Talent is Real (but so what?) 

Best advice I heard was don't compete with others, but with yourself.

Talent is another word for intelligence. Not everyone has the same mental capacity in every area. For example, someone may have no inclination for playing piano, but through hard work and 20 years of practice be able to play piano as well as some four year old prodigy. That doesn't change the fact that the four year old will get older and always grasp the concept better and be one step ahead of the person who struggled. Sounds harsh, but there is a genetic aspect here that can't be denied.

THANK YOU! A lot of artists never acknowledge the part talent plays. I had a hard time in art school (and still have) because I am way behind. I had to to acknowledge that I have no talent whatsoever, so I had to bust my ass of to catch back up. Now I draw 3-4h every day after work and sketch people on the way to work (at which I suck, but hey gotta start somewhere). Knowing that you suck helps you alot. Work harder than everyone else. If you want to succeed, its the only way.

Hey Brandon, I really like how open you are about your knowledge. I've been drawing daily for about 2 month after randomly picking up a pen and paper on a whim. I found your channel from watching the video "2 Ways to Level Up Your Art Skills" and have subscribed after watching "What are you Worth." I like how you give advice beyond the technical aspect of making art and into the personal life and mind-set of an artist.Your blog is also filled with great advice, and you wrote in one post that if you aren't feeling frustrated you're probably not doing it right. That line helps me so much, and I go back to that post quite often. I hope you continue what you are doing, and I just want to say that I enjoy your videos and appreciate what you do. You help alot.

I have always had that idea that you have to make money at something for it to be worth doing. But as I get older I’ve learned one thing. And that’s money isn’t everything. If you really are passionate about something namely art, just do it for yourself,you will feel better about the time given towards it because at the end of the day you aren’t trying to impress anyone but yourself. If you can do that then you will improve.

Anyway, the talent you truly need is the talent of persistence and motivation. It boosts you, helps you, makes you work hard,... always the best way instead of getting stuck. Even in a game, you have to push forward to win. You may see a lot wanting to study doctor, science, art,... but in the end, only very few make it through, because all the rest doesn't own the dedication for it. May you be poor, you still need to work hard, because being depressed and weak isn't going to help you earn a coin either. Because if that job truly doesn't work out, what if you find another now being able to see what you have accomplished already. Options are endless!Please work hard (Japanese anime style!)

man, your videos are absolutely great! you put so much thought into what you say, it's really inspiring! keep up the good work!

.love your style,especially how you did the hair

Great commentary and I love that drawing!

Something to consider with art that distinguishes it from something like a strongman-contest is it's openness, though. Fundamentally there is no objective measure to art. Ultimately you will never really know, how "good" you are, because "goodness" is such an abstract concept. A piece of art has specific and uncomparable qualities. Who is a better writer, Samuel Beckett or Earnest Hemingway? Who is a better painter, Malevich or Van Gogh?

great talk. dig the music at the end too. nice to listen while I sketch. The art is cool.

thankyou Brandon for your efforts in your videos... Frankly my life is Fucked at the moment but Art has always been the one thing that actually feeds my soul something it needs. ive been drawing for a few years now but ive always stuck strictly to what my brain wants to learn, and have struggled with learning something like....anatomy for example. Which caused me to do a lot of semi-abstract and abstract stuff. Watching your videos i feel like is helping me put my mind back on track after it was disintegrated, I dont know if i could ever make a career out of art. But a true artist in my opinion knows that the process we go through is deeper than just making money, the money comes after the journey IF you so chose and possibly get lucky to. Keep it up I know i speak for a few people in saying we appreciate it. :) subscribed.

Hey Brandon, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the time and effort you put into your work, and the resulting videos. It's been said, but I do get a lot out of hearing you talk about your journey drawing comics and making a living out of this work, differently from the stable Disney position. So thank you.

I just found you, and I like your thought provoking videos so far so I subscribed. Also, yeah, I too get annoyed by the "You're so talented" in a "Thank you, but it's *skill,* not talent" kind of way. However... yeah, my mom used to draw a lot too, and she's the inspiration that made me start drawing in the first place so in a way, my "talent" is genetic, if that can be possible. I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil though so... you know, skill based on practice is in there too.

Very nice talk. I'm struggling at the moment what to do with my art, where I will or should head to and last but not least how does it compel to the public - earning a little bit to my normal job wouldn't be bad either. Your "ramblings" gave me some fodder for my thoughts!

In the music world, I have something called "perfect pitch" where I can hear a note and match it (and it pains me when things are off tune lol). From what I understand, perfect pitch is genetic and can't be learned, although musicians can train to recognize pitch to a certain extent. I don't play music anymore, so while I have perfect pitch, I'm nowhere near the skill level of actual musicians who work hard everyday to play great music.

great video ! I really like the topics you talk about and the way you warp things up on a good note in the end. one thing that bothered me is the your mic is probably really close to your mouth ( we can hear you swallow and stuff ) which is a bit of a disturbance. other than that really nice video !!! great job :D

One more comment XD But y'know, the receptors, and such.. and the brain... what you think want to summarize eventually is the fact that people don't just give up. They have triggers, but they're both good or bad. So if we simply find a balance in our life with all the things in one, we are able to move forward. Consider out emotions, strength, weaknesses, flaws, ideas, to all be the fuel for our engine. If we lack, bad, if we fill to quick, overheat. So for those who say, I quit or give up, it takes like.. 50 times over for you to say that and you're still going. Depending on of course, how you think and grow as you do say that, but if you get past each obstacle, your brain somewhat changes idea a little. And over the course of your life, it changes more, so you either decide to push it to growth and personal improvement, or to the depths of .. y'know, sadness. Which no one wants. As self harming as we beings are, we hate negativity.

Very good points. Its funny how you make me think about subjects in new ways.

I’ve subscribed to the video ^ - ^ I was shocked when my friend said I was talented in my art after showing her a completed drawing I did, when the rest were pages and pages of unrecognizable shapes and broken figures or studies of the same thing over and over again. I had a laugh at that

Hi Brandon, i really appreciate your art and your way of life as an artist (phylosophy of life should i say.). Your topics are very interresting and helpfull in my "art journey".Thx very much, cheers AH

I really love your videos, your great ideas and perspectives are backed up with really great metaphors and science and research and philosophy stuff which makes it fun and interesting and useful to listen to.

Kind of think you should retitle this "the taoism of stress" - that aspect of your presentation was very compelling

Great video. Being an artist isn't about competing to be the best. Being an artist is about showing your own unique ideas. Everybody has something unique to offer and many fail realize that. By the way I heard jogging makes skinny people gain weight and overweight people lose weight.

Great video! And then there's the ability to make others see your art as something valuable. That's a talent in and of itself. Some of the most (technically) challenged artists are rolling in the Benjis, just being able to sell the emperor his new clothes.

"Talent is real but squandered without skill."

Awesome video. I completely agree with your view on talent, my only objection is that you have a pretty grim perspective on what hunter-gatherers' lives were like. The most likely cause of death was not to be murdered by other humans. Violent death was less than 25%, a pretty high number by our standards, but still, it's not the main cause. Many historians believe that they were the original affluent society.

so true

16:13 They were quoting another song!

What kind of pens do you use? You always have the labels down. I like the darkness of the ink and the ability to do think and thin lines with the same pen... not to mention that whiteout type pen you use.

Have you ever read Outliers? It's odd you didn't mention that in the video.Sorry if you did and I missed it.

Talent only beats hard work if talent works hard.

being tall in strong men competition can be seen as much as a disadvantage,as an advantage.

can you give me an example of a genetic advantage that no matter how much you work hard you can never get that advantage? im new to art and i don't really like the idea of spending hours upon hours of time into something that won't matter because i don't have this genetic advantage. and the more i think about it the less it makes sense, you are born with certain strengths and weaknesses, like being tall for instance, that's a huge advantage that no one else can really obtain through hard work, but is there anything like that for art? i mean there are genetic disadvantages (like not being able to absorb knowledge and use that knowledge, not being to think in 3d etc.) that makes impossible to be good at art but i can't think of any genetic advantage for art that someone can get that makes impossible to be as good as them because you don't have this genetic advantage. now, i don't want to be "the best" i just want to have the skill to be able to market my art and make things but i find it rather discouraging to hear "no matter how much you work hard, change as a person, learn and time you put in you'll never be great or amazing because you don't this genetic advantage". i would like an example at least, because i do know a lot about the basics (like observational drawing, construction drawing, thinking in 3d and in perspective etc.) but all of them you can learn and get better, so your claim that "no matter how much you learn or hard work you put in you'll never be amazing" doesn't really have merit/credibility (yet, i guess).

Lol 1:09 I said Ha! looks like you messed up there -lol those lines can be tricky sometimes i hate when that happens

I think that talent in sports is a whole other thing than in arts , because ,from the research that I have done, DNA and all of that does play a role in how strong you get.

Wow that's such a helpfull video!!

Your channel is very interesting

i personally think talent is real but you don't need talent to be good at artwork

Question; do you really know any artists that don't work very hard and still make great work? Because all good artists I have met work extremely hard. I understand some may work less than others, but I find it hard to believe there are those who can do great work without a huge amount of dedication. I've also never met anyone who has truly dedicated themselves and given 100% who hasn't been able to make art for a living, or even have to "hustle" their way through as you put it. Do you really know of people like this?

This character is very creepy and funny xd but nicely executed XD I love insane demonic art haha I do think this is the goddess Kali, is it?

for real man, i cant hear u more than 1 minute you do too many mouth noises like your mouht is full of saliva im not trying to bashin you, just want to advice you

you draw everyone facing left and that bugs me

hey what pen is that specifically?like size and everything

i dont think hunter gatherer society was that violent...? i dont know, i could be wrong, but your description seems over the top

Nvm, micron... finally saw it.

When people say talent I always think that they mean people are literally born as a better artist than you, and it sounds absurd to me, I don't think we have something like talent - if used in that context, but I do believe that people can be born in an environment that can compliment their artistic future better, But in the end, putting to much effort into one specific thing can be damaging, because you spend so much time on it that you don't have anything else to make you happy, I think enjoying various things in a "above average" level is better than being the best ever in one specific thing that you spent all your life on.

Sure what your referring to is called fluid talent. Not everyone has it like an idiot savant. While there is a large potential for fluid talent it isn’t the only talent out there. The other more common talent called channeled talent is the type you work for to achieve. Such as when you draw enough to finally become better

Is that a JoJo?

Talent is the result of hard work, intelligence and genetics.