To all the haters making you doubt your future as an artist…

I love that you merged the "me speaking to the camera" video format with the "speedpaint while I talk" video format 🖤

Great advice Adam! As I’ve always noticed, no artist who’s better than you will ever put you down or make you feel discouraged because those who know the struggle empathize with it. Don’t they? Artists stand strong my friends! We’re not going anywhere 👍

2024 is where many will rly start to Customize/Filter their experience on all the socials imo, especially in the art sphere. As great as a global community can be, there's just too much distractions/noise to truly refine (and therefore define) oneself.

With all due respect, just because you're not witnessing it, doesn't mean it's not happening. I went from $50k last year to $17k this year because my main client started leaning more on AI than letting me do the work. It IS impacting some folks and a little respect there would be nice. We're not making shit up to be victims.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shed a couple tears listening to this. I find it so hard to gauge now days my own skill level. I’ve struggled with determining if I really am ready for the industry and if jobs are just tough to get, or if I’m fooling myself and I shouldn’t be focusing my time on finding work because I’m just too far away. It’s felt so disheartening and it truly has created a spiral effect where I second guess myself and my abilities as an artist. These were really kind words to hear, thank you Adam.

Omg that whole part about being derailed by other artists while painting was such a big thing for me. Took me a while to learn that and change it 💖

When you mention on over exposing yourself, it makes sense to avoid that because we can easily be distracted. It makes it difficult to be focused. Thank you for pointing that out.

When i was a kid, my mom told me that artists cant get jobs. One day while looking for something to eat I noticed that the refrigerator was filled with art from top to bottom. So I asked her "who made all of the labels?" Of course, there was no ai to competet with so my point could be dead on arrival for anyone coming up in the field. But if you're good and have something to say with your art, you will find an audience...or an employer if thats what you want.

Yup, been there, done that! I have learned so much in the past 5 years than I did in all of my Junior and High School years just on YouTube.

Thanks Adam, for showing up in the camera more often. and for being so lucid, in these very opaque times :)

What you say about the growth of artist skill thanks to the internet truly cannot be overstated. While I'm relatively novice with illustration, I spent many years in a different artistic pursuit - miniatures painting, and I've taught plenty of newcomers to this hobby. What people have been painting for the last 5-7 years is simply leagues beyond to what they did just 10 years back, and floors everything what they were doing 20 years back. Certainly, the technology of modelling acryllics have improved, as has the quality of the models themselves - but the way people paint, the things they focus on, the knowledge and tips they share - the comparative growth I see everywhere is incredible. And that is because just like every other craft at large, art too benefits from the compounding effect of everyone being tighter knit, sharing information, sharing their techniques, growing frustrated at their own inadequacies and taking bold steps to try and push their skill even further. In fact, if someone completely new starts painting miniatures now, they're probably at the best time for their enjoyment and potential growth ever. It's so easy to achieve beautiful results with the newest paints and techniques, it feels so much more rewarding to see your beginner efforts, it's that much easier to paint up a large volume of models for a wargames army quickly. And it's also that much easier to get discouraged because you're STILL not as good, or don't get as much likes, or anything else. And that's where the older army books and learning guides help in their physical glory. It's enough to just break out a book from 2006 and show what was considered top tier then. They are a reminder to both the newcomers as well as myself that we have all gotten so much better. Just 15 years ago, this was "print a close-up of it in a commercial product" quality. Just 10 years ago, this was still great looking. Even 5 years ago, this is still a pretty darn good result when put in a beautiful mass shot! And today, this model that took tens of hours to paint individually back then now takes 30-60 minutes for comparable result, and a beginner with some simple guidance can achieve a result that I in my beginner years could only dream of. It's truly incredible! Ultimately, in wargames there's a very simple bottom line - what matters is that the models are painted and look great together as a force. It's hierarchy of detail in action, and it's something that helps in my illustration efforts as well. Sure, individually I may find plenty of flaws that I wish I could improve, but when taken together as a whole, it's a pretty darn good looking picture of good volume, good work and artistic growth clearly visible year after year. PS. And if you want to feel better at your digital art, go look up League of Legends splash art from 2011-2013. It doesn't even look in the same universe as the meticulously polished 200 hour splash art they produce today - but that was their start, that was how they established themselves and proudly kept working to become the giant company Riot is today. That's how much a decade can change!

I started art because of your videos ! I love how you speak from experience And how you’re so realistically optimistic! Thank you for your art talks

I wanna know how your daughter gets those stickers, pins, keychains, christmas cards, and decorated mugs I think the fear of what I don't know despite knowing there's so much online that can teach me is why I am paralyzed— because there is so much online to watch that stops me from doing anything, the next video is queued up with another new thing of what to do. The internet has given us the library of information at our fingertips but it's up to me to regulate what and how much I watch and to actually take action with what I have instead of hoarding thousands of references and videos on how to do the same thing. I got so many videos in watch later about "composition" when I'm still learning anatomy. Its very easy to get overwhelmed. I think its anxiety of doing things wrong because there's so much telling you how to do things right. It becomes difficult to just enjoy the process and just be you. Or even if you are practicing to allow mistakes because mistakes mean you are learning, you'll just getting really harsh on yourself.

Yet again, your language, mindset and thoughts helped me through my hard time as always. This years was really tough for me mentally. Burned out, doubting myself from my own work and potential to grow as an artist. Your video was one of a few things that kept me inspired, motivated to move on over the struggles that I had and still have. Every words of you was kind of a little pat on the back for me. I really needed that. Thank you is all I can say, I wish to meet you in a person one day to really say it. You are amazing Adam. 😇

I thought I was the only one who gets "inspired too easily" by other people's art. I'm an aspiring comic artist and enjoy coming up with new stories, so I always have to be careful about what I'm watching, reading, playing etc at any given time because I might get "too inspired" by it, and then too distracted from what I'm actually supposed to be making. It's why I have an extra hard time when people tell me things like "dude you should watch this show!" lol Looking forward to another year of great art talks, I always listen to these while drawing and it makes me feel more confident. Happy holidays and an early happy new year to you Adam, and anyone else reading this

Happy Holidays Adam. Thank you for the positive thoughts! I was recently let go form my studio job doing movie posters, so these thoughts really hit home. All the impacts emotionally of AI, self worth, and comparison have been in sharp relief recently. So this was nice to hear and internalize. It's good to know that I'm not the only artist out there struggling with this stuff daily. Here's to a creative, productive, positive new year!

Excess of awareness of what's going on outside does paralyze the creative flow, I love the point you made about being mindful of one's creative bubble, in particular with how one gets influenced by other artists and if they speak to your process or derail it. This has been a common source of procrastination and creative blocks for me, as I get easily seduced by others' art and it's good to be aware of it to avoid that pitfall in the future! This retrospective view on the last three decades is a much needed reminder that this overwhelming sea of resources/information/disinformation/etc. didn't use to be there. The mention you made of (paraphrasing) going the extra mile for That One Niche Book difficult to find brought some memories :'D Can't thank you enough for the clarity and encouragement you bring with this video! Best of wishes for these holidays and the oncoming 2024!

This was very insightful and reassuring to hear. I remember speaking about a lot of this in our consultation earlier this month, death by comparison is definitely far too common in a lot of artists these days and thanks to you I'm getting a lot better at achieving growth by comparison. Every artist, young or old needs to hear someone genuinely compliment their work to help remind them that their hard work was not for nothing. great video as always Adam!

Sometimes just hearing that you are ready is all you need. I have told that to students and the shock in their eyes says it all. As artist we can truly be hard on ourselves. BTW your artwork is amazing Adam.

Discovered your channel this year and am so grateful you take the time to thoughtfully explore and discuss what we as artists all mull over in our heads throughout our time on this journey. Having your library of videos has been a bright point of 2023 and I cant thank you enough for the time and consideration you put into each episode.