Fear of failure

[Nateman742]

I haven't been drawing much recently, though hopefully that will change soon. I figure as long as I'm not drawing I should be asking questions, so here goes:

Lately, when I break out my sketchbook or art program or whatever, I suddenly feel paralyzed. I draw a blank, and have no ideas. I fumble through nearby objects looking for something that looks doable as a study and find nothing, then I flip through my references and feel intimidated. Eventually I half-ass something from imagination, and leave it unfinished.

As far as I can tell, I'm afraid to start something serious because I don't feel I can do it correctly. Anyone been here before? How do I overcome this? It's time to get some work done.

[QueenGwenevere]

Have you checked out the good old "motivation" sticky yet? Sounds like that's what you need right now...

You know, this thread here: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=138102

[SoufMeng]

For the time it looks like you're mostly afraid to undertake things on your own so maybe start something under the guidance of an art book or online tutorial which you enjoy. You could also post some WIP and work on it with the help of other members' advice.

I haven't read this book but I've been around here long enough to become aware of a certain custom among well-read CAers in response to these threads,
there you go: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0961454733/?tag=cheap023-20

Also remember why you like drawing in the first place, if you like doing fan arts or drawing silly rabbits and whatnots go for it, have fun and save the 3p perspective studies for later.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

I think you need to ask yourself what failure is. Sitting down for a bit of drawing practice and churning out an image which you think is crap is not an example of failure. If you can look at the drawing and think "ah, that's not quite right; I should have done this instead." then that crap looking image has infact been a wonderful success. No matter how terrible an image is, if you learn something from it then it's been a success. The difficulty is having the courage to be ok with making mistakes and then keeping a level enough head to learn form it.

Just yesterday I sat down and scribbled out 220 thumbnail sketches for a creature design project I'm doing. I had a file of refeneces and my imagination to help me, the majority of them are shite. However, a few per page have aspects which I'm looking for. This doesn't mean to me that these few are the successful ones, because without the crap ones to tell me what I don't want I'd never know what I do.

[dpaint]

Your effort towards a goal is always positive. There will always be ups and downs but working causes breakthroughs eventually. Not working on your drawing or art is the path to failure.

[vineris]

"I fumble through nearby objects looking for something that looks doable as a study and find nothing"

Don't do this. Unless you live in a completely empty room, every object is doable as a study. Nothing drives this home quite so much as being stuck somewhere where the only thing you can do is draw. The act of drawing an apple and the act of drawing a circuit board are the same. Once you're in that meditative state of looking at something and putting lines down on paper it doesn't really matter what you're looking at. So once you just pick a damn thing to draw you'll be fine.

My recommendation would be to go through something like the Everyday Matters challenge list: http://www.flickr.com/groups/59586185@N00/discuss/108608/
It won't help the fear of failure (although it might -- who knows?) but at least it'll stop you from sitting there going "I don't want to draw this. That's unsuitable. That's too complicated. That's too simple. I've already drawn 5 of these."

It doesn't have to be perfect, or even good. It just has to get done.

[Jason Rainville]

Seek failure. Failure isn't a setback, or a stumbling block or something to be avoided. Failure is a refresher, a reminder and an indicator that we're on the right track; we're challenging ourselves.

Someone at some point told you that you can't just draw things from your imagination, that you need to do studies from observation. At first it seemed like taking medecine, but eventually you embraced it and realized that it's an important part of developing as an artist.

Well I'm telling you that you can't "win" every drawing you create, and you shouldn't want to anyway. Failure is the brush fire that rejuvinates the forest. It snaps you out of your familiar thinking patters and forces you to solve a problem and from my experience, problem solving is the best skill anyone can have, no matter what they do. If you're able to look close enough, failure shows you what you need to study or how, or how often.

Failure also gives a chance for others to comment on what you're doing. Post up your "failures" along with your successes, and to others critiquing you some problems that you need to solve may become more pronounced, and offer more accurate critique.

My advice would be to start a schedule; at #:## oclock every day, spend 1 hour doing a study of something. you must have it somewhat completed by the end of the hour. This will force you to really observe and get down the important parts. I've been doing this for a few weeks and it's really helped me study almost every day. When you think that you "need" to have something done at the end of the day/week regardless of the outcome, the idea of it looking bad strarts to fade away, and you can just work at it.

[Nateman742]

You know I've heard all this advice before but managed to forget it. Thanks for the reminder, I'll hammer out a schedule for myself and get on it :)

[Crane]

"Each failure is another brick in my palace"

[OmenSpirits]

"True failure, is only achieved when the question you asked yourself, is not answered." -OmenSpirits

Each project is a question you work at to obtain an answer. If you do not ask the question to begin with, you will never obtain an answer, and will remain ignorant to the questions still plaguing you.

[With no.Mute]

i had the same problem, took me over 3 years to get over it, maybe i haven't yet gotten over it =S
What i found that helped me is finding the things that intimidated me, that for me atleast is colour, so i did some black&white pictures; forced myself to spend as much time as i could on them. After seeing that i was actually doing something it became easier to do more things, also a routine is the best thing ever set yourself daily goals. Just don't beat yourself up if you don't meet those goals that day, there is always tomorrow. Even a small step forward is success, the only failure is if you don't do it.

[George Abraham]

How do you know you are afraid, maybe you are excited?