Talent

I hate word 'talent'. Well, ok, I don't hate the actual word but the general misconception connected with it. Every time when, after seeing my drawings, someone tells me 'oh, you're so talented!' something brakes inside me. Why?

In his article 'Art is work' artist Jed Alexander writes: 'People who don't practice art as discipline tend to romanticize the artists they admire. Rather than seeing art as a work - like any work, like the work they do - they see it as some kind of magical process'. And I can totally relate to that. I've heard the opinion of talent being a gift from god way too many times... But don't get me wrong, I DO believe in talent. Just different definition of it. For me it's not a mystical power nor gift from god; I think of it as a set of inborn characteristics and predispositions that allow one to be better at something than an average person. Therefore, everyone has some kind of talent. But:

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

- Stephen King

Let me give you an example. Let's imagine two guys: one of them is 215cm tall and the other one is 165cm tall. They both been training basketball for one year. It's obvious that the taller guy is going to be better at it because of his height (which is his talent - it allows him to perform better at specific task). But now, let's imagine a bit different scenario - let's say that the shorter guy have been training basketball for last few years, whereas the taller guy have played it only a couple of times in his life. Who is going to be better now? Obviously, the shorter guy, even despite his 'lack of talent'. It's just like in above S. King's quote - you can be talented, but that's not what makes you a good artist. Determination and hard work does.

So what are the predispositions that could be considered as a talent in terms of drawing/painting? One of the biggest, I think, is imagination. As an artist, you have to constantly imagine things, even if you draw only from life. What's behind this tree? What composition is going to work the best? What colour is going to look good against this vivid green? Attention to detail is really important too, because that's what makes paintings more realistic and believable. Also, to become a good artist you have to be patient. You're not getting better at painting from one picture to another and creating a good painting requires a lot of preparation. It takes time. So if you're not patient you'll probably be disappointed with lack of immediate progress and you will quit drawing and you'll never get good at it. So, patience is a part of 'talent' too. These are only few examples of things that compose talent and of course every one has a different set of those characteristics.    

some of my preparation sketches for War of The Worlds sketches

   

So that's what I think about talent and why it irritates me when people talk about it as a gift and they don't see the hard work behind it. On the other hand artists themselves are to be blamed - they tend to show only beautiful, polished paintings, hiding not-so-pretty preparation sketches - the evidence of hard work. So no wonder that people seeing an artist who can paint amazing paintings just-like-that consider it as a mystical power. Well, maybe next time someone says 'you are so talented!' I'll just nod my head and say 'yup, I was chosen by god'. Hmm...