Alright, so you’ve probably heard about Aaron Matthews. Or at least seen his stuff, right? Looks slick. Super smooth. Like he just rolls out of bed and creates gold. Everyone online seems to think he’s got it all figured out, some kind of secret sauce.
So, I thought, ‘Hey, I want some of that.’ Decided to really dig in, you know? See if I could bottle up that Aaron Matthews magic. Spent a good few weeks on it, maybe more, trying to get my head around his methods, his style, whatever it is that makes his work stand out.
First thing, I tried to copy his setup. I gathered all the interviews, any behind-the-scenes stuff, pieced together what tools he might be using, his workflow, the whole nine yards. Or what I thought was his setup from bits and pieces online. I really tried to follow it step-by-step. I figured if I did what he did, I’d get similar results. Sounds logical, doesn’t it?
Well, let me tell you, what you see and what is are two totally different beasts. That ‘effortless’ look? Man, that’s a myth. Or at least, it’s not effortless for anyone else trying to just jump in. I got bogged down in the details pretty quick. Stuff that seemed intuitive when he did it, or when you just looked at the final product, felt like wrestling an alligator when I tried. It was frustrating, to be honest.
I realized it wasn’t about the tools, not really. Or even the specific steps I thought he was taking. It was something else. That ‘Aaron Matthews’ touch isn’t a technique you just learn from a manual or a quick tutorial. It’s built up. Layer by layer. Years of it. All those tiny decisions, the intuition, the stuff he probably doesn’t even think about consciously anymore. That’s the real core of it, and you can’t just download that.
And here’s the kicker: I reckon even Aaron Matthews doesn’t just ‘do an Aaron Matthews’ every single time, straight out of the gate. There’s gotta be a ton of trial and error, stuff that ends up in the bin, days where nothing clicks, just like for the rest of us. We just don’t see that part. We see the highlight reel, the polished end piece. It’s like those perfect Instagram photos, you know? You don’t see the fifty shots they deleted to get that one.
So, what did I get out of all this ‘practice’? Did I master the Aaron Matthews way? Nope. Not even close. But I did learn something important. Chasing someone else’s shadow, trying to be a carbon copy, is a fast track to frustration. You can admire, you can learn bits and pieces, pick up a few tricks, for sure. But you gotta build your own thing. Your own messy, clumsy, sometimes infuriating, but eventually your own way of doing stuff. It’s not as glamorous as just instantly being as good as Aaron Matthews, but hey, it’s real. And that’s probably more valuable than any ‘magic formula’ someone else is selling, even if they don’t mean to sell it. It’s about the journey, not just trying to teleport to the destination.
