I'm an aspiring artist, but I don't "get" Blue Period.

I think that the people who don't get Blue Period are the ones who told you that stuff.
I only see the stuff about the "talent" being present on the manga but the other themes... I don't think so 🤷

What do you think about Blue Period? I think that's more interesting.

I think everybody has a different interpretation of the manga and maybe, based on personal experience, everyone can focus on a different point that the manga makes. I'll try to explain. For me, for example, the part that was more emotional was the beginning, when the main character got into art because he found something that he loves and he is passionate about. It is true that he has no talent for art, meaning that he isn't a prodigy and he needs a lot of more practice compared to other people, but he tries is best and puts all his effort in making art. I aspire to be an artist aswell, and based on my personal experience in art and in life, I believe that I'm probably more talented than him, but he made more progress than me because, personally, the idea of making art and the comparison with other people scares me and i'm very inconsistent with practice. The manga encourages me a lot because he is practicing hard to get better, and even with the comparison with other artist, he keeps going. So to sums up all this yapping, I think everybody understand the manga on a different level and I believe you got a different interpretation based on you personal life experience.

I wouldn't say that he has talent. Because he wasn't good at the beginning, he struggled a lot to get things right. The story for now is set in the time span of 2 years. He started the last year of High School, he went to a yobiko where he practiced a lot and now he is at university, where he practice a lot more. A person that has talent gets better way faster at the beginning, but he doesn't, he works really hard and he struggles to get good artwork like Yotasuke, the real talent here. If you think Yatora is better than you because he has talent, I don't think that's the case. Sometimes you can't get good because you practice in the wrong way and you need more time to get better because of this. Idk if you are pursuing a career as artist or if you are studying at an art university, but my understanding of blue period is about how hard he works because he doesn't have talent, so he has to work a lot, and you can actually see his struggles because of this. He is surrounded by very good artist, more talented than him and with more experience, he is there because he worked very hard. That's the point that people make when they talk about crashing the idea of talent, they talk about the hard work of Yatora to get there and the fact that you don't need to be "talented" to get good, but you need passion and a lot of hard work. Idk if I explained myself properly.

I can't tell you exactly why you aren't improving faster, I can only assume why and maybe give you some advice on what I would do.
I follow a lot of artists on YouTube that post a lot of tutorial and lessons and they help a lot the community. I would recommend you to try get a look at them to see if you are practicing in the right way and most importantly if you are practicing the right things. I would recommend you artists like samedoesart, Marc brunet, Proko; for inspirations and new ideas about art I would say Jazza, nerdforge, drawfee show. They are good youtubers that help a lot.

also, you are probably getting better at drawing, but with you getting better, you are also getting better at seeing mistakes, this thing may trick you into thinking that you aren't getting better because you keep seeing mistakes, but they are probably different mistakes compared to the first ones you did when you started to draw.

I really hope this helps and I wish you luck on you art journey. Don't give up and keep trying if you love what you are doing.

TL;DR The show is only inspiring if you can find points to relate to. It mostly points out that there are many approaches to art, and raw talent can be quickly polished with graft. If you don't "get" it or don't find inspiration in Blue Period, find what inspires you.

I think some of it can depend on where you are in your artistic phase. This manga/anime sparked my passion for painting and creating again briefly. I went into it, I think, off a vague referral by a friend, or maybe I just stumbled across it on Netflix. Either way, I entered with no expectations at an all-time low with art. I related to Yaguchi in a few ways, though he has a lot more raw talent in some areas than I do. However, we both gravitated towards non-objective or abstract works as artists while being inspired by some works that were more grounded in realism.

Like many things, I think this series, while extraordinary, in my opinion, was pitched to you in a way that overhyped it. I was brought to your attention as a marvel, something that would change you. That's not good for art. It's also not good for an aspiring artist. Going into a piece with a specific view will change your view on that piece.

As for the talent end, I think Blue Period shows that you can polish raw talent more so than get across that anyone can be an artist. Maybe if it knew it would have a green light for multiple seasons, it would have taken a different angle. Or perhaps it will get a spin off that will show us the road for another character in the series that may have had to graft to just be good enough to be taken seriously in high school but failed to break into the professional art world. Honestly, I think this series showed me that I'm not an artist, I'm a guy who does art. Blue Period shows that to be an artist, you have to love the process, not the product.

If you don't find these messages or any inspiration in the series, that's fine. I can say my most recent spark was found when I was reading Sayonara Football/ Farewell, My Dear Cramer, created by the writer and illustrator of Your Lie in April, Naoshi Arakawa. It is a manga about high school girls' soccer, and it brings out something from deep within me. I'm a 20-something man, and every time I read about these girls playing soccer, it gets me amped up. I got so inspired that it threw me into this manic episode where I completed three of my half finished works over the course of 4 hours and started another one. Their love of the game and the competitive spirit resonates with me as I used to play baseball in college and I was seeking to play some level of pro ball but when the world shut down so did my opportunity to go play in Europe that I had set up. Now, it eats me alive that I didn't get to pursue it. I tried to quit, and I haven't played in a while, but it's like a drug. You can quit, but a small part of you will always gnaw at the back of your head and try to pull you back in. Anything can inspire you to create. You just have to go find what speaks to you, not what speaks to others.

@Karupentaru-chan

Do you know if there's a way to force myself into loving the process, or if someone who doesn't love the process can still get good at it?