Your Most Artistically Productive Self [Professional Mindset]

Hey guys, I'm Adam from Lucid Pixel and welcome back last week. I started a conversation about motivation, how to avoid distractions, how to find and discover

your

most

productive

self

as an artist. I turned my attention a little more towards gamers and In this talk I talked about how I learned to not only navigate what could be one of the worst distractions out there, but also to discuss and answer questions about how we can use games to make us more

productive

, get inspired and get started. our creativity rather than hindering it, so if you're in this particular demographic, I really recommend checking it out because now there are answers to what was said in today's talk.

I want to broaden the scope and talk to us artists in general, now of course, We are all different, we all have our different passions, we all have our different hobbies, we all have our different tendencies, but even though we all have different rhythms , different attention spans, different hobbies, we're all fundamentally the same, aren't we? striving for greatness without any external factors or people pushing us towards it, in

most

cases we tend to be very independent, in fact I feel that artists themselves are a bit of a lonely breed in a sense where We need our time to be alone. productive we tend to scrutinize what we do very deeply we tend to be very hard on ourselves we tend to be our own worst critics when it comes to our work even though there is no one out there who could be doing that to us we tend to do it to ourselves, which is quite interesting if you think about it and when I start to describe these things to you, the first obstacle towards our motivation might become evident and that is the fact that we put a lot of emotional weight on what we produce, we tend to be very emotionally heavy with ourselves, the very act of producing is something we take very seriously and in that process I find and have discovered in my past that we tend to put a lot of pressure and consume a lot of energy just to get to the goal of starting with a work of art and there is our first problem and there is what I feel that on many occasions has prevented me from taking those first steps and I am sure that it also prevents you from taking

your

s.

It's because the very prospect of just picking up that pen, picking up that brush, that pencil, and making those first few strokes is setting you up for, in many ways, an uphill battle, isn't it? I can't emphasize enough how much you need to realize. Be emotionally and mentally aware of the fact that your thoughts are what often hold you back. A very athletic attitude about productivity is that famous Nike quote, just do it, there's a lot of truth in that and there's a reason why. which that quote resonates far beyond running or CrossFit training. That quote encourages you to encourage the athlete, encourage the

professional

to take action before their thoughts dissuade them from doing so and we tend to do this with our own thoughts as artists, in fact, our thoughts because our thoughts are. at the forefront of what we create we are creators we use our minds for much more than simply processing data we use our minds to create material things from nothing which requires abundant attention and concentration your brain does not take for granted your brain consumes a large amount of calories.

I was just casually seeing that I was in the hospital last week, don't worry I'm fine, I just hurt my back, but I was in the hospital and I had downloaded some documentaries to watch while I was waiting in the ER and one of them It's about the origin of humans and one of the things that speaks to one of these important points in the evolution of the human being of the human species was when we learned to cook our food by learning. Cooking our food triggered enormous evolution and very rapid growth in the human species and the reason for this is that cooking food greatly increases the calories in those foods and by increasing the calories it fueled our brains, it was by cooking our foods that Our brain had the calories to be able to grow faster than other species and that is the crossroads of why humanity ended up growing intellectually much faster than any other species on this planet.

Those calories fueled our brains. Our brains consume a ton of these. calories, if you spend all that time worrying, thinking about doing something, considering whether you're doing the right move or not, trying to over-strategize about whether you should do this or whether you should do that, you're essentially running a marathon every time. It's the time when you think about art when the marathon should be the active act of painting it

self

, so we need to learn something from Nike, from any institution, from any body of thought that encourages you to invest that energy in action , the physical activity of creating art is now that.

It means being physical and abandoning the emotional at all, not because as artists we need to use all these skills: our emotional self, our physical self, our academic self, our intellectual self, we have to use all these different facets of who we are to produce art. One of the only professions on this planet that requires a combination of all of these things in balance, but by allowing the emotional and intellectual to consume too much of you before applying the physical act of painting, you are burning yourself out before you even begin. the race, so before you think and reflect too much beyond what you want to paint, grab your pen, grab your brush and start producing, and it is in the act of creating marks on your page where you must begin to allow your mind creative, your emotional mind, your intellectual mind, to begin to manipulate the direction in which you go with that art and you will discover that the wave that you ride through your art, especially in those first crucial moments of artistic production, will be much more gentle.

A lot more inertia to move forward with your artwork and that is very often one of the main keys for you to move forward with your artwork. Krisily and I have quoted it in the past before he quoted it in one of his Facebook posts if you buy. a fitness magazine and read an entire fitness magazine every day for a whole year, but you never go to the gym, will you get in better shape? Of course, the answer is no when it comes to physical fitness. It's obvious, but it's not so obvious when it comes to fitness.

It's about art because we are also struggling with our intellectual and emotional selves, so we tend to have a hard time knowing where to invest our time and energy, where we should be, how we should divide our energies and my very strong opinion. and my solution that I propose to you today is to start with the physical, have something physically sitting in front of you and from there you can begin to manipulate it, refine it and apply perfectionism to it later, so that is my first big piece of advice for you, don't think too much. , get up, grab a pen, which is your only job, and open a Photoshop document, set up your canvas, whatever it takes and start drawing, start painting, your brain will light up in the process and because your visual, you will start You'll look at what you're creating and you'll start manipulating it into what you want it to be without burning up all that energy, just trying to figure out whether or not you should pick it up in the first place now.

The next big obstacle between us and our most productive and fulfilled selves is one that can sometimes seem a little obvious and you may feel a little stupid for not accepting this, but it's the whole technical side of things, it's the whole point. I know what I want but I have no idea how to feel it, but remember that you are not just someone processing data, it is easy to get lost in the maelstrom of what to do, how to do it when there are so many facets of yourself that you need to master the emotional, the physical, the technical, the technical is very important, but again, we don't necessarily have anyone sitting next to us holding us while we do it, we have to follow each step on our own, we have to do everything we can. of progress on our own and it's very easy for us as artists to take for granted that it's a great journey ahead of us.

One way I could describe it is imagine you want to climb Mount Everest, you want to climb the highest mountain in the world. the world and that's art, it's the tallest mountain in the world and you're standing in the parking lot at the base of the mountain and you look up at the top of the mountain and you think you're yourself, no It doesn't seem that far away, I mean , it's a pretty big mountain, but it seems manageable, it doesn't seem like much of an ordeal, so you pack your bags, you get your tent, you get your food, your compass, whatever mountain climbers need to get there. to the top of the mountain and you begin your hike and the hours go by and the days go by and the weeks go by and the months go by and you are still climbing and climbing and climbing exhaustion hunger hypothermia frostbite death heartbreak all these things you find all on your way up of the mountain is relentless, it's relentless and it just keeps going and after all that, after years of that, you take off your glasses and you look up and you realize you haven't even left the damn parking lot and that's how you can feel.

Sometimes you can feel like you have spent everything you have, you have invested years and years of your time, energy, thoughts and emotions, you have been through ups and downs, you feel completely exhausted and you realize that you just made it. It started and it's usually at times like this you put down your pen and you sit down and you put your hands on your face and depending on who you are, you let out a big sigh, you get up, you leave the room and you make yourself a cup of coffee you get frustrated. and you throw you flip your table you throw your book across the room I have seen it all as a teacher and as an artist I have seen it and done most of Those same I have been incredibly frustrated on this journey to growth and I should because this matters to me, it matters to me a lot, this is the love of my life, my whole heart is wrapped in my heart and I put everything I can into it.

I have this thing, so when I feel vulnerable and when I feel weak and I feel tired because I've been walking forever, I realize that I've only just begun my journey, that thought can be completely and utterly overwhelming and one of the things that can discourage you one of the things that can discourage you or make you question whether this is the career you should pursue or not and sometimes it is not something else to consider, but 99.9% of the time it is allowed I share with you a small insight from someone who is not at the beginning of his career and has seen his share of successes and failures.

What I have learned

professional

ly is that success is not at the top of that mountain. Success is at the foot of the mountain. That's right where you are now after so many decades of my career. I am looking at everything I have experienced, this endless story that is my artistic career behind me and that endless story that will be made before me. at a point in my career right now where I feel like I'm getting confirmation that I'm on the right path, that I'm doing the right thing, that I've been successful to a point, not as far as I'd like. to get there I am very, very far from that, but I realize that, looking towards the top of my career, there is still no end in sight, but I have a lot of satisfaction, happiness is not at the top of that mountain, Happiness is at the base of that mountain.

Mountain bliss is when you realize that what you do has meaning, it has purpose, that it does more than just feed your ego, it fuels your life. My goal as an artist is not to be the most famous artist on this planet. I drink a lot more. It is a much greater pleasure to celebrate the successes of others than my own, my students, my peers, my artists when I clearly see Chris, Lee or Clint, or NOAA Bradley, Tyler Edlin, Anthony Jones or any of these artists, when I see which they do extremely well. I am proud as a member of this community and I am not trying to present myself as a saint.

What I'm saying is that if my only focus is my own glory, it's a very, very limited scope, it's a very, very narrow vision, but for me the biggest. happiness, the greatest feeling of satisfaction I've had in my career and I've tried it from all different angles. I'm not saying this just because I'm saying, you know, be a martyr, be a saint, be pure, no, I am. I say this because I have tried other places and they were very superficial pleasures when I can sit here. The success that I feel in my career right now is due to the fact that when I promote someone, when I help someone, that makes a difference for that person. every one of my students that I teach is a six is ​​a success story for me every artist I collaborate with is a success story for me because my life has meaning beyond just making me look good if you're standing at the end of that parking lot if you're in the parking lot at the bottom of this huge mountain and you're looking up at the top of the Mountain trying to spot all the big shots, all the elite, all the stars in the best of the best and you can't see them because you think they are too muchaway from you to see them because you think they are out of your sight you are looking in the wrong place those elites those stars those big shots are in the parking lot with you right next to them so you can see their technical weakness, their lack of technical ability , but understand that in the big picture of this art world and this art community, and let's face it, the history of humanity in and of itself we are newborns, I am as newborn as you and even if I have been doing this for twenty years or even thirty years and you've only been doing it for two or maybe you've been doing it for six months don't think for a second that I'm better than you don't think for a second that that Frank Frazetta is someone you will never be because in the big picture of things, in the big picture of art, this great community that we live in, in this species that we are a part of, we are all babies and anyone who thinks they are better or worse than anyone else because they have a couple more decades of experience, they are very shortsighted, you are not, and the difference between where you are now and that incredibly impressive place you will find yourself one day is a very short trip, believe me, it is the difference between being 18 and 44, which I will turn this November, it is a blink of an eye, it is a snap of a finger and you are there, life is very fleeting, as that expression says, and you will find yourself sitting right here, at this age, without feeling like a wise old man who has discovered the meaning of life and the magic recipe, you will realize that you are as much a child at 43 years old as you are when you are 15 years old in my heart. my body I'm still young I'm still naive I'm still as insecure as I am unsure of myself when it comes to who I am as an individual but I've learned to accept that I've learned to accept that and I've learned to embrace myself and all the good and the bad .

I'm not trying to change myself or present myself as cooler, smarter, sexier, or more talented than anyone else. I simply am, I simply am. your friend, I'm just another guy, but my value comes from my ability to share and my value comes from my ability to help others grow and like me is the secret to killing two birds with one stone, kill the demotivation of both. side of things but it also fuels your technical growth because when you separate yourself from society when you think to yourself I'm like this and the industry is like this the general population is like this and I'm different I don't fit in I'm too introverted I'm too weird I'm too ugly I'm too stupid any excuse you've ever thought you have that separates you from the rest of society is in that separation in the way you are separating yourself your alienation from the world around you that you are denying yourself the greatest source of technical growth and it is share with other people be part of a community, a good community, not a community of trolls, but a good-hearted and well-intentioned community that is there to share their feedback and I spent many years of my life trying to succeed on my own trying to acquire that skill on my own and my growth my efficiency my speed was about one twentieth of what it is now I learned the value the importance of surrounding myself with passionate, talented, well-intentioned people.

I only associate with kind people. I only associate with people who are available to others in my community. Lucid Pixel. My community built around my mentorship. I have observed over the years how with little or nothing. own contribution: Starting it, I watched a community of some of the most talented, kind, and helpful people out there build this empire of help and community in camaraderie right under my nose. I didn't do anything to make that a success. What they did was a collaboration it was where like-minded, kind-hearted, well-intentioned people gathered in the same room and simply watched the magic unfold.

I don't have to handle it. I do not have to. Don't have. to regulate it I just sit back, I've never done anything, I've never had to ban anyone, I've never had to kick anyone out, I've never had to, you know, nag, you know, intervene in a conversation and mediate it, I just let it go. being themselves and the growth they get from that is a beautiful thing to see, no one scrutinizes or judges anyone else for being more of a beginner, everyone adores, loves, admires and idolizes all the most skilled artists, but no one is resentful.

No one walks away from that community feeling like losers, they walk away feeling part of it now. I am a person very sensitive to sects. You know, I've seen enough David Koresh documentaries to be very against that kind of thing. so I could very easily be painting a picture of you know our world is better than yours kind of nonsense no it's just one of the many great communities that exist and I love being a part of that and that's where they are it's where I find it disgusting just to be a passive observer of it, but find a place find people a community a school that number one doesn't exploit you financially number two doesn't belittle you socially or alienate you and most importantly helps you fuel your self-confidence and helps fuel you with technical skills, whether academically, emotionally or personally, just healthy people with healthy minds who are there to see you grow and delight in your successes instead of trying to tear you down.

The last topic today regarding motivation, the last thing. I want to talk about what today relates a little bit to my social media video and if you haven't seen it, it's one that gained a lot of traction, one that is very present with a lot of people and that's how social media can just can ruin your art. I am a father of three children who grew up in the world of social media. I am someone who lived many, many years, many decades before the birth, growth and explosion of social media, one of the things I want you to be aware of that you don't necessarily have to change, but just be aware of how social media can affect your pace, how social media can influence how you respond to everyday things.

Now I'm not going to keep repeating everything. I said in my last talk, you can see for yourself, but I want you to be aware of how that affects you emotionally. I will give you an example. My little boy, who I mentioned in last week's talk, loves video games and I talked about how it has helped me to witness many of my son's skills with music, game design, hand-eye coordination with Memory, all these things, there are many wonderful things that are coming out of him or at least things that I am witnessing his qualities that I am witnessing as a result of his passion for video games, but there is a flip side to this.

Remember I mentioned last week that I'm a dad, so his health is also something I'm aware of and one you should be aware of yourself, of course, and I realized that if I let him play for more than, say, a couple of hours, his energy level, his adrenaline was very agitated and I always find that afterwards. When he plays, it takes about 30 to 45 minutes for his brain to relax back into a normal rhythm and I found that, particularly because of his age and because of his personality, he is very attracted to video games. a parent regulates and controls how much he plays, be aware of it and in the moments where he has gotten carried away or when I have gotten carried away with my work, I have been sitting here drawing for a couple of hours and not No I realize he's been sitting in front of his Nintendo for three or four hours or something and I have to physically calm him down.

I have to take it to where, usually what I do is I take it to the room and I close. I close the doors and I close the curtains and I lay him down on a pillow and I talk to him very calmly and I rub his head and at first he might be crying I want to play video games I want to play video games I want to play video games I want to play video games and he's all wired wired wired wired wired wiring wiring and the same thing and it could apply to watching Netflix, it can apply to you know, just watching YouTube videos of video games being played, you can get distracted. either way you are programming your brain to stay in a state of constant and relentless hyperstimulation and I see the same thing with adults also my age you can't do anything without having your cell phone with you you can and it's the same for everyone and it's like that episode from Star Trek, well since everyone else is doing it I guess it's okay and what I'm here to tell you is that it really isn't and to see a five year old who is so wired that it takes him missing half an hour to get off is annoying and as a parent has made me have to be very strict with his screen time to make sure he stays away from it now.

How does this relate to you? Because? Am I speaking to you, the most likely adult or future adult artist, the professional or the soon-to-be professional or the one studying to be a professional? How does this apply to you? Well, my oldest daughter, Emily, spent many years of her life without cell phones, she spent many years of her life boring, she was not a great player so she had to look for things to do, she learned to play the guitar and the ukulele, she learned to sing, she drew lists of things. constantly like I remember, you know, a mural with about 600 different types of tea when she was going through her tea phase or cat breeds because she is completely obsessed with cats, she has grown to be one of the most creative and productive I have ever met many more people than me, but I realized that the most important ingredient in their creative growth was the most important skill and the most important hobby that we humans, particularly creative humans, must take advantage of and that is boredom.

Boredom is a very powerful power. strength is a very necessary important strength, you have to be forced into a state of boredom from time to time, not always because too much can be quite depressing and really harmful, that's why solitary confinement you know if you've ever watched Vsauce. I know that anything beyond 72 hours of solitary confinement can cause permanent brain damage, so that extreme is definitely not a healthy extreme, but a little healthy boredom every now and then forces your mind to turn on and when you're constantly sitting in front of a screen your iPhone video games YouTube Netflix anything you can get your hands on and when it is so immediately accessible what you are doing is constantly programming your brain to be in a state of stimulation and when it is stimulated it doesn't feel the need to go to search for anything, you are basically feeding your brain constantly and when you feed constantly you are never hungry, so what you have to do is starve your brain from time to time and I warned you that it will be boring. bored you are going to look around you you are going to take a look at your walls I am going to look at the cables under your desk you are going to take a look at your curtains you are going to look at the gloomy exterior with something old and very ugly "An unpleasant looking person walks with a very ugly, disgusting coat and it's an ugly, scrawny little dog and you're going to suck and after about 5 or 10 minutes you'll realize that your brain is already starting to turn on you." You are going to realize that social media and these distractions do not have that much influence on you in the long term and it is very easy to turn them off and turn on your creative mind and when you turn on your creative mind your mind begins to visualize. you start to access the part of your brain where art thrives, that's one of the reasons why Emily is such a brilliant artist, why she is so incredibly productive, because she learned the art of being bored and she learned what to do with it, Lucas, no.

So much so for him, when you push him away, he passes, he has a little meltdown and I leave him, I sit, I sit with him through the meltdown and let him get over it, and I guarantee you that after he's done crying eventually. You realize that the video games aren't coming and your energy starts to drop and your shoulders slump and your tears dry up and it's the wavelength that your brain speed starts to level out and you start to take comfort in the silence and it's in that point at which the brain becomes more lucid at which your concentration and those distractions begin to disappear on their own naturally.

One of the best things you can do as an artist when it comes to productivity is to simply slow down your brain, just close your eyes if you're sitting at your desk and thinking: What am I going to draw today? What am I going to draw today? I have a drawing kit. I would use it and I'm sitting here all damn week. Ah, so, uh. Don't do something you haven't produced. in two weeks just stop closing your eyes put down the pen take off your drawing glove drop your shoulders just let your mind slow down and I guarantee it after a couple of minutes or five minutes or ten when you calm your brain and no No you find that you are not looking for that for that stimulation you are not looking for that phone that YouTube video that cigarette that anything to distract yourself you begin to find solace in nothingness and your thoughts begin to flood you in a much more non-stressful and non-urgent way, boredom, Ladies and gentlemen, it is an emotion we must master because artists, unlike any other profession on this planet, thrive on boredom.and that's another reason why social media can damage that creative ability because it prevents you from being bored 24/7, okay, so once again, thank you for putting up with it for so long, you guys.

They really are amazing and I can't express enough how much I reflect that love and appreciation for being here. producing these videos for you because you're so awesome that you deserve some of that awesomeness back, so with that being said, happy painting and take care of yourself.