Artist Shane Glines wrote a brilliant blog post many years ago. He said:
“Young artists love lines. I spent most of my career concentrating on lines, style, and other flashy surface details. I spent a lot of time and effort perfecting a pretty line. But your line in itself is ultimately unimportant. It’s the space between the lines that matters.”
Glines philosophy totally changed how I approached drawing at the time but I think you can use his principle in any are of your life.
For years I focused on getting degrees, accolades, and big clients. To me, those are ALL LINES. And the space between the lines is the experiences you have along the way.
As Glines says, we concentrate on lines because they are visible. The same is true with our plans and goals, we can see the thing that we want. We can imagine it or pin it up on a vision board. We cannot always always see the form or how we’re going to get there though. That’s a lot more fuzzy.
There’s nothing wrong with lines or “goals”, just don’t forget to look at the space between along the way.
When I started taking music classes in college I struggled.
I’m talking about struggling like the beginning of Sylvester Stallone’s movie Cliffhanger. Where the lady is holding on for dear life in what looks like the Grand Canyon, before she falls to her death. I felt like that for three years. There were ups too but since everyone around me had previous music training I always felt like the dumb one.
I trained like crazy for my first vocal recital. I learned the song, sang in Italian, and hit all the right notes. At the end of my performance I was more relieved than happy. My voice teacher came over and congratulated me and she told me something special.
She said the director of the music department never talks about student performances. But after my performance he came over and told her that, I have “it”. She explained what “it” meant. She didn’t have to, I knew that one all too well.
Beyonce was the “it” girl of Destiny’s Child.
Michael Jackson was the “it” guy of the Jackson 5.
When the glamour of being on stage wore off I was back in class swimming upstream. When I felt like quitting or changing my major I hung onto the director’s words. I didn’t feel like an “it” whiz so I borrowed his belief in ME.
I didn’t use his words just to get thru music classes I applied them everywhere. Whenever I doubted myself I borrowed my old director’s belief. It gave me the strength to keep moving forward.
When Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran’s broker career was taking off she went to an event with a bunch of real estate moguls. She was the only woman there and she got nervous. Self doubt kicked in. And then she thought, “I deserve to be here.” Those words gave her the leap of faith she needed. And the same is true for you.
You deserve to be here.
You deserve to make a living doing what you feel called to do.
You deserve to be paid handsomely for it.
As I told my oldest daughter… You’re not Hermione Granger you’re Harry Potter.
You’re the one. You’re Luke Skywalker. You’re the one who is supposed to do what you came here to do and change your world.
You know how I know? Because you’re here. Now do us all a favor and continue to step into your greatness.
I used to dream about owning my own independent insurance agency. I didn’t get very far though.
My favorite diss came curtesy of Country Companies. The recruiter told me I passed my two interviews but I failed their standardized test. Miserably. He said I had one of the lowest test scores he had ever seen. I laughed and kept looking.
When I did eventually get an insurance gig it was just a “sales job”. It wasn’t owning an agency or anything. I worked there nearly three years before I flew to Marvel.
My first year of being a work-at-home artist, I was having a merry time. Instead of questions about bodily injury limits and personal assets my question of the hour was, what shade of red to make Captain America’s shield.
I didn’t miss insurance at all! Until I received a call…
An agency owner I knew called me about an opportunity in Casa Grande, AZ (about 70 miles from me). He said he needed someone to manage the office now but it would lead to owning the agency within a couple of years.
There it was. I got what Lisa Sasevich calls an irresistible offer. I could stay on my current path or I could fulfill my dream of owning my own agency.
I deliberated back and fourth like I was a juror on the OJ Simpson trial. I knew I could make freelancing my side hustle again so it wasn’t necessarily about “leaving” Marvel to sell insurance. The day before I told him I’d call back with my answer I realized something profound for me.
I never gave my art business 100% effort.
When it came to working for others or my non-art businesses I could be a beast. I’d kick in the door with guns-a-blazing! But with art, I always played small. Whenever I planted the seed I’d stop watering it the moment things got tough. This was just another one of those times.
I declined the agency offer.
In the end it wasn’t about choosing jobs. It was about getting rid of the decades of head trash and conditioning that grew silently in my mind like mold. It wasn’t the people who told me I couldn’t make it, it was ME telling me I couldn’t make it.
ME telling me I wasn’t good enough.
ME telling me that I was going “try this”.
I decided to make me an irresistible offer of my own. I would play all-out and leave nothing on the table. I would work just as hard FOR myself as I did for other people.
Just because an offer can seem irresistible, that doesn’t mean there’s not an even better one out there for you.
Procrastination sucks. But, it still happens to me sometimes.
It was Friday and I had to throw together some last minute signage for a trade show on Saturday. Usually Kinkos can turn small jobs around in the same day. So imagine my surprise when the employee said we “MAY be able to have it finished today”.
Oh crap…. I was in shock. I explained to the lady that I have a show tomorrow. I gave her my version of the pathetic Puss in Boots face from Shrek #2. That didn’t work, apparently this wasn’t her first rodeo.
Should I storm out and go to OfficeMax or Staples. Or maybe just slap her like Leona Helmsley and tell her that it needs to be finished today! In the end, I did what I call “leaving it up to the universe”. It’s my fault I’m in this mess so what’s meant to be will be.
My signs were finished that day and everything was peachy. The next week I sent the lady that did my signs a thank you card and she called me. I missed her call but she left an emotional message and said no one had ever given her a thank you card before.
My first thought, I was touched beyond words that she took the time to call me for something as simple as a card. My second thought was, WTF? No one has sent her a thank you card before?
After being a little appalled I was happy I sent her the card. I’m also happy I read a book by Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey called Appreciation Marketing. The book is about sending gratitude via cards, letters, and hand-written notes. You can send texts and emails too but the physical thank you’s are more fun for me because they’re more rare.
Appreciation marketing changed so many things in my life. For starters I now receive thank you’s all the time. I remember one time I sent a thank you card to a restaurant and I got free food. Twice. The owner was just so excited.
Keep in mind I don’t give to receive but it’s crazy to see how much gratitude you get back when you send it out regularly.
Try it for 10 days! Go to Walgreens or a craft store and buy a pack of cards and envelopes, and a book of stamps, or use a card sending service like Send Out Cards. Send a thank you card everyday for 10 days. Write your clients, your parents, family, the businesses you frequent, or old elementary school teachers.
Just send gratitude. No inserting business cards, or talk about how you want referrals or any of that.
Just watch how your life is affected just as much as the person receiving your thank you.
My first high school art teacher was Mr. Pelleran. He told me I should draw caricatures because it would help my art skills.
I thought he was…
Out.
Of.
His.
Mind…
He may as well told me to ride a unicycle on a tight rope between two three story buildings. I was 15 or 16 and I drew comics all the time but I never drew a live person on the spot. In front of other people no less.
And what did Mr. Pelleran know anyway? He was the drawing and painting teacher but he was actually a ceramics major so he couldn’t draw. I’m afraid that killed some of his credibility with my teen self…
But I briefly took his advice. I drew caricatures for a school fundraiser. I didn’t enjoy doing it but I was happy I survived the experience.
Fast forward 20 years later when I wanted to plant my feet in character design. I didn’t know where to begin and artist Stephen Silver recommended drawing caricatures in one of his old podcasts. So, I started down my caricature path.
Keep in mind, I thought Silver was nuts too. But since he was a character designer he had more credibility than my high school teacher. But keep in mind, Mr. Pelleran was right. Caricature was clearly part of my life’s direction.
Oprah Winfrey talks about hearing whispers. Sometimes inspiration and ideas speak to you quietly. And sometimes it’s a podcast or your high school art teacher chattering at you.
