Virtues Of Successful Artists

In every community, across all time, there exists a trait or a set of traits that that community holds to high regard. Aside from these traits being a point of social credibility, they also served as a mechanism to create a society that was better specialized for a certain task. These traits are what are known as virtues. Whether it be the Ancient Spartans and the virtue of courage making them better warriors or modern-day Architects and the virtue of abstract thinking that allows them to create wonderfully beautiful buildings, one's adherence to these virtues is an easy metric to predict how successful one will be in any given group. I am here to say that being an artist is no different, Artists, as a community, have virtues that are well respected and stand to make anyone who lives up to them, a more successful artist. In this articl,e I will list multiple, the first of which is...

1. Conviction

Conviction is the ability to hold a belief to not be easily swayed, dismissed, or discouraged from holding that belief. Conviction is absolutely essential in the life of an artist on ah a large and small scale. small-scale view, artists need to have conviction in the many decisions they have to make in each piece. Whether that be in choosing an unconventional subject, working with color schemes that aren't what others like, or even working toward a style that some might call outdated or childish, regardless of what decision it may be, an artist must be able to have a reason behind it and the wherewithal to stick with it. On a larger scale, conviction is necesforry in the life of an artist because of the nature of the career. If one chooses to pursue art as their livelihood one will have to deal with the common criticisms: people may tell you it's an unrealistic career path, one may have doubts about your skills and abilities in general. As with all virttheretheir exists a negative trait that often can seem like it. In this case, while conviction is good to have bullheadedness is not. You should be sure to stick to your plans and dreams, but being totally dismissive of others ideas and criticisms is a sure way to fail. 

2. Self Discipline

Self Discipline is the ability to consistently hold fixed to a goal and continually make decisions that lead to that goal, purely motivated by your 'want' to achieve said goal. Although 'self-discipline' often seems like a macho-man, bootstraps type attribute, but, if you want to get anywhere it should be easy and natural. If you really love art and have aspirations to make it your career, getting up every day and doing something that involves art shouldn't be a chore. In art, just like in any othself-employment employment, you truly are your own boss. This means that you, and only you, are responsible for: the amount of hours you put into art, the research you do to improve, and keeping yourself Self-discipline discipline islarge-scalelarge scale virtue. By "large scale" Iself-discipline discipline is most important for keeping you on tracklong-termr long term goals.

3. Risk-Tolerance

Risk-Tolerance speaks to an ability to recognize risk and a willingness to act even with said risk. The risk-tolerant artist understands that in every facet of life, there will be risk, and often times the risk may outweigh the reward. But they also recognize that sometimes not taking risks is more 'risky' than giving something new a shot. On a small scale, every artist must be able to make decisions in their art, whether that be in an individual painting or song. In a larger sense, every artist must realize that in trying to make a living out of what you love, there is risk. The risk of not making enough money or even the risk of social judgement. In all aspects of their life, an artist must be able to recognize and know what risks are worth taking.

4. Reverence

To have reverence toward something or someone is to have a deep and genuine respect. For artists, this respect is crucial, artists must have respect for what came before them. While it is important to be true to yourself and your own art, you must also recognize those that, in the past, have achieved all that you aspire to. Not only does this reverence for the past keep you a learner's mindset (vital to being an artist) It also gives you reference to how what you want to do, has been done before. This doesn't only apply to the old masters like 'da Vinci' or Rembrandt. You can take this with any artist, this could be an artist on YouTube that paints eyes like no other, or a graphic designer that has a style that is so unique. Recognize that everyone can teach you something.

5. Idealism

 Idealism is the concept of seeing things how they could or should be, rather than just taking them for how they are. While being realistic is important to artists psyche, Idealism is just as important. In fact, being too 'realistic' can become an endlessly pessimistic loop where no risks ever get taken. Idealism on a small scale is seeing that although it may be very tedious and difficult to fix this part of a painting, it would look much better. Or, although this kind of music isn't popular and there's a chance no one will listen to it, I know I would love it and I would be proud of it. On a much larger scale, artists often have to trick themselves into believing that the whole idea of being an artist is possible. Because for most people, this is not something they grew up seeing. In a perfect world, everyone would be 'realistic- idealists'