Art and Fear

   I've been enjoying reading this book. I'm getting more out of it than I would've thought.
     It's interesting that the book talks about how artists think of their art as part of themselves, not as something they make. That's very true for me, and I'm not sure I would've realized it if I hadn't read it in the book. Thinking about art as part of yourself makes you think of your bad drawings (or bad films) (or bad stories) as not just something bad that you made, but a bad part of you. The book seems to want artists to separate their feelings about their art from their feelings about themselves, but I think the artists are right. Art that you make comes from your brain and your fine motor muscles, so it seems to me that if your art is bad, you are a bad artist. Or you were just being lazy that day. Of course, you can improve your skills, and your brain is still learning, so I don't see much what the problem is. Just because you're a bad artist today doesn't mean you can't be a better artist three months down the road.

     Another thing the book mentioned was looking at your previous work and learning from it. We always hear this from art instructors (atleast I do), but the book added something else to that: it said base you expectations of what you can make in the future on what you have already made. Now that almost makes me mad. I don't want to base my future plans on my crummy pictures I make now. I know my present pictures aren't totally crummy, but I want to dream of being a much better artist who makes awesome pictures, of being an animator who knows how to draw gesture so well that viewers can always understand the motion I'm trying to portray. But as the book points out, dreaming like that, based on pure fantasy, can bring a crushing blow when those dreams never come true. And anyways, how are you supposed to gain that level of skill if you're dreaming from pure fantasy? Instead, if you look at your present pictures (or present films)(or present story writing), and try to imagine (and actually make) a progression from them, based on the skill level (or lack of skills) you see in them, to what you hope to accomplish in the future, don't you think you'll learn more? Make more progress, and faster?
     Yes, this post is probably really long and boring. If you've read this far, thanks. The book is much more interesting; read it.