Finding a Mentor
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@Lee-White Yes. Absolutely yes
Though I'd be interested to hear what kind of price point you guys would set for that much of your time! -
@Lee-White Now that's an intriguing possibility.
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@Lee-White Yeah I think that would have a lot of value.
I also really like something similar to what @NessIllustration is talking about. I would love to have a sounding board to get pro-level feedback on and also just help brainstorm about some of the next steps in my own career. Sometimes it's a struggle when you just don't know what to do next to keep leveling up and working towards those long term career goals.
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Once again an excellent podcast! I enjoy learning from these while I draw.
Crazy concept on mentorship that I just enacted this season: has anyone ever approached their customers as mentors? I select 10 past customers and ask them to critique my newest work. Customers are rarely artists themselves, and this limits their visual literacy, but, ultimately I am producing art for a particular market and it's surprising how willing that market is to tell me what they don't like or what they really want. For example I drew a friendly bird and one reviewer said it looked "sinister" - that's some important feedback right there! And it's good to see when everyone loves a piece, or laughs or whatever reaction I was hoping to get! I think some of them appreciate being asked their opinion and are happy when I edit the piece with their suggestions incorporated. Plus then they actually want to buy the piece, sometimes.
Another thing I do, instead of directly emailing THE person I wish were my mentor, or the company I wish I could work for, is to find interviews with them online. My mentor creates tutorials, has been on art podcasts, in magazines, and wrote their own books so I buy those and learn from them. I'm surprised but typically she always has a response online somewhere to all those nagging questions in my head.
Also, twice I have Facebook messaged questions to a couple of would-be mentors, and they both got back to me with short but helpful responses, so if you're looking for something real quick and it's not on their FAQ or books, you never know, that famous artist may reply after all!
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@Lee-White Yes, please! As students grow they need that mentorship but would be independent enough not require too much time...once a month, maybe. Would it be teacher or student directed?
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@Lee-White Absolutely!!! As a person who is way over the average age, geographically isolated from other artists, and trying as hard as I can in that near-isolation to push things over into the professional stage, all I could think about as I listened to this podcast was, "Where do I sign up?!"
P.S. Love this artwork!
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@Lee-White I really like the idea of a short mentorship as @NessIllustration said... something we could do in between projects.
What about having Mentorships in small groups? Something like 5 people? That way we could have a group zoom meeting, also we could have some "illustration pals" to grow in a common direction.
I can see some benefits of it:
- less intimidating both for the student and the mentor
- students could grow together, share their views
- reduced costs. Every time I took some art courses in person, I learnt a lot by seeing the critiques of the teacher to other students.
- have a feeling of community and that you are not alone
On the other hand.... I am not sure how to make the groups. It should come a bit naturally, right? Like on how you make friends in your classroom. What about people having a focus on the same thing? Like children's books, or editorial? Or people that like a bit the same style of art? Like stylized graphic drawings, realistic, painterly....etc? Not really sure. How this could be done? Students team up spontainly?
By the way, I am totally new here, but your podcast is soooooo good. You bright my mornings!
Cheers
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@Lee-White 100% HECK YES!!! The classes are GREAT but it's hard to get specific answers or feedback about how to apply all that information sometimes. Also I am personally struggling to figure out where in the wide world of illustration careers would be the best fit for me and the natural inclinations in my work. I would one thousand percent love a mentor to help me find my path/direction and make specific goals with. I spend so much time wondering if I am focusing on the right things it's really distracting. I want to "work smarter" as I alleady know how to grind like mad and work hard, but i REALLY worry about wasting time on the wrong things/ideas.
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Also the illustration for this episode is AWESOME!! @Marta-Kitka
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@tenmei I like this idea! If they decide to go this way I would be up for being in a group together if you think our interests would be similar - I’m leaning towards painterly and loose illustrations mixed with detailed pencil of that makes any sense. I’m working in mixed media right now, oil monoprinting, pastel pencils, graphite, collage, and gouache. I’m trying to create emotion and feeling in my work but I still have a long way to go to figure that out
