Okay so this is my first blog ever, but someone sent me an email a few weeks ago and asked me "How can I be a better artist?". So today I'm going to answer that briefly with some tips that helped me as I started my photography journey. Photography is an art and it can apply to all the creative thing you do.
Know why you do what you do. When you figure out that you have a passion in something, you do it because you love doing it. To the point of being fine doing it for free. I don't advise you do things for free all the time, but you get what i'm saying here though. It sets you on fire and nobody can stop you from doing what you love doing. I use this type of art to communicate messages to the audience and to ultimately express my vision through the lens. I tend to communicate deep and inspirational things in my work. So if you know what you love doing and it happens to fall under the creative side or not, find your purpose and that will be the thing that motivates you to keep going no matter what comes your direction.
Strive to make this passion your job. A wise man once said, " Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life". Being an artist means nothing if you don't have an end goal in mind. In my case, I love photography. It ran in my family and I always been behind the camera since I was a kid. My grandfather who recently passed away, Ran a very successful photography and video business entirely off word of mouth before internet marketing and all that good stuff was popular. Although I never found out his purpose in why he did it, Just me seeing his passion and joy in doing what he did lit me up inside and as I made my way through life I started to find my passion in life and wait hold on... it was being a photographer. I started doing it for fun until I got comfortable in my ability. I then recently went on and created my own photography business and i'm glad I started it.
Be inspired by others. Alight so there's just something that happens when I see other art work from an artist that shares similar passions as i do. Being exposed to other creative work can expand your mind and help you develop and learn new ways to help you improve on what you do. This is another reason why artists go to art galleries in local towns etc. to be inspired by other artists. We have the internet as well so you can learn tutorials and all that good stuff too. Unfortunately we could get caught up in comparing ourselves to others and that will only lead to losing joy in what we do at times. But when you get to the point where you don't compare yourself to others and realize that no one does what you do the way you do it. I know that there's no one out there who does photography with my moral beliefs, my work ethic, and my same thought process. All i'm saying is, we are all different and we all express ourselves differently and for many different reasons. That's why I think exposing yourself to other people's art is so beneficial if done moderately. Learn from the best in your field and strive to improve daily.
- From yours truly, Brian The Shooter