Neurotic Crumblings @joahg96 - Tumblr Blog

gracenut

8/1/2018

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mermay day 4! I’m more happy w/ how this one turned out with the colors and position :)

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something different today… working on my values

(just some thoughts I had, looking back over the past couple of years. This is essentially advice I would give myself two years ago. Some of it still applies today…)

Don’t worry about quality early on. First, focus on getting content on paper. Quality will come. But a steady habit of working and practicing must come first. If you give too much time and effort to one piece, you’ll likely burn yourself out… and come back a year later and hate the thing anyway, which is pretty disheartening.

Try to improve one thing at a time. That way, you can make a piece of work and appreciate the small improvement, or at least experience, that you gained. The piece may not be brilliant, but that isn’t likely regardless when you’re a beginner. We all start cruddy.

Similarly, try to finish pieces on a regular basis. While I think daily practice is crucial when developing the art habit, I don’t think it is always necessary to finish a piece every day, because that kind of rigidity can cause burnout and be really disappointing if you miss a day. Better to get an unfinished doodle on paper, than to miss a day entirely. Anyway, it’s not a competition. This is between you and your art, and the most important thing is that you keep at it.

So yeah, finish pieces, but sometimes settle for just making something. Because you are human.