The Compound Effect of you drawing

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greasystreet's avatar
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There’s a cliché out that says, success is a numbers game.  Some people don’t believe this saying is true but I beg to differ.  If you have two guys who want to be professional comic artists and they do a formula like the one I did to hone their skills and become better artists.  Let’s say their names are Peter and Steve.  Peter and Steve both agree to sketch a page a day in their sketchbooks and do at least two finished pieces per month for their portfolio to present at Comic-Con in a year.

Let’s say at the end of the first three months both of them do what they agreed upon and they both have 90 pages done in their sketchbook and they have six finished pages in their portfolio.  Then Steve gets “busy” and says he doesn’t have the time to do quite that much and he starts doing one finished page and 12 pages in his sketchbook per month.

By the time the guys go to Comic-con to find work:

Peter has 24 finished pages in his portfolio to show and 360 pages in his sketchbook.

Steve has 15 finished pages in his portfolio to show and 198 pages in his sketchbook.

Not a big difference right?  Let’s say neither get work and they make the same goal for next year.  Peter remains disciplined and Steve remains goal oriented but he’s still busy, so his output is the same. 

In two years with the same output Peter would have 48 pages in his portfolio and 720 pages in his sketchbook.  Steve would have 27 portfolio pages and 342 pages in his sketchbook.

In year three Peter would have 72 finished pages in his portfolio and 1080 pages in his sketchbook.   Steve would have 39 finished pages in his portfolio and 486 pages in his sketchbook. 

This is the compound effect of your disciplines at work.  Even if Steve was a WAY better artist than Peter, at some point he would pass him on skill because by year three he’s outdrawing him nearly 2 to 1.  Here’s where people call him talented, maybe even lucky.  Maybe he is, who knows, but the truth is he worked his ass off for it.  Everyone gets busy, everyone gets sidelined for a moment when life gets in the way but as long as you stay with it, no one can stop you.

© 2014 - 2024 greasystreet
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StormFedeR's avatar
Very well said man, I normally say the secret is "practice, practice, practice".
now you made me rephrase it to...
"practice, practice and discipline to keep practicing" =D