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 swimming friends today, though I idea I'd draw Amina and Gen together considering this is going to be an art and discussion post. 🥰

Before I begin, I want to arrive very clear that I have appreciated every single compliment and praise that I take e'er 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 go along my art, and has been integral to my growth and exposure every bit a small artist.

No matter their content, I empathize that compliments and praise come up from a good place and mean no ill intent. Therefore, if you have always expressed your support for my work, liked my work, retweeted my work, shared my work – thank yous. Please, please know that I appreciate you, appreciate your support, and am grateful.

On Praising 'Talent' and What 'Talent' Means

"Yous're and so talented!"

"I wish I had your talent!"

Friends, let'south talk nigh the word 'talented' and how we use information technology to praise an artist'south 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 good identify. I know that this is praise, and that I should capeesh it. The affair is, I exercise appreciate the proficient intent and I appreciate the support – just I'thou also, at the same time, uncomfortable with being chosen 'talented'. And whilst there may exist some artists out there who don't mind being called talented, I also know that I'chiliad not the only artist who feels this way.

Talent implies an inherent ability or a natural affinity for something. It implies that a person is naturally meliorate 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 do something ameliorate than everyone else. 'Talent' seems to imply that in that location exists ii types of people: those who are 'talented' or are 'not talented' – which is and so strange, because exercise we still truly believe that human ability is and then simple, then rigid, and so predetermined?

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

There are certainly people who are 'talented' – in that location are people who have a natural skill that exceeds ordinary expectation or ability; there are people who will pick up a pencil for the very kickoff time and will just produce the most incredible art. But 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 telephone call 'talented' are hard-working and persistent individuals who have poured hours upon hours to improve their craft – and have succeeded in improving.

Perhaps you didn't mean information technology that way when you chosen an creative person 'talented'; you didn't mean that they didn't work hard. And honestly? Most artists get that. We get that you're just trying to compliment united states and that you're just trying to be overnice. We become information technology.But, I implore yous to reflect on what you might also exist saying, intentionally or not, when you call someone 'talented'. I implore yous to endeavour and understand why 'talented' tastes bitter from the artist'south point of view. I implore y'all to critically examine why you perceive art as something that is virtually talent, something innate and inherent and something that you are born with. I implore you to see art equally something that is a skill, something that can be nurtured, something that can be improved over time.

Art is a Skill, Like Annihilation Else

Then one day, you decided that you wanted to create amazing art too. You picked up a pencil, drew a few things, and possibly after a few hours of trying, you decided that you were not cut out to exist an artist because you did not like what you drew. You decided that you had 'no talent'.

But what if you lot had kept trying?

Like playing a musical musical instrument dancing, writing, and the ability to piece vegetables super fast similar all the chefs on Masterchef do, art is a skill. Cartoon and art is something that, given a lot of hard work and fourth dimension, yous can meliorate over time. Producing skilful fine art requires learning and having a good grasp of bones art skills before you drawing something bedazzling; basic skills entail learning how to describe good lines, learning how to shade, draw proficient line-art, agreement perspective, homo beefcake, how lighting works – so, so, so many things. Likewise, y'all wouldn't expect someone who has never driven a car before to hop into a car and pass a driver'southward examination on the first go – to get a competent driver, driving (for those able to do so) requires practice.

Fine 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 you question yourself on whether you can always amend. Sometimes practice makes you feel like shit. It can experience scary because the prospect of declining can be paralysing.

There may be factors that limit your ability to improve – whether it be a disability or access to resources to produce art, and any of these reasons are valid. All the same, everyone's journey and feel with fine art will be different. What tends to be the same, still, is thatimproving fine art can be painfully and unbearably tiresome, and information technology is incredibly difficult to 'see' growth every bit it happens. Growth is different for everyone and means different things to anybody. Only practice is absolutely and positively correlated with comeback over time.

I thought nearly the number of hours per week that I spend cartoon. Every bit a hobby artist (which means that I don't do artist work full-time), I probably spent most 20 – 25 hours on drawing this week. (And, of course, the hours I devote to drawing vary week past week every bit my responsibilities and commitments to other things in my life change.) And even though I devote such a pregnant amount of fourth dimension to practicing (most of which I don't bear witness people – and perhaps I demand to modify that and be more transparent with my practice pieces?), my progress and comeback is still extremely dull. Just when I look back at the pieces that I did only one twelvemonth ago? I have improved, without a dubiousness.

Talent isn't the affair that has made me a better creative person. Persistence, practice, and hard-work have made me a better creative person.

Here'due south a challenge for anyone here who doesn't concord that art is not virtually 'talent': To those who think they don't take 'talent' – if yous really want to get good at art, devote 10 hours a week to improving your artistic skill. You may start but beingness able to draw a stick figure, y'all may start with an already decent grasp of how to draw. Either is valid, and it doesn't matter where you offset. Just if you don't see anyimprovement after a year of genuine try, I'll concede that at that place is no hope for you lot and that y'all are hopelessly united nations-talented. (Spoiler: you lot volition improve, you volition exist fine.)

You see a finished slice; artists meet the process

I become it. When you look at a piece of completed art, you think, "well holy shit, this piece is and so good and this artist is so good, I cannot imagine always drawing this, they must be and so talented to have accomplished this", and and so your answer to their incredible power to produce something then cute must be 'talent'.

But the thing is, what you see is a completed piece. What you don't meet is that a lot of artists take devoted a lot of time to and have worked hard to get to where they are today (and with still so much room for growth!); what you don't see are the many discarded drafts that will never run across the low-cal of solar day; what you 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 don't encounter are the hours spent trying to finish information technology, so that we're happy with it. 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 nowadays and share with others is a curated process.

Are you starting to sympathize how dismissive and reductive the compliment 'talented' tin can feel to an creative person who has poured their free energy and soul into improving their arts and crafts and have pushed by all the challenges and struggles to go ameliorate?

Art is messy. Art tin exist such a struggle and it can rip your emotions to shreds. Art, for me, is a lot of cocky-incertitude but forcing myself to keep trying considering if I don't endeavor, I won't improve. Art is consistently trying to unlearn the talent myth and existence terrified that my latest piece will exist my top, and that I will never better. (I might write a mail on this i day… mayhap.)

But look. Below are the start 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 below is one of my most contempo fanart pieces that I did for Descendant of the Crane, on April 2019 – two years after. My 'best' now looks unlike.

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

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

Drawing makes me so happy and information technology'due south something I am and then passionate about. And because I love art and I desire to grow equally an creative person, I have invested a lot of fourth dimension into it, I have worked so extraordinarily difficult to grow and go amend, and I have grown – a lot. It wasn't talent that got me from May 2017 to April 2019. It was hard work, time, effort, perseverance, my love for art – things that are and so much more complex than 'talent'.

And I'k still growing, and my all-time is going to look fifty-fifty better in 2021.

Some Compliments That Yous Tin can Use Instead!

Then cheers for your good wishes, thanks for your compliments, and thanks for your support. But delight, don't call me 'talented'.

But that doesn't mean that artists don't savour compliments. In fact, nosotros do! Artists honey compliments! And if nosotros're sharing our art for you lot to enjoy for free*, information technology's likely that we would love to hear your compliments and would capeesh it immensely.

(*And no, reposting art is nota compliment! Artists hate information technology when you repost our stuff!  And for those of you are not clear on the subject, hither 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 lot're scrolling through social media and y'all come up beyond a keen piece of fine art, you can bear witness your appreciation by using one of the following compliments instead of 'you're talented!':

  • Yous are such a great artist! [works every fourth dimension!]
  • I really dear your art! [this makes artists happy!]
  • Your art is so cool! [a great compliment!]
  • Great chore! [short, unproblematic, and kind!]
  • Y'all 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!!]
  • You are awesome! [this is so nice!!]
  • This art could footstep on me and I'd thank them for it. [fun, chaotic, we'll love it!]

Friends, the concluding thing I want y'all to practice is to think back to all the possible times you might take told an artist that they were talented and whether information technology upset them. It'Southward FINE. The final thing an artist needs to hear is that you are pitiful for calling them talented. Information technology's awkward. The artist probably doesn't remember anyway.

And if y'all want to continue using 'talented'? That'south your choice and I'm not hither to end you! But I promise this piece has given you my perspective, which is i of many, on why 'talented' tin can feel a little uncomfortable.

Just — earlier you lot call the next artist or their adjacent piece a work of 'talent', accept a moment to remember about what you might exist saying when you lot phone call an artist 'talented'. And then, tell them that their art looks swell. Information technology's simpler and we'll honey it even so.