Talent or Hard Work?

He is talented. She is very talented. How many times do we hear this?  This term is used for people who excel at anything, whether it's sports, music or other examples I can't think of at the moment.  Well, I'd like to talk about this term being used as often as it is when it comes to illustrators, whether it's about 2D, 3D, concept art, all the way to traditional.  We see artists being labeled this term all too often, and I believe people are making a mistake when they say or write this.

The artists who are that good are at that level because they work their asses off.  They study and paint at a rapid pace, far more than others.  Illustration for me is certainly a skill that you can improve on the more you do, and I'd like to believe this applies to anything else.  10,000 of practice to become a master in your profession.  This quote that's overused makes a lot of sense.  I say this for people getting into the business or simply fans of these artists.  It's a backhanded compliment.  You don't have to take my word for it, you just have to take my word when I say that I've heard and read interviews of people far better than I state this.

Doesn't matter how good you are, everyone needs to work their ass off to succeed.

I'm not saying talent is irrelevant.  There are freaks out there that have incredible talent.  Tesla, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Musk are all freaks of nature when it comes to their fields.  But you can bet that they've worked their asses and engross their lives into their field.  Look at Romario or Ronaldinho for Brazil, incredible talents that could have been much better if they had a better work ethic despite being freaks of nature when it comes to football.  Now look at Cristiano Ronaldo, whose won every title for two of the biggest clubs in the world.  He doesn't drink and is the first in training and works his ass off given by many interviews of football players who have played with him.  What's my point?  That even talented people need to work their asses off. 

cghub, THE website for concept artist fans

For those interested in illustration or specifically concept artwork, my personal favorite website for me is cghub.com.  It's the cleanest website, where you can also find some of the best concept artists in the world in it.  Each has their own profile with information regarding work, website, who they did work for etc etc.  My favorite part of the website is that the first page has pieces of artwork that are some of the best/recent which filters out the rest of the work that isn't quite as good.  I like this because sometimes you don't want to see any work, just come in quick for 5-10 minutes and look at the best work if you haven't been on the website for a week or more.  It's convenient, and it works well in my opinion.

Obviously you can see early released work of everyone in the website in the specific section and even I myself cannot possibly compare myself to these greats yet (which is why I no longer put some of my work until I get better here unlike deviantArt).  Not that I discourage anyone that visits the website to not put their work if it's not up to par with the best, I do this and my way sure as hell is not the best.  It's just something I chose to do until I get a bit better and also I have not jumped into the concept artist genre specifically.

The website also has the typical things you need in places such as this.  Challenges section where in the forums a challenge is to illustrate a certain object/monster/etc. and then whoever wishes creates it, then people vote for their favorites.  It's a great way for fellow artists to get better, improve themselves by these challanges.  I again, have not done this but I'm too busy nowadays unfortunately and have my own ideas that I have to flesh out first.  I would recommend others to do this if they don't have anything to do and want to test themselves.  The forums are well designed, clean and have a nice pop to it.

newest release section, 3D and 2D work next to each other

There are also lessons you can take from the website, obviously which you would have to pay.  You learn from some of the best out there if people are interested.  Another interesting side that they have is for those looking for jobs is that they have a solid amount of job postings out there for freelancers and potential full time work for those of you looking for it.

Just so if you are reading, you have a clear idea of what it looks like ^ and are too lazy to go to the website, I picked some images.  One thing that did surprise me was how massive the amount of 3D work is at the website.  There is plenty of 2D and 3D to go around for all that are interested.  Some artists seem to be quite capable at both genres (those talented bastards...).  Along with articles and blogs being added by artists, it has plenty of content, it's designed in an appealing way and overall works very well.  For me, it's the best or rather my favorite concept art website though there's a few good ones out there which I will get to later on.