Creative muscles and the 10,000-hour rule

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Through my project, I started sketching and creating things again on a daily basis, in order to gradually build a portfolio and train my “art muscles”.

Opinion is divided as to whether it’s a good idea to share work in progress images. Some seem to agree with the fictional character of Llewyn Davis in the movie “Inside Llewyn Davis” who said “you're never supposed to let your practise shit out. Ruins the mystique.”

One of the reasons I personally don’t take that view relates to the so-called ‘10,000-hour rule’ (the theory that, if one dedicates around 10,000 hours to a particular action and does it properly, one will become an expert in that field). This idea was made popular by journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success” in which the author gives examples of success stories from a variety of industries and among others, highlights the journeys of The Beatles, Bill Gates and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

I agree with the principle of this rule. Consequently, if I dedicate 20 hours a week solely to developing my hand and creative mind, I believe I would be a confident professional in 10 years.

This brings me back to explaining my reasoning for sharing my practice stuff, which is:

If I do not post my work in progress and share my journey, after dedicating a lot of time to this project I will also be a professional nobody is aware of.

I am proud of my journey and feel that posting work in progress is fun.

My partner and I were debating about this the other day and he said something I found really inspiring and well put, so (with his permission) I am going to quote him verbatim:

"We should all be proud of our journeys and honest with ourselves and with others. It opens up a community of creativity wherein we can all inspire each other.

It seems to me that, in the internet age, what we might once have shared with our close friends and family, people with forward thinking, modern minds (not necessarily me) are extending that community to the whole world – or at least anyone in the world who is interested (most will not be of course)."

So, here are some of the things I have been working on and trying out this month:

I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject of sharing work in progress and to connect with more professionals in the art world. If you have any comments, tips and/or ideas please leave a comment in the section below, add me on LinkedIn or drop me an email on [email protected].