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You are here: Home / Archives / The Kirby/Ditko lesson: “It’s never too late!”

The Kirby/Ditko lesson: “It’s never too late!”

July 24, 2018 by Steve Garcia Leave a Comment

 

Excuses are your Kryptonite. And they come in many forms.
Recently I had a conversation with someone on facebook about being an artist.
He said something that I hear fairly often.
“I wish I could draw better. But I started late.”

To which my reply is always the same:

“It’s not so much when you start…but how much time you spend doing it when you finally do.”

How *good* you get will depend on how many hours you invest at doing what you say you *love* to do. Figure out what your weaknesses are and throw time into strengthening them.
You have issues drawing hands? Do nothing but hands. Feet? Spend tons of time doing feet!
It’s a ‘time investment’ thing.
You invest the time. You WILL get better.

“The Fear Factor”

Excuse:
“Well….I’ve had a regular job for a while now. I still draw and paint. But I couldn’t make that jump to being able to do it more as a moneymaking thing”

Uh…what?
This is a new frontier my friends. With so many online resources opening a ton of new opportunities.

Let’s be honest. Often times it’s nothing more than fear (or laziness) that is stopping someone from pursuing his/her dream. Whatever that might be.
No different in the artistic realm.
Now, I’m not saying you just up and quit your job and pursue art full time.
Of course not. But you can build towards that.
It just takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make it happen.

One such example of that is a guy by the name of Christopher Cayco.
He was a car tech before pursuing art full time.
He had a passion for art. And really wanted to pursue that passion.
Somewhere around the year 2015, he got into the convention circuit.
And he did this by:
1) Drawing his backside off and improving his skills.
2) Going to a convention as an attendee, and watching. Taking notes. Seeing what it all was about on the biz end. In short…how to do it!

And that’s what he does now. Full time.
Again…this is a guy, who put the work into it.
Not just artistically. But mentally. Studying how one can AND DOES make this into a full time gig.

And he’s doing it.
Can you? There are no guarantees for any of us. But you won’t know…unless you try.
(And yeah…that goes for me too! Currently I’m in the process of trying something new on my end as well. Are there concerns? Heck yeah! But at some point, you have to move past the ‘just thinking about it’ phase….into the “DOING IT” phase.

Old dogs, new tricks

And while you’d think that this is restricted to just younger artists, a lot of veteran artists also fall victim to this mindset.
“I’m too far along”…
“Can’t teach an old dog new tricks..”
“My best years are behind me….”

And to this I say NONSENSE!
And you only need to look to one example to prove this:

Jack Kirby.

For those few people out there that don’t know who Jack Kirby is, Let me quickly fill you in. Jack Kirby is a comic book artist, who with Stan Lee created most of the Marvel Comics stable of hero’s. Not all…but a TON of them.

And he did this primarily in the 60’s. Starting with the “Fantastic Four” in 1961.
At the age of 45!

Yes, Kirby was already an established talent. Working in comics for a very long time before working for Marvel back in the early 60’s. But his explosion of work and creativity in that time…In the creation of what is known as the “Marvel Universe” in his mid 40’s on up, should prove to dispel the lie of “it’s too late for me”.

It’s never too late.

Never too late to be creative.
Never too late to be artistically relevant.
Never too late to have your voice heard!

The amazing Steve Ditko, (Creator of Spiderman, Doctor Strange etc) who recently passed away on June 27th,  at the age of 90, was working up until his final days.
Being creative.

Contributing.

Again…never too late.
The only thing that is stopping you, IS you!
The self doubt that has somehow creeped into your artistic heart, and convinced you that your best creative days are behind you.
They aren’t.
But it’s up to you to make sure of that fact.
And the way you do that…is to create!
Pick up that pad. Pencil. Pen. Paint. Get out there and throw everything you can at that canvas. Whether it be a digital canvas, or traditional.

Do your thing and push it into the masses .
Your own creation, even the one you think is your weakest…could very well be the next big thing to rock the public!

But you won’t know that if you don’t get over that hurdle of “It’s too late”.

It’s never too late.

And Kirby and Ditko have shown you the way.

VIVA!!

(Post note: Please check out Chris Cayco’s youtube channel to see some wonderful convention vlogs as well as other art vids he makes. A wonderful talent and a great guy)

https://www.youtube.com/user/ccayco

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Animator, Illustrator, Proud Husband and Daddy.

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