The 3 Deadly P's for Artist...

A very famous artist once said, 

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art,” and Andy Warhol was right. Art is a process in which we get better as we do more of it. Or in some cases, get worse if we start overthinking it. 

Let's talk about why artists are their own worst critics...

Every artist is its own worst critic, we hold ourselves to the highest artistic standard. We start to question our artistic abilities when our artworks start to look "bad" (whatever that means) and when we can't put on canvas what we have in our mind, that vision that gave us the push to start in the first place. It frustrates us, and then we lose touch with out creative spark. (that happened to me more than once)

Here are the 3 Deadly P's that attack artists in their process (Along with paintings that I've had tucked away because of these deadly P's) :

We want perfectionism, and not in the sense of an artwork being neat and detailed, perfectionism to an artist is the idea of perfectly communicating their vision through their art. If their story isn't being told it's that perfectionism that frustrates the artist which leads them to a point where they have to take a step back from their work for some time. This brings us to procrastination. 

 

From procrastination it's all downhill after that. An artist is frustrated by their inability to tell their story. The idea of capturing their emotions, their vision is strangled by their anger and frustration. At this point the artist begins to question its artwork, its ability, its creativity. They begin to hate the artwork to the point where they don't want to see it anymore, they just want to put it away forever. OUT. OF. SIGHT. This brings us to paralysis. (I still have a few paintings I've left undone because of this! and I'm sure there are many artists out there who have had this happened to them as well.) 

At this point, it's the end of their creativity or as some like to call it paralysis. This doesn't mean they don't want to finish their work but they just can't. They have lost their connection to the beauty of their vision. Then the artwork is lost forever. (Those paintings I mentioned above are still tucked away, never to see the light of day ever again.) 

Don't get discouraged if one of your artworks start to look different than what you expect or from your vision. Work through it. Keep drawing, painting, keep designing. Keep being artistic and creative. You'll never lose that vision, you just have to go back and look for it. The way to your story back, your creativity, it's just to keep working and to keep making art. The best ideas come from process and the work itself. 

Then after awhile you keep making art, you experiment different techniques, you learn from previous mistakes and the artworks eventually start to get better... really! (here's proof)

KEEP MAKING ART!!!