Hello everyone, Will Terrell here. Today I wanted to do a video talking about artist

excuses. And it's excuses that I've had in my own life, and that I'm sure everyone else

has had in their own experiences. So I wanted to talk about a few of the ones I've had to

confront in my own life and how I was able to confront them, and even talk about some

of the ones I'm still dealing with in my own life. It's a never-ending process on becoming

the person that you want to be. You just have to always keep pushing yourself to become

a better person, and to be the person that you always aspire to and to learn the lessons

from the mistakes that you make whenever possible. So, one of the things that I wanted to talk

about was the types of excuses that we use. There's the physical excuses like "I don't

have time" or "I'm not as good as other people" or "I don't have the same opportunities that

somebody else has," or "I don't have the money to buy tools or to go to the right classes,

or...." I mean, there's so many excuses that we have for why we're not doing what it is

that we want to do with our lives. And God knows I've had a lot of those and I still

find them creeping into my life from time to time. Let me think of one recently: One

of the ones I've struggled with for the last few years is feeling alone and isolated as

a creative person and wanting people to draw with and wanting people to be challenged by

as an artist, it's such a lonely job, especially comic books, 'cause it takes so much to learn

how to do the thing that you want to do that not a lot of people can relate to it. Like,

I was at a convention in Amarillo recently, last weekend, I think. And I was talking to

a young artist, it was his first convention and he had his first comic book and I was

asking him how hard it was to do that first comic book because [laughs] in my experience

back in my amateur days, one thing I learned was there's two types of comic book creators:

There's ones that talk about making comics, and then there's ones that have made a comic.

And there's thousands of miles separating the two because they just do not compare [laughs].

Because in your mind you've got all these ideas like, ya know, it looks easy and it

should be easy and blah blah blah blah blah...And so you sit down to do it and it doesn't work

and it's very frustrating. And so the type of person that will actually sit down and

confront those monsters in front of you and put in the work to actually learn, to actually

DO a finished product, even if it's a bad finished product, it sets you apart from everybody

else because you had to learn those lessons. And the more that you do that and put yourself

out there, the better you'll get.

So when it comes to excuses, there are valid reasons why you're not able to do something,

and I'm not denying that. Like one of the ones that I always ran into when I'd work

with talented artists that just didn't have the time, a lot of times it was often because

they had family, which is a very valid reason. You know, you've got kids and a wife and you've

only got so much time in the day especially if you're working full-time to support everybody,

and so that's an excuse that's hard to argue against. But at the same time I've run into

so many passionate creators that have three kids and they have a wife and they have a

full-time job and they still put in twenty, thirty hours a week doing what it is that

they love because, while it is a very valid reason why it's hard to put in that time and

it's hard to validate making those sacrifices, if you really want something and you want

to get somewhere, the only way to get there is by moving in that direction. Because it

takes the same amount of time ya know, it's going to take you, like to do a graphic novel

it's going to take you a whole year or more, or to get a job as an animator it's going

to take you dozens of story boards that are not necessarily successful, to learn the lessons

that you need to get hired by a studio. It's going to take you that much time anyway, and

if you're just putting it off, you're going to have to learn those lessons when you finally

get around to doing it. So they're valid excuses, but they are excuses. And it's like that with

everything. If you don't have the money to go to school, or if you're putting off learning

what you need to, or putting in the time to do what you need to do, that's fine but forgive

yourself of not having that time. Because what I run into a lot is people just beat

themselves up because they're not able to do what it is that they want, and they spend

so much time thinking about it that they never actually, they're not even enjoying the things

that they do have in life.

But this video, I want to talk about, how do you overcome those excuses. Like how do

you become the person you want to be and to do that you need to write down this goal,

you need to write down this one thing: "No Excuses � no matter what." And I remember

doing that when I was, I think I was nineteen. And I made the mistake of thinking that applied

to everybody [laughs] But it doesn't. It only applies to you and it only applies to you

if you definitely make that commitment to yourself that you are not going to live by

excuses. But yeah, write down on your wall or on your board or wherever you are, NO EXCUSES

for any time you hear yourself saying like "I don't have the time for this," or "there's

better artists out there."

But if you do find yourself still procrastinating, which will happen I guarantee it, make sure

you just acknowledge it and let it go. Don't dwell on what you're not doing, don't dwell

on what's not working, don't dwell on your fears, because in life, what you focus on

is going to expand and if you're always focusing on what's not working, your going to get the

same results and you're going to get more opportunities to be miserable [laughs]. But

if you focus on what is working, the one thing you did do right today, then that thing is

going to get better and better. And I think that's the problem that we all run into is

we get bogged down and it's gotta be right the first time ya know "I've got to be doing

everything right today, if I'm not doing everything right today then it means that I don't have

what it takes." And that's complete and total bull. Because even the most productive people

have bad days, it's just that they're more productive because they know what to do with

the bad day. They know how to handle it, they know how to just acknowledge it and move on

instead of just beating themselves over what they didn't do right that day. You have to

expect that things are going to go wrong, but you have to know what to do with it. I

think a lot of people run into that mistake where they spend so much time thinking about

the mistakes that they've made that they can't move on. But what I've learned in recent years

is that what I used to call mistakes are what actually give the drawing it's character,

and what used to frustrate me and make me quit on the drawing, I've realized that that

was the mistake. It was the only reason that it became a mistake is because I stopped working

on it. Where now I just keep pushing the drawing and pushing the drawing and letting those

lines accidentally fall wherever they are and then re-working them and re-working them

until they turn into something that I really like. But before I would just get frustrated

and quit and move on to the next drawing or just stop drawing all together. But now I've

learned to just embrace and be patient with what it is I'm doing and build up tones over

a long period, ya know however this has been. And this goes along with making mistakes as

an artists, or making excuses as an artist, at some point I've realized that there are

no mistakes in drawing, and eventually I was able to apply that to life too. There are

no mistakes in life. There are only things that didn't go according to plan. But as far

as with art, you probably may not see it, but I make all kinds of mistakes, on this

drawing and any time I do a drawing make all kinds of mistakes. What's really happening

when we have excuses, is that what we're really saying is that I'm afraid. Like I said, there

are valid excuses, ya know "I don't have the ability to draw," ya know, or "I'm sick,"

or "I have to work twelve jobs" or whatever. I mean there are valid reasons. But for most

of us, there is no excuse. So when we say something, when we say an excuse, what we're

really saying is "I'm afraid." And fear is perfectly normal. Fear is part of the creative

process. It's something that, if you're not afraid you should really be worried because

it means that you're not really...the decision that your making, there's no risk involved,

which usually leads to a place that you'll end up being miserable. At least that's how

it's been in my experience. If you're not afraid of...if it's the safe way to go, you're

always going to end up miserable down the road, or I always ended up miserable. It's

taking a job because it pays better even though it's not something you really want to to do.

Down the road I just ended up miserable. Whether it's getting involved with somebody, ya know

like in a relationship, that just because it's comfortable or available but you know

that that person's not good for you, whether it's personal relationships or in business,

getting involved with them because it's the easier way to do it, that always ends up far

worse, ya know it's a cancer on your life. So the easy way isn't always the best way,

and if it is easy then you need to be more worried about that then the thing that you're

actually afraid of. So, when you hear yourself say, I can't or I won't or I cant do it because

of this, ask yourself, what am I really afraid of? And focus on that, what can I do to confront

that fear, am I afraid to leave comfort? Am I afraid to lose security? Is that the only

reason? And make yourself aware of it. It's okay to go down that road, but at least be

aware of it.

So I'm going back over it with a little bit of colored pencil to pop his nose out a little

bit more. I like using colored pencil over the Prismamarkers because it gives a nice

texture to the drawing.

You'll notice I turn that page a lot when I'm sketching. I find that every artist only

has one good pen stroke and to get to that stroke you have to turn the page in order

to draw it comfortably, that way you're not fighting against your own natural instincts.

So, for me I've found that the only way to create proficiently, is to create from a place

of joy. Like if I'm not enjoying what I'm doing, I'm not going to keep doing it [laugh].

It's as simple as that. But it's so simple, that I think sometimes we overlook it and

we think that creating has to be this grand thing. It has to be this big, miraculous,

"I created this great thing that everybody loves, and that's what's going to make me

successful." But it doesn't work that way. When you do finally create something that

people actually respond to, it's usually a surprise, because you were just creating anyways.

But when you try to do it on purpose, it never works! I just did this great thing, ya know,

everybody should love it, and then nobody pays attention. Where when you're not paying

attention, everybody loves it. And the reason for that is, because you have to create from

a place of joy. Ya know, it's got to sneak up on you. But getting to that place is a

challenge for a lot of people, especially if you're still struggling with how to even

draw, ya know, how to even pull off a sketch or how to even learn how to do certain things.

When you're still in the learning phase � which you'll always be in the learning phase � it's

easy to get caught up in all of the mistakes that you're making.

Okay, so here's my favorite part of doing any of these sketches on the brown paper,

is adding highlights to it. I'm using the white gel pen here, which I'm trying to get

started. Normally I wouldn't recommend using white with your highlights, like for painting,

either digitally or watercolor or with acrylics you want to mix a lighter version of the skin

tone so it's not so bright but white gel pen is pretty handy I can keep it in my case and

if I don't go too overboard with it, then it can be nice and subtle, but if I do go

overboard which I tend to do [laughs] because it's fun making everything shiny, it can make

people look like they're caught in sweat or whatever [laughs]. But yeah, this is my favorite

part. It's like you've done this drawing, you've worked on it for all this time, and

then all the sudden with the highlights it just POPS and I really enjoy this part of

it all. So I'm adding a little bit of highlight to his shirt, and his belt, just kinda trying

to find the edges, the highlights, the highest point on his skin where it just, the edges

of the form are catching the light from above, and yeah I really like this part.

I'm sorry this video is so long, I had to cut a lot of stuff out I hope it still makes

sense and I feel like I'm rambling totally through this entire thing but I'm really glad

if you've made it this far [laughs], I hope you've gotten something out of it either from

just watching me draw or from some of the information I've provided in the video. I

know when I was first starting out, even now, I'm still looking for people to share their

experiences to help me through obstacles that I'm going through now, and I always try to

pass on what I've learned in my career. With anything, I'm not an expert, I'm not the end-all,

be-all answer for everything by any means at all. This is just the way I've figured

things out and I'm still figuring things out and God knows I'll keep figuring things out

until the day I die and I'll keep sharing what I've learned as I go. I like to remind

people that wherever you're at in your career is not where you're going to be a year from