming to society. Self-loathing is prevalent in almost any kind of art-form, and it only took me three minutes scrolling through chat messages on Discord to realize this. People are naturally inclined to hate their own work, and if you do like what you made you’re either lying to yourself, or really… really... lying to yourself. However it might not be for whatever reason you may think. While there are times when you think what you made is so bad that there’s no salvaging, there are more times where you do like what you made, but know that it could be so much more. Whatever an artist envisions their final product would be, there’s almost no way that they can capture that. Whatever they’re trying to accomplish, there’s no way it can be perfect… and it doesn’t need to be.
The wonderful thing about art and music is the tiny imperfections in it that make it feel all the better. I’ve made songs before that have all the notes hit exactly when they’re supposed to, and precisely in time with the tempo of the song, and it sounds a lot better when they don’t quite hit at the same time. Why might you ask? ...I’m not even gonna answer that question, anyone with half a brain could figure it out themselves *stop sarcasm* alright alright it’s because it sounds more natural that way. No person is able to play exactly on tempo, even expert musicians will always be delayed by a few milliseconds. Likewise artists might never get that perfect stroke, or be able to correctly position a character’s neck because it’ll still be off by a few millimeters. Nothing is perfect, and that’s just how life is. We appreciate it for it’s flaws, it’s tiny imperfections, because if everything were perfect, nothing would be interesting. So once you realize that your sketch of Mario is messed up because his nose looks too much like Squidward from Infinity War, go back and try to fix it, because as long as you’re aware of what’s wrong you can make it better.
Secondly there’s the case of comparing your work to others. This ties into self-loathing a lot because you’d try to make your work a certain way, and look to others for how to do it. This is turn makes you realize that this person has a lot more talent than you because he’s been drawing for 10 years, and you give up saying that you’ll never be better than him. *sigh* Don’t ever fall into this trap. Yes, your first drawing with be horrendous. Yes your tenth drawing will look like the interior of a dumpster bin. But at least the improvement from the first will be noticeable. As long as you can see improvement in yourself, that’s all that matters. Here’s an example from my own life, I started a YouTube channel last year where I started posting music I made. Don’t go asking me for my channel name by the way, I’d rather stay anonymous. Anyways if you compare the first song I made to the latest one, yeah I think the difference is night and day. The first one was something I made back when I had no idea what a sub bass was, and the latter shows more of my trademark orchestral synth rock vibe I like.
Oh yeah that’s another thing I’d like to talk about, styles. Every single artist has their own way of drawing paintings, every musician his own way of composing, and there’s no way that’s objectively better. However it’s imperative to find your own way of making art, rather than trying to copy someone else. There’s an old saying… what was it… imitation is the best form of flattery? Yeah okay, and what if that form of imitation is lackluster and not at all comparable to the person you’re imitating is? I feel that people should develop their own style on their own, rather than being a second rate version of someone else. Not only that, but appreciate doing things differently than the norm. I mean the scripts I make for my videos just consist of me rambling on and on, hell the one for this is exactly the same way. If I turned this in as an actual assignment, I’d easily get an F, with a note on the side saying “Improper use of the English language, see me after class.” My point is that you should express yourself, not anyone else. And compare yourself to what you can do, you’ll be much better off as a result.
Lastly I want to talk about society itself. I originally put this in as a joke because I thought I’d get a good laugh out of it. I did by the way, thanks for asking. But the more I reflected about the state music is in, where pop and trap and hip hop have single-handedly dominated the music culture… yeah I definitely want to talk about this. How come all the artists who do these genres get all the praise and recognition for the minuscule amount of work they actually put into making songs, where I and many others spend hours upon hours just trying to find the right instrument to use as a countermelody? Is it jealousy? Am I just desperate to be heard? Well duh, it all has to do with having an audience.
It’s a natural fact of life that if you try to make something for others to enjoy and no one even bothers to check it out, then you’ll stop trying to do it. Trust me, it’s easier to stop now than try to please someone and fail even more. However no matter how better off other artists and musicians are, you need to learn to be happy with what you have.
Let me talk about my YouTube channel that I still refuse to show anyone here. I’ve created it a year ago, and have had plenty of content and, dare I say it, talent to show people. Of course I have at least 500 subscribers and actively have a following, right? Hahahahaha no of course not, what are you even thinking? Yeah as of now I haven’t even broken the 100 mark, and I don’t even get that many views on most of my videos, somewhere around the 50's and 60's for each one I make. That’s about normal for someone like me, in fact I’d imagine I’m one of the lucky ones, there’s a guy I’m friends with who started his around the same time as me and only has 25 subscribers. Yeah he got hit really hard.
Still I have every right to want more. I spend lots of time on every single video I make, every single song I release, so why can’t I get more attention for the amount of effort I put in? But instead of looking at it as what I could have, I try looking now as what I do have, which is a few people who really love the content I make. Even though in the 7 billion people on this planet, where I could easily be ignored among the masses, there are at least five people out there who really enjoy my videos, and are eagerly waiting for me to make something else, whether it be music, or art, or comedy. I’m given the freedom to do what I want, and they’d still accept me and love it. You see, even if society wants you to act a certain way, you don’t need to. If they want you to make rap music where you write up lyrics about knocking up girls or drug addictions, and steal a trap beat off of SoundBible, you don’t need to do it. Express yourself whatever way you want, as long as it’s not harmful to anyone, and you’ll get your fans.
So yeah, that’s basically my account of what I learned from making a horrible YouTube channel.
Now you could make the argument that I’m relatively new to this, after all I’ve only been making music for about a year and a half now, and my drawing skills rival those of a child painting a picture with his eyes closed and only using his teeth… wait you’re telling me I’m not supposed to draw that way? Well go figure.
I don’t think too highly of my work, so for a long time I’ve wondered... “am I actually bad at almost everything I touch?” And today I’ve found out that the answer I was seeking… was correct. I am garbage at making music, I am garbage at drawing art, and I am garbage at video editing… because I tried way to hard to be something I’m not.
I don’t exactly have a set experience, no hallelujah moment that I realized this. It was more or less something that I become more aware of over time, and the more and more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
I want to quickly talk about the three biggest things that can hinder an artist, self-loathing, comparing yourself to others, and a conforming to society. Self-loathing is prevalent in almost any kind of art-form, and it only took me three minutes scrolling through chat messages on Discord to realize this. People are naturally inclined to hate their own work, and if you do like what you made you’re either lying to yourself, or really… really... lying to yourself. However it might not be for whatever reason you may think. While there are times when you think what you made is so bad that there’s no salvaging, there are more times where you do like what you made, but know that it could be so much more. Whatever an artist envisions their final product would be, there’s almost no way that they can capture that. Whatever they’re trying to accomplish, there’s no way it can be perfect… and it doesn’t need to be.
The wonderful thing about art and music is the tiny imperfections in it that make it feel all the better. I’ve made songs before that have all the notes hit exactly when they’re supposed to, and precisely in time with the tempo of the song, and it sounds a lot better when they don’t quite hit at the same time. Why might you ask? ...I’m not even gonna answer that question, anyone with half a brain could figure it out themselves *stop sarcasm* alright alright it’s because it sounds more natural that way. No person is able to play exactly on tempo, even expert musicians will always be delayed by a few milliseconds. Likewise artists might never get that perfect stroke, or be able to correctly position a character’s neck because it’ll still be off by a few millimeters. Nothing is perfect, and that’s just how life is. We appreciate it for it’s flaws, it’s tiny imperfections, because if everything were perfect, nothing would be interesting. So once you realize that your sketch of Mario is messed up because his nose looks too much like Squidward from Infinity War, go back and try to fix it, because as long as you’re aware of what’s wrong you can make it better.
Secondly there’s the case of comparing your work to others. This ties into self-loathing a lot because you’d try to make your work a certain way, and look to others for how to do it. This is turn makes you realize that this person has a lot more talent than you because he’s been drawing for 10 years, and you give up saying that you’ll never be better than him. *sigh* Don’t ever fall into this trap. Yes, your first drawing with be horrendous. Yes your tenth drawing will look like the interior of a dumpster bin. But at least the improvement from the first will be noticeable. As long as you can see improvement in yourself, that’s all that matters. Here’s an example from my own life, I started a YouTube channel last year where I started posting music I made. Don’t go asking me for my channel name by the way, I’d rather stay anonymous. Anyways if you compare the first song I made to the latest one, yeah I think the difference is night and day. The first one was something I made back when I had no idea what a sub bass was, and the latter shows more of my trademark orchestral synth rock vibe I like.
Oh yeah that’s another thing I’d like to talk about, styles. Every single artist has their own way of drawing paintings, every musician his own way of composing, and there’s no way that’s objectively better. However it’s imperative to find your own way of making art, rather than trying to copy someone else. There’s an old saying… what was it… imitation is the best form of flattery? Yeah okay, and what if that form of imitation is lackluster and not at all comparable to the person you’re imitating is? I feel that people should develop their own style on their own, rather than being a second rate version of someone else. Not only that, but appreciate doing things differently than the norm. I mean the scripts I make for my videos just consist of me rambling on and on, hell the one for this is exactly the same way. If I turned this in as an actual assignment, I’d easily get an F, with a note on the side saying “Improper use of the English language, see me after class.” My point is that you should express yourself, not anyone else. And compare yourself to what you can do, you’ll be much better off as a result.
Lastly I want to talk about society itself. I originally put this in as a joke because I thought I’d get a good laugh out of it. I did by the way, thanks for asking. But the more I reflected about the state music is in, where pop and trap and hip hop have single-handedly dominated the music culture… yeah I definitely want to talk about this. How come all the artists who do these genres get all the praise and recognition for the minuscule amount of work they actually put into making songs, where I and many others spend hours upon hours just trying to find the right instrument to use as a countermelody? Is it jealousy? Am I just desperate to be heard? Well duh, it all has to do with having an audience.
It’s a natural fact of life that if you try to make something for others to enjoy and no one even bothers to check it out, then you’ll stop trying to do it. Trust me, it’s easier to stop now than try to please someone and fail even more. However no matter how better off other artists and musicians are, you need to learn to be happy with what you have.
Let me talk about my YouTube channel that I still refuse to show anyone here. I’ve created it a year ago, and have had plenty of content and, dare I say it, talent to show people. Of course I have at least 500 subscribers and actively have a following, right? Hahahahaha no of course not, what are you even thinking? Yeah as of now I haven’t even broken the 100 mark, and I don’t even get that many views on most of my videos, somewhere around the 50's and 60's for each one I make. That’s about normal for someone like me, in fact I’d imagine I’m one of the lucky ones, there’s a guy I’m friends with who started his around the same time as me and only has 25 subscribers. Yeah he got hit really hard.
Still I have every right to want more. I spend lots of time on every single video I make, every single song I release, so why can’t I get more attention for the amount of effort I put in? But instead of looking at it as what I could have, I try looking now as what I do have, which is a few people who really love the content I make. Even though in the 7 billion people on this planet, where I could easily be ignored among the masses, there are at least five people out there who really enjoy my videos, and are eagerly waiting for me to make something else, whether it be music, or art, or comedy. I’m given the freedom to do what I want, and they’d still accept me and love it. You see, even if society wants you to act a certain way, you don’t need to. If they want you to make rap music where you write up lyrics about knocking up girls or drug addictions, and steal a trap beat off of SoundBible, you don’t need to do it. Express yourself whatever way you want, as long as it’s not harmful to anyone, and you’ll get your fans.
So yeah, that’s basically my account of what I learned from making a horrible YouTube channel.