It is said that to become a master in anything, you need to put in 10,000 hours to train, I personally think it's much less but that number scares many people away, specially for the older people.
Many of us don't see training four hours per day, five days a week for ten years as a viable way to enter a market. but that calculation isn't that accurate, many of us already have lots of training under our belts. all of the hours you've spent listening to your favorite music, all of the hours you've spent admiring other's paining, all of the hours you've watched a master demonstrating their art on YouTube, all of those count.
In other hand, you don't need to become a master to be a pro, the barrier to enter a market and get paid isn't that high, as long as you learn the basics, you are better at it than the average Joe and Jane. that slight advantage gives you the edge to cut yourself a niche into the pros world and establish your own brand.
Also, there is lots of work in every market and lot less masters to do it all, the majority of the work is always done by those who are in their way up, it's not just training all the way, borrowing money and living a starving artists life. you'll train at the same time as you work, it would be like any other job with one difference, you actually love and enjoy doing it.
Doing it as a job, you'll be surrounded with the thing that you want to become a master at, then more of your time would count towards your 10,000 hours, your time with the clients, the meetings with the new friends, the work you'll bring home, the time you spend on the bus and soon you'll dream about it, we're not going to count your sleep time as training though, that's a slippery slope to become lazy ;)
to sum it up, don't be afraid of the big number, the road to become a master is not climbing a cliff, it's a slight up-heel slope full of helping hands, snack shacks and fellow travelers. your dream is easier to reach than you have imagined.
Now let's take a look at my steps.
It takes lots of trying to get something for me, but I love every failing attempt because they trigger emotions and will be carved in my brain while doing something at the first attempt has no emotional baggage and can be forgotten easily.
here I'm struggling to get the chins right and I've failed every time. I know that's going to be a source of pain for me for a long time. but I'm going to keep chipping this obstacle till it's gone.
And trying to learn the different ways that eyes are drawn. it seems that the majority of the attention goes into the eyes. some of those eyes came out a bit obscene but I assure you they are cartoon eyes :D
