An anime about art.
plus what's new? and the creative play-list #12
There’s this anime on Netflix called Blue Period.
It’s about a high school student, Yatora, who gets interested in painting and decides to learn and apply to art school. Sounds basic right?
Well, I’m not done yet with the show, but so far it does a good job of showing how hard it is to learn something new, comparing yourself with other more experienced people in the same field, and also being honest with yourself that you are not good enough.
But the funny thing is, it also shows that the more experienced people also feel the exact same way about themselves. This makes me think about how frustrating it can be to be an artist/creative (photographer in my case).
There’s an episode that stands out to me and that’s episode 7. Yatora has a conversation with his prep school teacher who tells him he is not self-centered enough, thereby affecting his ability to make good art. He has become too studious and technical about making art and has lost his ability to have fun while making art.
He then goes to his high school to pick up an old sketchbook he submitted when he first got interested in art. His art club teacher tells him how she loved the drawings in that sketchbook because it looked like he had fun just drawing anything and everything he saw.
Now to be honest, the old drawings were TERRIBLE, and he definitely draws better now, but learning techniques in order to get better had also turned him into some sort of technique monster where he only thought about rules and finds it hard to portray emotion or feeling with his art. He later admits to his friend Koi that he can’t remember the feeling of having fun. He tells Koi that he’s afraid he won’t recover if he makes art out of fun but gets rejected.
And that is something I think most artists/creatives can relate with. When we first get started, we are so excited to be making stuff and learning new techniques. In fact, some of us become quite obsessed, and we practice every day. But after we learn these techniques, it all slows down and it gets to a point we start having days where we don’t even want to create stuff or we just don’t enjoy the stuff we create. It’s peaks and valleys and every creative experiences it.
The really good thing about this episode is when Koi goes on to tell Yatora that seeing him work hard to learn art gave him the courage to pursue his own dream. He and the other guys in their friend group didn’t know that Yatora was that insecure about himself and his art. They just saw their friend working hard and having fun pursuing art.
I feel this is getting too long now and I’m not trying to write a review of this anime. I just really liked this episode because I found so many relatable things in there.
Self-confidence,
hard work,
creating with fun,
anxiety over created works,
and feelings of not being good enough.
If you also make money from your art, the stakes get higher, and the pressure increases.
Somedays the valleys get so deep you feel you won’t get out.
I don’t have or know a solution to getting over it. I just do what I can. Take a break if you need to, but creating stuff is fun.
It always has been.
We only just forget!
What’s New?
If you noticed, there was no newsletter last Friday. That’s because I’ve decided to switch things up due to other projects I’m working on. I actually thought of stopping the newsletter completely for a month, but decided I didn’t really want to do that.
Instead, I’ll be sending it out once a week on Tuesdays and sort of compiling both the Tuesdays and Fridays letters into one. I don’t know how well this will work but I’m trying it out now starting with this one.
Please feel free to let me know what you think!
x
ash.
The Creative Play-list #12
Check out Popular Anime Openings but it’s Lofi Remix by Chill Out & Lofi Music if you need a playlist to work or study. And if you’re also into anime and lofi music ✌🏼😁.
For those who feel like giving up by Life of Riza.
For whatever weird reason, this popped up on my homepage and I ended up watching a bunch of How to Dad’s videos. They are hilarious and he even gave a Ted talk. Here’s HOW TO TALK TO A BABY. Enjoy!