Another week down and onto chapter 6 of “Steal Like an
Artist”. The title sums up most of the chapter, The Secret: do good work and
share it with people. The chapter starts off by talking about how to get
yourself discovered. When your in collage everyone is there to help whether it
is the teacher that is getting paid to or the other students who are paying to
learn and give feedback. The auther goes on to talk about how this all changes
when school is over. There is no one listening as much to you anymore. He does
say this is a good time to just work on anything because until you find a job
and start making money this is the only real time you have to have the freedom to
do what you want how and how you want.
The next part talks about how to get yourself discovered.
The answer given is to make your presence, this could be buy doing multiple
things but the chapter mainly focuses on the web. Using a blog is one of the
best ways to get your name and work out there. Whether you want to show some of
your finished projects, your process on those projects or simple sketches to
gather others info and input. He also talks about being different, if people
are talking about apples then go and talk about oranges to spark new interest
and content.
The blog doesn’t have to be just your finished projects, by
creating new ideas or topics posted on a blog creates an incubator of ideas. It
is like a holding pool for people to react and come up with ideas from and find
creative solutions and suggestions. You can read peoples responses and see what
works and what doesn’t or if someone has tried it before.
The other thing the author mentions by having an online
presence is that this could also be a kick in the butt. What he means by this
is that most blog sites put your newest blogs first when a reader comes to your
page. Which also means that you newest
and best stuff is the first thing they will see, so you are always trying to
put something newer and better up which becomes a never ending battle.