A question of talent

[Duende]

Originally posted by Jambot13
Sorry to break from the rather interesting grounds this thread is now covering and actually address the initial question for once!

Thank you Jambot! I agree with what you just said in your post although I\'d like to address the current ground this thread has gone to.

All this talk about egotism, cliques, accolades, and scores based on forum popularity is just a bunch of whining in my opinion. (Sorry if I\'m tromping on toes.) But I have noticed that painters who are more active in the forums do score better than comparable painters who are silent. But that\'s just a fact of life. It\'s the entire basis of advertising as well. You get noticed by putting yourself \"out there\" and others will respond. If posting in the forums a lot causes your minis to score higher and be seen by more people, then well... that\'s just how it goes. I made an analogy earlier that plants grow better in the sun than they do in the shade.

Personally, if my scores improve just because people recognize my name from the forums, I have no problem with that. What you call \"cliquey back slapping\", I call making new friends, and supprting those friends in whatever they happen to be painting. In the time I\'ve been here, I\'ve made so many new good friends that I can say a few of them have made some positive changes in my own life. So if you want to call it a \"clique\", fine, then I\'m proud of my \"clique\".

So, thanks to all the friends I\'ve made here! I love you all! (Even you annoying ones!)

 

[RedDawn]

I never thought I\'d say this, but...

Originally posted by reverend
And the idea with painting is the same as anything else in the world. You get a majority of average folk and then some amazing ones and some dick-fingered ones. That\'s just the way life goes! You can improvew in some degree in anything you do, but it doesn\'t mean you can become the best from sheer determination. Some people just can\'t do stuff. All this management-speak about reaching your personal peaks and all that jazz is bollocks

I kind of agree with Rev - there are people out there that are innately more talented at X than other people. No matter how hard I practice, I\'m never going to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming. We all have our strengths and weaknesses - if we didn\'t we\'d all be perfect in every way and we know that\'s not true!

I do have to say that I think the more we try at any task the better we become and we should always try. BUT, in some ways I feel that if we want to be REALLY good at something you have to sacrifice other parts of your life - time spent with friends and family, other hobbies, etc. So it really comes down to choices - work on hobby or do other things. I think most people just try to find their own balance between those choices.

All I know is that right now I\'m one of those, as Rev so eloquently said, \"dick-fingered,\" people and it sucks! :flame:

lol lol lol

 

[dachande]

Okay, suitably chastised. Time to go slink off to a corner and wait another year to post again.

On topic: Talent is innate. For someone without artistic talent, learning and practicing can eventually become talent. For someone born with the ability, learning and practicing is replaced with refining. There\'s always something to learn, but with the base of natural ability, it just makes it alot easier to get to those higher levels.

On off-topic: Friends and community are great and even encouraged. \"Clique\" is a generalization, and in some cases here, appropriate. But on the other side, just because someone posts here all the time and gets higher scores doesn\'t mean that their stuff is better than someone who never posts here but has better pieces. Artwork should speak for itself without the need of banner waving and fanboys/girls. The catch 22 here is that it\'s hard to get constructive criticism with just pic posts, but in the forums, more people are willing to offer advice and critiques.
The plants in sunlight was a very good analogy, but I prefer the dark. And for that reason, I accept my lower scores.
Make a noise and get heard, stay silent and get discarded. Wow, life imitates art. Go fig.

 

[Infidel Castro]

So why do some plants come with the advice \'grows well in shade\'?

Anyway, analogies remind me of my time in church (now long gone) when it was seen as fashionable to come up with twee little phrases to show just how clever we all were lol

Cliques happen, and the issue comes back to just how important you think attaining hi-scores is. If you accept the scores at face value then you delude yourself. If you take it with a pinch of salt then great.

And back to the topic, it\'s the people who want to have a go at something that improve, but then it\'s all down to thresholds and innate talent just how far they get. That\'s my view and I\'m sticking with it lol

 

[freakinacage]

ok this thread has gone on for long enough without me butting in but tough, i\'ll do it anyway. i would just like to say that i agree with the rev, spacemunkie..... posse here. i use the comments to see how i can improve and the votes just spur me on to try harder. i won\'t lie and say that if i feel that a mini i paint is worth an 8 (never gonna happen!) and it\'s levelled out at a 6 i won\'t be disappointed but shit happens eh. put it down to difference of opinion. everyone isn\'t the same, life would be boring if they were. i mean finn like some god awful minis in my opinion, and i\'m sure theres a load of stuff that i like that he hates.

bah! as it has been said before they are only toys in the end

 

[Infidel Castro]

We should have a lead amnesty, handing in all our yucky figures. We could then flog them to Finn lol

 

[Dr Death]

Hmmmm, to me success and satisfaction walk to an extent hand in hand, i get my satisfaction from acheiving results which others find remarkable. That said i have so far done so without resorting to the \"popular\" techniques, i do not use NMM or blending excessively and only ever paint as realistically as i can acheive.

Can a person reach a optimum level? Well i suppose physics has something to do with it, so long as you have the tools and the magnification equipment though i dont think there is any limit to what you can acheive technically.

Artistically art has become more than just technical brillience, people find beauty in things which are to others eyes ugly and pointless. Artistically no matter what you paint or to what level some nutter will appreciate your work.

Personally i subscribe to the technical brillience as art but that does not nessercarily mean excessive technical brillience, on many miniatures simplicity is best, simplicity done brilliently is art.

Dr Death

 

[EricJ]

Another thought. I know people \"think\" differently. What I mean by this is that some people \"think\" in words, other people tend to think more in images, others in colors and shapes, and others in a more emotions and feelings.

I would imagine that this would have a noticable effect on how one would approach art as well. I\'ve always been a mix of thinking in images and colors/shapes, which I think ultimately has helped me first really \"see\" what makes a miniature work, and then be able to construct and visuallize my goals on a certain piece before I even start.

I don\'t know if this qualifies as \"talent\" or \"it\" but I have definately found it to be very useful.

 

[freakinacage]

this must mean that i think in smells because my painting is shite!!

 

[Infidel Castro]

Toy soldiers not art I say!

 

[freakinacage]

they are the way i paint them!!!