Text: Thank you, but don't call me 'talented'. Image: Illustration of Gen the turtle (left), watching Amina the hedgehog (right) pouring tea from a teapot into a teacup.

Hi friends. No swimming friends today, though I thought I'd describe Amina and Gen together because this is going to be an art and word post. 🥰

Earlier I brainstorm, I want to make it very articulate that I have appreciated every unmarried compliment and praise that I take always received about my art. I am acutely aware that the support that I receive from everyone in this community has inspired and motivated me to continue my fine art, and has been integral to my growth and exposure as a small creative person.

No thing their content, I understand that compliments and praise come from a good place and mean no ill intent. Therefore, if you have e'er expressed your support for my work, liked my work, retweeted my piece of work, shared my work – cheers. Please, please know that I appreciate y'all, capeesh your back up, and am grateful.

On Praising 'Talent' and What 'Talent' Means

"You're so talented!"

"I wish I had your talent!"

Friends, let's talk about the word 'talented' and how we employ it to praise an creative person's work.

I know when people tell me that I am talented and that they wish they had my talent, I know that information technology comes from a proficient place. I know that this is praise, and that I should capeesh it. The matter is, I practise appreciate the skilful intent and I capeesh the back up – only I'm also, at the same fourth dimension, uncomfortable with existence called 'talented'. And whilst there may be some artists out there who don't mind being called talented, I also know that I'm non the only artist who feels this way.

Talent implies an inherent power or a natural analogousness for something. Information technology implies that a person is naturally better at something than others because their skill is significantly better than others. Information technology implies that this person is special considering they got lucky and can do something better than everyone else. 'Talent' seems to imply that in that location exists two types of people: those who are 'talented' or are 'not talented' – which is and so strange, because do nosotros still truly believe that homo power is so unproblematic, then rigid, and so predetermined?

What are you telling artists when y'all tell them that their talent is the reason why their piece of work is so awesome?

There are certainly people who are 'talented' – there are people who have a natural skill that exceeds ordinary expectation or ability; in that location are people who will pick up a pencil for the very first time and will just produce the most incredible art. Only these people are so incredibly rare.

Here is a pill that people find difficulty swallowing: a lot of artists out there are not 'talented' nor were they born with this innate ability to depict well. Rather, the artists that you call 'talented' are difficult-working and persistent individuals who have poured hours upon hours to improve their craft – and have succeeded in improving.

Peradventure you didn't mean it that fashion when you lot chosen an creative person 'talented'; you didn't hateful that they didn't work hard. And honestly? Most artists get that. Nosotros become that you're but trying to compliment us and that yous're just trying to be overnice. We get it.But, I implore yous to reflect on what you might as well be saying, intentionally or not, when yous phone call someone 'talented'. I implore you to try and understand why 'talented' tastes bitter from the artist'due south bespeak of view. I implore you to critically examine why y'all perceive art as something that is about talent, something innate and inherent and something that you are born with. I implore you to see fine art as something that is a skill, something that can be nurtured, something that can be improved over time.

Art is a Skill, Like Annihilation Else

So one day, you decided that you wanted to create amazing art too. Yous picked upwards a pencil, drew a few things, and perhaps afterward a few hours of trying, you decided that you were not cut out to be an artist because you did not like what you drew. You decided that yous had 'no talent'.

But what if you had kept trying?

Similar playing a musical instrument dancing, writing, and the power to slice vegetables super fast like all the chefs on Masterchef do, art is a skill. Drawing and fine art is something that, given a lot of hard work and time, you can improve over fourth dimension. Producing good art requires learning and having a practiced grasp of bones art skills before y'all cartoon something bedazzling; basic skills entail learning how to depict good lines, learning how to shade, draw good line-art, understanding perspective, human being anatomy, how lighting works – then, then, so many things. Likewise, you wouldn't wait someone who has never driven a car before to hop into a machine and pass a driver's examination on the start go – to become a competent commuter, driving (for those able to do so) requires practice.

Art, like any skill, requires practice; hours and hours, and days, and weeks, and months, and years of practice. Practicing is non fun either – information technology is riddled with failure and self-doubt and challenges that test your ability and brand y'all question yourself on whether you tin can always ameliorate. Sometimes exercise makes y'all feel like shit. It can feel scary because the prospect of failing can be paralysing.

There may be factors that limit your ability to improve – whether it be a disability or admission to resources to produce art, and any of these reasons are valid. Yet, everyone's journeying and experience with fine art volition be different. What tends to be the same, all the same, is thatimproving art can exist painfully and unbearably slow, and it is incredibly difficult to 'meet' growth as information technology happens. Growth is unlike for everyone and means different things to everyone. But do is admittedly and positively correlated with improvement over fourth dimension.

I thought about the number of hours per week that I spend drawing. As a hobby artist (which means that I don't exercise artist work total-time), I probably spent almost xx – 25 hours on drawing this week. (And, of class, the hours I devote to drawing vary week by calendar week as my responsibilities and commitments to other things in my life change.) And even though I devote such a significant amount of time to practicing (most of which I don't show people – and peradventure I demand to change that and exist more than transparent with my practice pieces?), my progress and improvement is still extremely slow. But when I expect back at the pieces that I did just one twelvemonth ago? I have improved, without a doubt.

Talent isn't the thing that has made me a meliorate creative person. Persistence, do, and hard-work have made me a ameliorate artist.

Here's a claiming for anyone here who doesn't agree that fine art is non nigh 'talent': To those who think they don't have 'talent' – if you really want to get good at art, devote 10 hours a week to improving your artistic skill. You may start only existence able to depict a stick effigy, you may commencement with an already decent grasp of how to describe. Either is valid, and information technology doesn't thing where you first. But if yous don't encounter anycomeback after a year of genuine endeavor, I'll concede that at that place is no hope for you and that you are hopelessly united nations-talented. (Spoiler: yous will improve, you will exist fine.)

You run into a finished piece; artists come across the procedure

I get it. When you look at a slice of completed art, yous recollect, "well holy shit, this slice is so good and this artist is so proficient, I cannot imagine e'er drawing this, they must be so talented to have accomplished this", and so your answer to their incredible ability to produce something so beautiful must be 'talent'.

Just the thing is, what you see is a completed piece. What you don't see is that a lot of artists have devoted a lot of time to and have worked hard to go to where they are today (and with still so much room for growth!); what you don't see are the many discarded drafts that volition never see the light of day; what you don't encounter are the many failed attempts and the projects on hold considering an artist's power doesn't quite lucifer their vision notwithstanding; what y'all don't run into are the hours spent trying to finish it, so that we're happy with information technology. What I am saying is: the fine art process is messy as heck, riddled with mistakes and continuous effort to produce something that is perfect and presentable. What we present and share with others is a curated procedure.

Are you starting to empathise how dismissive and reductive the compliment 'talented' can feel to an artist who has poured their energy and soul into improving their craft and take pushed past all the challenges and struggles to get better?

Art is messy. Art can be such a struggle and information technology can rip your emotions to shreds. Fine art, for me, is a lot of cocky-doubt merely forcing myself to keep trying because if I don't endeavor, I won't improve. Art is consistently trying to unlearn the talent myth and being terrified that my latest slice volition be my height, and that I will never meliorate. (I might write a post on this one 24-hour interval… mayhap.)

But await. Below are the first drawings I did after my seven-year hiatus from art, on May 2017. The mermaid on the right was something I drew to the best of my ability.

1

2

And below is 1 of my about recent fanart pieces that I did for Descendant of the Crane, on April 2019 – two years later. My 'best' now looks different.

Hesina in gold and red hanfu, surrounded by cranes taking flight.

(Exercise yous need more convincing? I highly recommend going through these incredible earlier and after pictures that show how artists have improved over the years.)

Cartoon makes me and so happy and it'due south something I am so passionate about. And because I love art and I want to grow every bit an artist, I have invested a lot of time into it, I have worked so extraordinarily hard to grow and get meliorate, and I have grown – a lot. Information technology wasn't talent that got me from May 2017 to Apr 2019. It was difficult work, time, endeavor, perseverance, my honey for art – things that are so much more complex than 'talent'.

And I'm still growing, and my best is going to look even ameliorate in 2021.

Some Compliments That You Can Use Instead!

So cheers for your good wishes, thank you for your compliments, and thank you for your back up. Merely please, don't telephone call me 'talented'.

But that doesn't mean that artists don't enjoy compliments. In fact, we practice! Artists dearest compliments! And if we're sharing our art for you to enjoy for free*, information technology's likely that we would beloved to hear your compliments and would appreciate it immensely.

(*And no, reposting art is nona compliment! Artists hate it when yous repost our stuff!  And for those of yous are not articulate on the subject, here is a swell post that covers what 'reposting' is, and here is a FAQ on why reposting is bad and actually harmful for artists.)

The next time y'all're scrolling through social media and you come across a bang-up slice of fine art, you tin can show your appreciation by using one of the following compliments instead of 'you're talented!':

  • You are such a great artist! [works every time!]
  • I really beloved your art! [this makes artists happy!]
  • Your art is then cool! [a keen compliment!]
  • Great job! [brusk, simple, and kind!]
  • You have put a lot of work into this piece and it has paid off! [validates our hard work!]
  • Congratulations! This is an achievement! [cue warm fuzzies!!]
  • You are awesome! [this is so nice!!]
  • This art could pace on me and I'd thank them for it. [fun, cluttered, we'll honey it!]

Friends, the terminal thing I desire you to practise is to call back back to all the possible times you might have told an creative person that they were talented and whether information technology upset them. IT'Southward FINE. The last thing an artist needs to hear is that you are lamentable for calling them talented. It'south bad-mannered. The artist probably doesn't recall anyway.

And if you lot desire to keep using 'talented'? That's your choice and I'm not here to cease you! But I hope this piece has given y'all my perspective, which is one of many, on why 'talented' tin experience a little uncomfortable.

Only — before you call the adjacent creative person or their next piece a work of 'talent', take a moment to think nearly what y'all might be proverb when you call an artist 'talented'. And and so, tell them that their art looks groovy. It'due south simpler and we'll honey it all the same.