Bucketgirl

Skill vs Taste ⬇️

Bucketgirl munching on popcorn at the cinema was one of my earliest ideas but i didn’t have the skill to bring her to life. This was as good as I could possibly do at the time.

Your ideas, the way you interpret the world, your authentic voice — that’s your taste. But you need skills to bring that taste to life.

Ira Glass has a great explanation of this: “All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is a gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.”

It took four years of constantly drawing buckets to begin to close the gap between my skills and my taste. I’m not sure I could have made this animation even a year ago.

If you’ve got something you want to express, don’t give up while you’re closing that gap. It’ll take years. It’s normal. It’s ok. Keep making things.

I’d like to do bucketgirl at the cinema in another four years and see how much the gap has closed then.

ALSO — am I crazy or does OG buckets have a certain quiet charm to her?

#animation #animationart #artmotivation #animationreel