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| Jake Parker's website header art. |
Like all of the other artists who inspire me, I stumbled upon Jake Parker most likely from Googling drawing advice or tips.
Jake Parker is an artist who shares insights and incredibly useful information in videos, often while he’s drawing something. He’s also the creator of Inktober.
Some of the many videos I found eye-opening and food for thought were about doing projects and doing fan art.
I’ve always wanted to do MY OWN projects. I have more notebooks than I can count and half a file cabinet drawer full of ideas. Ideas has never been my problem; skills and time are. So to hear this successful artist talk about the importance of doing projects was inspiring for me. It’s best to watch the video for yourself to get his whole message but what I took away from him is that you learn by doing. Study and practice ARE important but if you combine that with creating a piece of work, you’ll learn even more. Moreover, you’ll have something of value that you can show to other people. These are exactly the benefits I got from doing “A Universe of Trouble”: I learned a lot; I gained clarity about the things I don’t know; I now have something I can show people.
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| Jake Parker book of drawings. |
What surprised me was his opinion on fan art. I’ve always been anti-fan art. I thought it was a silly waste of time. But listening to Jake talk about it completely changed my mind to such an extent that as soon as my skills improve, I’m doing some fan art! Again, it’s best to watch his video on this topic to get the all of his opinion, but Jake believes that fan art can help one get attention and help one learn. I’m now a fan art convert!
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| Jake Parker Boba Fett fan art. |
I actually had to STOP watching Jake’s videos because he’s so inspirational that he’s causing me to want to do another project!
But I tell myself—literally EVERY DAY—that I MUST focus ALL of my attention on developing my skills! NO PROJECT can be made until my skills improve. Period!
So if you’re struggling with your work and you want and need some guidance, take a look at some Jake Parker videos. You’ll be glad you did!
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