I went to the event on Friday night with fantasy artist Eric Valhagen. He spoke to us about his process in creating images of fantasy worlds and about how this had an impact on his life. He asked if any of us were artists and being the self-conscious potato that I am, I did not raise my hand. He gave us several tips on how to be successful-- even if we were not artists. He said that "the more experience you acquire, build on it" because no matter how small of an experience you had, it was still learning and improvement.
He also offered a way to improve self-worth by posing the question "why doesn't it work" and try to fix that instead of simply saying "that's shit". To me, this would have been a great technique for Niggle to finish his work. If he had been able to change perspectives to finish his work, he would not have been so frustrated. Then again, it was his inability to finish it in life that led to him improving so much once he got to Niggle's Parish. As Velhagen said "If you won't stand by your artwork, then who else will?"
{Nienna}
1 comment:
Sometimes I wonder if anything would've worked for Niggle, or if his real purpose was to fail just as Tolkien felt, at times, that he failed. (Which, by the way, is so rude of him because if I ever wrote anything even 15% as good as Tolkien I'd just ride that self-satisfaction all the way to the grave).
I wish I could've gone to this event: illustrators fascinate me to no end. Really, it's more the creative types in general that make me want to pick their brains because it's so far outside of my real ability but also something I wish I could do. I wonder if based on Valhagen's advice, maybe I could stretch my creative wings a little bit and not beat myself up as much when I see the results.
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