#5: What's A Sellout?
By what degree should your artistic output be determined by your commercial goals?
I've just gotten back from a month-long trip to Korea and Hong Kong. There's a lot to write about, but I want to wrap up some thoughts that I left off from the previous piece before moving on. This piece continues from the last one: The Importance of Commercial Goals.
Some goals appear to be easier to achieve if you change your artistic output to fit the commercial goal. For example, if your commercial goal was to win a specific art competition that in the past has favoured stylized art over photorealistic art, for some artists it'd only make sense to push their art entry towards stylization. For others that might be entirely inauthentic and misaligned.
This dilemma happens time and time again, whether it's landing that industry job, gaining more followers on social media or attracting higher-paying clients. Every artist will be faced with this decision, and there's nothing wrong with wherever you sit on the spectrum.
For some, where you sit on this spectrum determines whether you're an illustrator or a fine artist. It's up to every single artist to decide how much they want to change their style to fit market demand.
All the artists I admire seem to be able to make whatever they want and have the market flock to them. They appear to be the tastemakers, the ones that determine what becomes popular. They're the ones that make the creative decisions that don't get questioned.
I'm unsure how accurate that is, though.
I acknowledge that there's something with my relationship to art that wants what I create to be shown, enjoyed and liked. At the same time, I'm also quite cautious about making artistic decisions with a goal in mind to get a reaction that is not within my control - approval, admiration, desire, and so on - or making artistic decisions out of insecurity or jealousy.
"X is so successful because they're drawing in *this* style - that's what I need to do to get more followers!"
I think when starting and finishing a piece I should fix my commercial goals in mind and consider the project from that macro perspective. And when I'm in the thick of it and producing the damn thing, I should aim to always make the most artistic, musical decision in any given moment - whether that lends itself to my commercial goals or not. To take the micro perspective, and trust in the process.
Being an artist often requires pursuing opposite ideas simultaneously:
Making the most artistic decision is something that happens in flow, in pure concentration on what you're doing with no thought to the external world - it's just you and your canvas/instrument.
Pursuing your commercial goals requires you to make decisions that are observant and considered, looking externally as a measure of your success.
These two ideas hold a lot of tension with each other, and they sound contradictory - but I feel like the best creations occur when two contradictory ideas are explored simultaneously, in harmony. Setting off towards a specific direction while leaving space in between for artistry to happen.
I believe it's not only possible to do both well, but required to make great art. And I believe the only way to do so is with a sense of lightness and playfulness. Only with a sense of humour will we be able to navigate this strange landscape of paradoxes and come out better. There'll be lots to write about for this topic for another time.
Ingest:
Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue - Over my trip I’ve been working through this samurai manga, and I’m convinced it’s one of the best I’ve ever read. The artwork and storytelling is truly on another level. Absolutely incredible. Recommended to me by Thomas - thanks!
Minecraft - Volume Alpha by C418 - I’ve been listening to this while working, and it’s stunning. The amount of nostalgia it conjures up for me is overwhelming. A beautiful, lilting, wistful soundtrack to one of the most incredible games of all time.