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.

Hello friends. No pond friends today, though I idea I'd depict Amina and Gen together because this is going to exist an art and word post. 🥰

Before I brainstorm, I desire to make it very articulate that I have appreciated every single compliment and praise that I accept e'er received well-nigh my fine 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 pocket-size creative person.

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

On Praising 'Talent' and What 'Talent' Means

"You're so talented!"

"I wish I had your talent!"

Friends, let'due south talk about the give-and-take 'talented' and how we utilize 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 it comes from a proficient place. I know that this is praise, and that I should capeesh information technology. The matter is, I practise capeesh the good intent and I capeesh the support – only I'm besides, at the same time, uncomfortable with being called 'talented'. And whilst in that location may exist some artists out there who don't mind beingness called talented, I besides know that I'm not the merely artist who feels this way.

Talent implies an inherent ability or a natural affinity for something. It implies that a person is naturally better at something than others because their skill is significantly better than others. It implies that this person is special considering they got lucky and tin practice something amend than everyone else. 'Talent' seems to imply that there exists ii types of people: those who are 'talented' or are 'not talented' – which is so foreign, because do we still truly believe that human power is so simple, then rigid, so predetermined?

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

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

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

Peradventure you didn't mean it that way when you lot called an creative person 'talented'; you didn't hateful that they didn't work difficult. And honestly? Most artists get that. We get that you're but trying to compliment united states of america and that you're just trying to be nice. We get it.But, I implore y'all to reflect on what you might also exist proverb, intentionally or non, when you phone call someone 'talented'. I implore you to endeavor and understand why 'talented' tastes biting from the artist'due south point 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 built-in with. I implore you to meet art every bit something that is a skill, something that tin be nurtured, something that tin can be improved over time.

Fine art is a Skill, Similar 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 possibly afterwards a few hours of trying, you lot decided that you were not cut out to exist an artist because you did not like what you lot drew. Y'all decided that you had 'no talent'.

But what if you had kept trying?

Like playing a musical instrument dancing, writing, and the ability to slice vegetables super fast like all the chefs on Masterchef do, art is a skill. Drawing and 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 good grasp of bones art skills before you cartoon something bedazzling; bones skills entail learning how to depict good lines, learning how to shade, draw good line-fine art, understanding perspective, human beefcake, how lighting works – so, and then, and then many things. Likewise, you wouldn't expect someone who has never driven a car before to hop into a car and pass a commuter'due south test on the get-go go – to become a competent driver, driving (for those able to exercise and then) requires practice.

Art, like any skill, requires practice; hours and hours, and days, and weeks, and months, and years of do. Practicing is not fun either – it is riddled with failure and self-doubt and challenges that exam your ability and brand yous question yourself on whether y'all can e'er improve. Sometimes practice makes you feel similar shit. It can feel scary because the prospect of failing can exist paralysing.

In that location may be factors that limit your ability to improve – whether it be a inability or admission to resources to produce art, and any of these reasons are valid. Nonetheless, everyone'southward journey and experience with art will exist dissimilar. What tends to exist the aforementioned, all the same, is thatimproving fine art can be painfully and unbearably slow, and it is incredibly difficult to 'meet' growth as it happens. Growth is different for anybody and means dissimilar things to everyone. But practice is absolutely and positively correlated with improvement over fourth dimension.

I thought about the number of hours per week that I spend drawing. As a hobby creative person (which means that I don't do artist piece of work full-time), I probably spent nigh 20 – 25 hours on drawing this week. (And, of class, the hours I devote to drawing vary week past calendar week equally my responsibilities and commitments to other things in my life change.) And even though I devote such a significant amount of fourth dimension to practicing (most of which I don't prove people – and perhaps I demand to change that and exist more transparent with my practice pieces?), my progress and improvement is still extremely slow. But when I look back at the pieces that I did merely ane year ago? I have improved, without a doubt.

Talent isn't the thing that has made me a meliorate artist. Persistence, practice, and difficult-work have fabricated me a improve artist.

Hither'southward a challenge for anyone hither who doesn't agree that fine art is not nearly 'talent': To those who retrieve they don't have 'talent' – if you actually want to become good at art, devote 10 hours a week to improving your artistic skill. You may start merely beingness able to draw a stick figure, you may get-go with an already decent grasp of how to describe. Either is valid, and it doesn't matter where you showtime. But if yous don't see whatsoeverimprovement afterward a yr of 18-carat effort, I'll concede that at that place is no hope for you and that you lot are hopelessly un-talented. (Spoiler: you volition improve, you will be fine.)

You lot see a finished piece; artists see the process

I become it. When yous expect at a piece of completed art, yous think, "well holy shit, this piece is so good and this artist is so expert, I cannot imagine ever drawing this, they must be so talented to have achieved this", and so your respond to their incredible power to produce something and then beautiful must be 'talent'.

Only the affair is, what you encounter is a completed piece. What you don't see is that a lot of artists have devoted a lot of fourth dimension to and take worked hard to get to where they are today (and with all the same then much room for growth!); what you don't come across are the many discarded drafts that volition never come across the light of day; what y'all don't run into are the many failed attempts and the projects on hold because an artist's ability doesn't quite match their vision yet; what you lot don't see are the hours spent trying to finish it, so that we're happy with it. What I am saying is: the 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 process.

Are you starting to empathize how dismissive and reductive the compliment 'talented' tin feel to an creative person who has poured their energy and soul into improving their craft and accept pushed past all the challenges and struggles to go meliorate?

Art is messy. Art can exist such a struggle and it can rip your emotions to shreds. Art, for me, is a lot of self-dubiousness but forcing myself to keep trying because if I don't attempt, I won't ameliorate. Fine art is consistently trying to unlearn the talent myth and being terrified that my latest slice volition be my peak, and that I volition never improve. (I might write a post on this 1 day… perchance.)

But look. Beneath are the commencement 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 power.

1

2

And beneath is one of my most contempo fanart pieces that I did for Descendant of the Crane, on April 2019 – ii years later on. My 'all-time' now looks different.

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

(Practice you need more convincing? I highly recommend going through these incredible before and subsequently pictures that show how artists have improved over the years.)

Drawing makes me so happy and it's something I am and then passionate virtually. And because I dear art and I want to grow as an artist, I have invested a lot of time into it, I have worked so extraordinarily difficult to grow and get better, and I have grown – a lot. Information technology wasn't talent that got me from May 2017 to April 2019. It was hard piece of work, time, effort, perseverance, my dearest for fine art – things that are and so much more than complex than 'talent'.

And I'thousand still growing, and my best is going to look fifty-fifty ameliorate in 2021.

Some Compliments That You lot Can Use Instead!

So thank you for your good wishes, thank you for your compliments, and thank y'all for your support. Just please, don't phone call me 'talented'.

But that doesn't mean that artists don't savour compliments. In fact, we do! Artists love compliments! And if we're sharing our art for you to enjoy for gratuitous*, it'southward probable that nosotros would love to hear your compliments and would appreciate information technology immensely.

(*And no, reposting art is nona compliment! Artists hate it when y'all repost our stuff!  And for those of you are non articulate on the subject field, here is a great post that covers what 'reposting' is, and here is a FAQ on why reposting is bad and really harmful for artists.)

The next time you're scrolling through social media and yous come up across a cracking slice of art, you lot can bear witness your appreciation by using one of the post-obit compliments instead of 'you're talented!':

  • Yous are such a corking artist! [works every time!]
  • I really love your art! [this makes artists happy!]
  • Your art is so absurd! [a bully compliment!]
  • Great job! [short, 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 accomplishment! [cue warm fuzzies!!]
  • Yous are awesome! [this is so nice!!]
  • This art could footstep on me and I'd give thanks them for it. [fun, chaotic, we'll honey it!]

Friends, the concluding thing I want you to exercise is to recollect dorsum to all the possible times you might have told an creative person that they were talented and whether it upset them. IT'S FINE. The last thing an artist needs to hear is that you are sorry for calling them talented. It's awkward. The creative person probably doesn't think anyway.

And if you want to go along using 'talented'? That's your pick and I'm not here to stop you! Only I hope this piece has given you my perspective, which is one of many, on why 'talented' can feel a little uncomfortable.

Just — before you lot call the side by side artist or their next piece a work of 'talent', take a moment to retrieve virtually what you might exist proverb when you lot call an artist 'talented'. And and so, tell them that their art looks great. It'south simpler and we'll love it all the same.