I absolutely

will post some work after today. I've been drawing (noses, russian heads, nudes), but not in the mood to post. I've been reading lately about martial arts after a comment left on the concept artist post on Linked in. One artist wanted a critique on his linework and drawing piece, and upon receiving a crit, he said "I was going to, I meant to, but". One person's response was that young artists and newbies always use that excuse, and that they also seem to have egos and cannot stand outside of themselves. He likened it to martial arts, where he said that the sensei usually will break down a person with an ego first so that they are in a state of humility and therefore in a state of mind to learn. I was reading that an ego can be a person's worst enemy. It is really true. All it takes is for someone to say "wow..your work is bad@$$" and an artist or designer can sit smugly and rest on their laurels, inundated with the illusion of their mastery, drunken by the power of their own strokes of the copic pen. I hope that that never happens to me at all. Thankfully, I go to a few clubs around town and am taught by some amazing teachers who remind me how far I have to go every week. For example, that contour exercise I learned last week kicked my butt! But it felt good. If not, there are always those Rembrandt and Klimt dudes, too LOL. The disadvantage of that is that I am disappointed by $h!tty work and tend to be very harsh on myself. In high school, during my final advanced level exam, two of the adjudicators came up to my desk as I was painting my final and began to talk about how nice the colours were, etc and I just snarled. I was so angry that they thought anything positive of my work. They probably just thought I was bipolar or something. The best people I have met in their fields have a tremendous level-headeness and a sense of balance about their life. Success is great, but there must be something else that makes your life fulfilling in my opinion. One of my buddies loves to fly planes when he isn't working, and another likes to surf. When people are patting each other on the back about how great everything is, he is on the ocean, with no one else but himself and his mind to remind him that in one swoop it could all be taken away from him. My dad said to me the other day that you should never want something so badly that you are willing to do anything for it, even compromise your integrity and moral system. I sincerely believe that and have generally found that to be really true. But then I could be wrong. Haha. Okay, enough philosophy. More work!