Painter: This is Serious Stuff

Introduction
Study, study, study! You may think that you need some intrinsic talent to be a painter, this is not so, all you need is patience and the pantheon of masters who have come before you. Immerse yourself in Da Vinci and then in Rembrandt; stare at Goya until you feel like you’re being devoured by Saturn; trace and copy everything you see of worth until you can do it without having to trace anymore.

Job Function
The painter has the hardest job in the world, there is no equal to creating beauty out of pigmented oils. There is very little joy to be had when serious work is at hand. It is laborious, tedious, mathematical and difficult…sometimes torturously so. Some will tell you that to be an artist one must only enjoy painting: listen to that advice and you will be a joke of a painter, do you really expect to lift people to the heights of aesthetic glory just by enjoying yourself? It will never happen. Advertisement
Lifestyle
No more messing around. You want to be a painter? Then put away those number 2 pencils and that printer paper, throw those worthless doodles away and devote yourself properly to your craft. Study and practice, damn it, study and practice. Your life as a painter can be nothing else but the life of a painter: you can no longer be the goofy kid, the habitual drunkard, the guitarist of a rock band, the hopeless romantic or anything else. This is a serious business, and if you don’t devote yourself completely then you are just a dabbler, a scribbler, a cartoonist masquerading under a title you do not deserve. If you only use half of your ass, you will never sit with the grand-masters.

Additional Information
The profession of painter is the greatest profession that there is, but it is not easy, you cannot just be a lazy person and assume that painting is for you because it allows you to not hold a 9 to 5. You will find yourself a failure if that is your attitude. It is more intense and time consuming than, I think, any other profession, so be prepared.