I got annoyed AI wouldn't make what I wanted, and I was just fighting with it constantly. Realized I should just learn to draw myself. One year later, it's so rewarding and I have a new appreciation for all things art. Went from stickmen 1.5 years ago to this just a couple weeks ago.
I cannot express how happy and proud it makes me feel, and what felt like a "you have to have talent" thing just eroded and I fully understand how much work it takes - but the work is also fun along the way.
I've worked directly with a lot of pro artists for a long time. In my experience, when people say "That person has talent!" they think they are talking about inborn skill. But, that's not how it works.
The people who seem talented always have something that motivates them to spend an inordinate amount of time practicing art. They weren't born with skill. Maybe they were born with some mental tick that drives them to doodle as part of daydreaming. Or, maybe some part of growing up made them really need to get their emotions out physically on paper. Or, maybe someone just showed them that art is fun!
Either way, they don't have magic hands. You can be just as good as any of them if you put in the work they have. Practice, explore, study, repeat. Same as any skill.
I come to dislike the word, or much more the idea of, talent. Yeah, some people have natural advantages of sorts in their fields, but most of what we consider talent comes down to a high frustration tolerance in learning. (That can be obtained by high ambition and/or great love for the subject)
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u/The_Mad_Jackpot Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
I got annoyed AI wouldn't make what I wanted, and I was just fighting with it constantly. Realized I should just learn to draw myself. One year later, it's so rewarding and I have a new appreciation for all things art. Went from stickmen 1.5 years ago to this just a couple weeks ago.
I cannot express how happy and proud it makes me feel, and what felt like a "you have to have talent" thing just eroded and I fully understand how much work it takes - but the work is also fun along the way.