I'd love to hear an advice for you amazing mods: what's the best way to deal with perfectionism? As an aspiring artist I know I still have a lot to learn and I have to strike to be always better, but being stuck into an unproductive circle of dissatisfaction with my own works and the fear that better artists than me will not appreciate my efforts again (from an actual awful experience), it starting to feel like a torture for me. Many many thanks in advance.
I think between our inferior-complexes, imposter syndromes, pride, guilt and anxiety - we artists are probably prone to trouble ourselves with harsh rhetoric moreso than other faculties might.
There’s a reason artistry and slight insanity walks hand in hand ( Looking at you Van Gogh ), and since an artist’s process never stops, the only thing that sometimes separates a good artist from a great artist, is how they manoeuvre themselves and the immense pressure the environment puts on us per default.
Often our anxiety starts when we look at others, and see just how much progress they have- and are making, forgetting that our journey will never be the same as theirs ( see my talk on art-critic rhetoric ).
What’s important to remember is that artists, even those better than you harbour the same anxiety to a degree, and they are most likely vetting the content you see. You’re only being exposed to the cream of the crop. Chances are your favourite artist has a backlog of absolutely nonsensical and unappealing pieces archived in sketchbooks that they low-key don’t want anyone to look in.
This contributes to the collective understanding that everything we produce must be perfect, interesting and engaging all at once. But let’s be frank at least half the stuff we produce is gonna be sub-par -at best-, cause we’re not always at peak-artistic capacity when working.
Personally, my sketchbooks look a little something like this:
( A very recent doodle: after a full day of classes and wanting to draw something cool, but being unable to properly focus and make anything look remotely consistent. Needless to say, I gave up trying, went home, ate ice cream, played video games, and felt very -very- sorry for myself )
^this has been my mentality for a couple years. After starting at my first art-school back in 2016, and being confronted with the fact that there were many artists out there, and they were all much much better than me. Going through the semester being the worst in class at the topics we were tackling 99% of the time opened up my eyes to a couple of coping mechanisms, and rhetorical methods to prevent myself becoming depressed over my own feeling of inadequacy.
Luckily, our classroom environment was healthy and supportive, as they frequently are in many proper art-schools, so I’d enter class with my homework, put it on the wall beside the rest of the student’s. I’d look at my classmates, shrug my shoulders at my inferior work and simply say “ It’s something “. Is it good? no! Would I be proud to display it somewhere to people outside my class? Absolutely not! But I made it, whether I poured effort into it or not, it is something I produced.
- To Quote comedian Tim Minchin “ It’s not perfect, but it’s mine “
On top of that, one of our guest teachers would preach a mentality that also came to stick with me along with “ it’s something”.
It’s been two years since I got my diploma from that school, and while I have moved on, to a new one, and isn’t the worst in class no more, I still use the phrase whenever I churn out something I’m not wholly proud of ( which is quite often ).
Is it perfect? no, is it riddled with errors and details I can improve upon? Oh definitely. But I’ve spent 6 hours / 3 days on this and I want to move on. Not every piece you create, even when pouring your best into it - is going to be a great piece, so after the first session of critique on a particular piece, let it go. This piece is in the past and you’re moving on now.
Having a handful of finished artworks, rather than a dozen unfinished because you got deterred by your own critical sense feels better and you learn more from just powering through to the end, and telling your inner demons to shut their mouths and let you have your fun.
“ Your own biggest fan, and your own worst critic “
There’s a balance to be struck when it comes to self-evaluation. You need to look at your works critically, of course, but you also need to applaud yourself and give yourself space to actually like and enjoy your creative process. No matter how trivial or silly it seems, positively pointing out little details, shapes or whatever - on a piece of art you made, can help you shift your negative mindset onto more neutral terms. It is a gradual process, and more than often you ‘ll find yourself praising something seemingly insignificant. But what you need to train yourself to understand is that it is all right to like imperfect things for arbitrary reasons.
Here’s a fun game for you to play when evaluating your art after finishing. You can critique anything, as much as you want, but for every critical observation you make, you -MUST- make one positive. Doesn’t matter how small the praise, all that matters is that you balance out the amount of critique with praise.
And you should ALWAYS tackle the critique first, and then follow up with praise. Like this, you won’t leave the image on a negative note.
“ This arm is totally out of place, but I managed to pick a pretty nice colour for his shirt “
The Dunning-Kruger effect
I often show this model to the students attending my convention-crash courses on drawing. Usually at the beginning of a course, so that they might get an understanding of their current thought patterns.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a model that explains that your confidence in a craft is decided by your ignorance to the craft itself.
You start out, high on confidence since you know very little, and thusly by default might feel that you have, to a degree, ‘mastered’ your craft. That is when the real world hit you, and where many young budding artists lose themselves entirely. Life comes in like a sledgehammer and shatters our understanding of a craft we thought we knew everything about, and everyone else seems so much further ahead than us. It can seem hopeless to keep going. But if we -do- go on. And we keep pushing ourselves both through critical and praising mindsets, we ‘ll push our understanding of the craft itself, and we’ll grow to find ourselves much more confident in the notion that we are not perfect, and will never be. This is a very normal and natural thought-process, and we should never be afraid of facing neither the peak of ignorance or the dip in confidence. it’s all part of a process that must take place to push us forward.
So if you feel like the rug has been pulled out under your feet, don’t worry, you’re coming to grasp with how massive and wild the art-world is. Congratulations, you’ve burst through your bubble of ignorance, and you’re ready to pursue the craft without your blindfolds on.
We’re all just little lost boys and girls trying to figure out where we belong in the art world. A great majority of us are more or less just as anxious to do good like you. Which can result in people growing extra competitive and downright malicious. You will encounter these people, and when you do remove yourself from these people, and find someone who has learned to administer their anxiety. Maybe ask them to mentor you, or maybe just to spar with you on occasion. You won’t believe how much artistic kinship can help you move forward.
I hope this was worth the read. We all deal with this issue, and its hard to break the circle, but its never too late to try.
pixelskylines
janainaart
theartofmadeline
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
baratheonpilled
