The easiest and most certain way to screw up a drawing, or painting or sculpture is to never create it at all.

What happens when we let our doubts and insecurities take over? Art cannot live or thrive.

What if I never created it to begin with or if we throw it away or crumple it up and toss it in the corner?

What prevents you from creating the work you are meant to make?

One of the big things that stopped me cold in my tracks and caused the death of so many sculptures and was a rigid set of rules and expectations. I had some ideas about art that were really intense.

What is your rule for art?

What does art have to be or do for you to consider it artwork? <!--more-->

I believed that in order for something to be considered art, it had to be created by the highest-level craftsman at the highest state of joy.

If that was my rule for art it was also very likely the standard I set for myself as an artist. That’s a pretty high bar. How often do you think I realize that state of pure...

In this chapter from Unleash Anatomy, I go over how to use the shape concept inside of ZBrush. Many times we get lost trying to be accurate or to make something "right". We forget the larger shapes and get bogged down in details, words, measurements.

That can instantly destroy a drawing as heavy linework begins to take over and your piece looses the subtly you were going for.

-Ryan

Sometimes we get so busy training to be the artist we want to be that we forget to breath, relax and just BE the artist that we already are.

Today, let's stop and remember this so we do not fall into the trap of acquiring skill after skill after skill.

The Skill Trap is just seems so out of place with the freedom and life affirming aspects of creating art. It's like going to Target and filling our shopping cart with tutorials, books, workshops, lessons, tutorials on faces, tutorials on children's faces... but where are we going with all this skill?

When do we ever leave Target and start to create our own ART. Not our teachers art, our mentors, our mothers, our friends, or even our industries artwork. When do we stand on our own two feet and say, "This is mine. This... is me."

Imagine a little girl who doesn't like her body. She thinks she is too fat or too thin. She tries on all sorts of clothing but never leaves the house. Never goes out in public because she doesn't think she i...