Today's topic might seem a bit "over the top" in terms of promise.
But I can assure you one thing from experience: When you're done reading, you will have new clarity and steps to follow and make progress.
This is me, going through the pain and learning, so I can put things into words and give you a little shortcut.
You can then listen and apply it, or ignore it and go through the pain yourself. We will meet in the end arriving at the same conclusion.
Today you will learn about:
- One of the biggest mistakes we make as beginners.
-
The things we don't know.
- Especially we don't know what we don't know.
-
How to think about getting new gear.
- Identify if you need it or not (probably not).
- How having less gear makes your life easier.
|
One of the biggest mistakes we make as beginners
I'll rip the band-aid right off. The mistake is:
Thinking what separates a beginner from a professional is the amount and quality of gear. |
That's not it.
It's experience.
You need experience at the craft, so you can get better results with any gear.
I am not saying "don't buy new gear" (more on this at the end). I am saying you don't need "more or better gear" to earn more experience. It will work fine with what you already have, or what you started with.
See that I'm speaking very vaguely and generic.
This started specifically with me and my story with car photography.
But I wanted to keep it open because it applies to anything.
Here our friend SquirrelLatte expresses exactly this.
They very accurately concludes that they always felt that they needed a better lens to improve on their car photography, but it probably is more of a skill issue (what I call "experience" above) than a need for more gear.
Of course it can be both "skill" as in "learning new stuff outright", but I'm a firm believer that in a lot of cases, "practice" adds more to our skills, than pure learning.
How are you going to know about what lens you actually need to buy, if you really don't know what specific lenses are for? Or what they help you achieve?
You need to first squeeze everything out from your current gear, to understand your current limitations and what new gear can do to help.
As a beginner, you don't know many things
It's easier to improve skills and get experience with lesser gear than the other way around.
When you're a beginner:
- You don't know what you don't know.
- You don't know where you need to get better at.
- You don't know what to buy in order to get better.
You just don't know many things.
You need:
- Reps
- Practice
- Hours in
- Experience
The main reason for this, apart from plainly getting better at it, is understanding.
This is the only way for you to see where your gaps are, and fill them with either more focused experience or specific gear.
I have discussed more on the topic of "Learning about what you know" in a previous email that you can read here.
Visualisation of what happens when you get more gear instead of more practice, experience or skills.
How to think about getting new gear
The next time you feel the "urge" of getting new gear for your hobby, ask yourself 3 things:
- WHAT do I need it for?
- What is the GOAL I am after?
- What PROBLEM do I have and this gear solves?
- What is IMPOSSIBLE to do, after trying everything, with my current gear?
Instead of:
That's just asking yourself if you want it.
And you know you do. You are just trying to justify the purchase.
You'll get some quick dopamine but it will wear out and start gathering dust after a bit.
The reason? You never needed it in the first place.
Because it didn't respond the questions above.
Make your life easier with less gear
Less gear means:
- Less doubts
- Less money spent
- Less choices to make before going back to practicing your hobby
Less sometimes is more:
- More hours enjoying
- More experience with specific gear you already have, which will help you get better in general
Visualisation of what new gear unlocks when you mastered your current gear.
I am not saying "never buy new gear"
What I am saying is:
- WHEN you are ready for new gear, you will know.
- You will have enough experience to know WHAT you need and WHY.
If you take one thing from this email, let it be this:
You don't need new gear to enjoy your hobby โค๏ธ
Illustration is one of those hobbies that you don't need to overthink about gear to get started.
In the case of my FREE course for absolute beginners, you can go through it end to end, with just your laptop trackpad or computer mouse.
No extra gear, drawing tablet or previous experience needed.
I compressed over 6 years of learning into an easy to follow 5 step system called: "0-100: How to illustrate a car from reference".
Take your first step into the wonderful world of digital automotive illustration for free, here.
That's it for today. If you enjoyed it, let me know! See you on the next one.
All the best,
Juanma from Creating Lightly
โ