Find Your Thing & Run With It

Every artist has their “thing” so we call it. Some are 3D, some draw, some paint, others are good at graphic design and computers. Don’t feel that you need to be good at it all, especially in college. Most likely you already know what your niche is. That thing that you really enjoy and always love to do – that’s what you should go for. I made the mistake of trying to reach out in college and do things I hadn’t tried before. In some ways it was good for me. While I had worked with other mediums I knew my thing was painting and drawing, but I decided to take classes like Woodshop, metals and ceramics. While I was good at them, and thought they were fun, they did not help my college or future career much. They taught me new things that I would not have known otherwise, but my time would have been more successful spent improving my technical skills with what I was already good at. My advice is find what you are good at, and stick with it. While it can be fun to find new things, it is a lot of money to spend on a class that you may not even be good at or enjoy. I just got lucky and actually liked my classes that I knew nothing about. College is not a time to experiment your artwork, but to improve and perfect what you already know. If you really want to experiment with new mediums try taking a class in the community, or find someone who knows the material and get them to teach you. It will save you money, and the teaching may become more hands on as it will be a smaller class. Along with that there will likely be other beginners in a community class instead of students who know what is going on in a college course. My most important advice while in college is find your thing, and run with it. Don’t experiment outside of it unless it’s free or a professor recommends it. Take your time in school to perfect your technique and find what can make your art stand out from the rest. Work towards deciding on a career and what you would enjoy for forever instead of just right now.