Years ago, a friend told me I wasn’t an artist. I wasn’t too concerned, because he doesn’t consider himself an artist either. He’s wrong. You see, he’s a cartoonist and so am I. I think cartoonists are artists and he doesn’t. He’s wrong. To me cartooning is an art form and people who do art forms are artists. Now to be clear, I’m not just a cartoonist, but if I want to be honest, I spend the vast majority of my art time working in the cartooning genre and when I do my live speed painting, I usually finish the pieces with black lines. To me it helps clean up the process, but it does end up looking like a cartoon.
One of my favorite artists to watch online is David Garibaldi. I’ve referenced him on this blog before. He’s a fellow speed painter, though I find him much more dynamic than myself. He also tends to make very realistic portraits. I love his work and his finished pieces definitely do not look like cartoons. The problem is when I see his work, that thought of “You’re not an artist” comes to call. It’s this deadly thing called comparison. If you’re doing that, stop it.
I am not David Garibaldi. He works in a different medium, has a different style, works in different circles and has different influences. Now if a little comparison pushes me to try to develop my gift a bit more, that can be a great thing. If on the other hand it starts to make be denigrate what God has given me, the best thing I can do is stop it. I’ve met David and he’s a very nice and encouraging guy. He wouldn’t put my work down. He would encourage me to take it further. My work serves it’s purpose, and it is up to me to keep improving, but giving up is not an option. God has called me to this work and faithfulness demands that I keep doing it until that call changes.
Do yourself a favor, look for influences and inspiration, but don’t compare. I’m David Weiss, not David Garibaldi. He’s already really good at being him, I need to be really good at being me. You need to be good at being you too.
Here’s a clip of David Garibaldi at work painting one of my favorite artists.
AMOKArts 