Start Before You’re Ready
Hey PAST-me 👋
So, this is the first official letter I’m sending to you.
The alternate universe, 16-year-old wannabe artist me in 2023.
In my universe, it took 18-ish years to go from Generic Art Student to Action Animation Art Director.
My goal with these letters is to cut that time in half and prep you for the game of feeding yourself through creative work.
But it's the first letter. It's not gonna perfect. It's gonna be late. I'm gonna make mistakes. But I'm gonna try anyways. Eventually I'll get it right.
Sound good? Let’s get started.
So here’s the big idea we’re talking about today:
🏃 Start, then learn.
Guess what the one mistake beginning artists often make when developing their art skills is?
Learning, then starting.
Don’t get stuck in endless loop of—
YouTube Tutorials
Instagram Reels
Art Books
Courses
Etc.
—before getting started.
Because you don't feel like you're ready.
Try anyway.
Put pen to paper.
Draw the thing you’ve been wanting to draw.
Set a timer for 5 minutes.
Go.
What’s it look like?
Not quite what you pictured?
Good.
Do you know why?
Does it feel off?
It isn’t finished?
Not sure?
Cool, now you can learn.
📚️ Delaying the learning a little bit can benefit you in two ways:
⏰ Save Time
You’ll learn faster from actually doing the work first to establish a baseline of your skill. Like mashing buttons and then learning combos later
Save countless hours from feeds, thinking that learning through osmosis and not practice will help you progress. Don’t get stuck in tutorial mode, get out there and throw some fireballs
💸 Save Money
Save thousands of dollars by buying knowledge/tools/materials only until you’ve exhausted the high quality free resources available. Don’t waste your coins on power-ups you can get for free.
I borrowed over $60k in student loans for art school, but everything I learned that I use for my work now, I could have learned from YouTube, dedicated practice, and a community to help discover and overcome mistakes quickly.
🏋️ Training Mode:
So here’s the game:
Come up with an idea
Create the artwork
Under certain specifications
At a certain time
Get points! (or $$$)
It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s pretty much it. The great part is, it’s a fun game and often feels like a puzzle.
So let’s practice.
Depending on how much time you have available to you, try one or the other, or both:
Short version: 2 hours
Decide what you wanna make
I want to design a character
Find references
Create a moodboard of styles/details to emulate
Make the thing
Draw the character
Review the thing
Ask yourself
Is it what I pictured in my head?
How close?
How far?
Research + Feedback
Distill what you’ve learned
Quickly write down your mistakes and the solutions to those mistakes
Can you explain it in simple terms?
Try again!
Knowing what you know now, repeat the process and see how well you do this time.
Repeat until you get desired result
Earn enough XP to level up!
Long version: 1 week
Krang Android Body Concept Paint from TMNT2012
Step 1: Get a notebook
Why? To remind your future-self of great ideas.
As an artist, writing can be your greatest tool to clarify the things that you want to make and create a plans to bring them to life.
Digital or physical, doesn’t matter. You can change it up later. The key is to keep track of your best thinking, so future-you can refer to it when they need it.
Never let good ideas go to waste.
Step 2: Personal research
By knowing what makes you tick, you’ll naturally create things that are meaningful to you.
Ask yourself these questions to get to the bottom of what you want to create.
What sorts of things would I love to make someday?
Who/what inspires me?
What’s my greatest fantasy/wish?
What’s my greatest fear?
Keep these in your notebook to refer to later.
Ask them again after sometime and see if they’re different this time.
Let them guide the characters, stories, places, things, experiences you want to create.
Step 3: Create a project
As an Animation Designer working on cartoons like Rise of the TMNT, you’ll be tasked in creating specific artwork that helps tell the story and provides information on how to build every visual element of the show.
Knowing that, create a short project for the week to practice one of your skills.
Example:
Design a character
Paint a background
So real quick, set some guidelines for the project, here’s an example:
Objectives
Design a heroic space wizard
Feels like Lord of the Rings meets Power Rangers
Key Results
Design front and back 3/4 views
Design front, back, and profile views
Completed in 1 week
Tasks
Create a moodboard
Sketch ideas
Decide on a design
Rough drawings of all views
Clean up linework
Label and note artwork
Step 4: Execute
It’s go time. Make the thing.
Review your project guidelines
Setup a space to work
Gather your tools/materials
Select a task
Put on some tunes.
Set a timer.
Go.
Repeat until finished.
Step 5: Review
After you’re done, give yourself some time to look it over.
How does it feel to you?
What’s awesome?
What’s boring?
What’s confusing?
How does it compare to the work that inspires you?
Step 6: Research
Now we learn.
Based on your own feedback, search for content to help you, here’s some ideas:
Free:
Search YouTube for tutorials/documentaries/classes/timelapses/behind the scenes
Go to your local library and find instructional material or artbooks of films/games/tv
Make master copies of work that inspires you and deconstruct their basic elements
Ask artists for feedback on socials
Learn from other students getting feedback on socials
Join an artist community and crowdsource feedback
Money:
Buy a course
Buy a book
Buy a tutorial
Buy an artist coffee/lunch for their feedback
Buy a portfolio review/consultation
Then distill what you’ve learned in simple terms.
Mistake: Shaky linework
Solution: Bold, confident strokes
Step 7: Try again
Now you’ve spent a little bit of time doing research and finding feedback.
Depending on how much time you have left, you can do revisions on your last project or start over with a new version.
So go for it and see what you come up with.
Step 8: Repeat. Forever.
Now you’ve practiced a process that will serve you for the rest of your life.
It's not just gonna be about Animation Design, characters, or props, or pretty backgrounds, but anything creative. A process can take you there. Practice will perfect it.
Over time you’ll see what to add or subtract to your process to get the results you want.
What’s important is that you create more than you consume.
Don’t get stuck in the learning loop.
Learn by doing.
TL;DR:
Start, then learn.
Whatever it is you want to do:
Start right away.
Get messy.
Fail.
Reflect.
Learn.
Try again.
Get it right.
Share it.
Do it all over again.
See ya next week,
