Creative Constipation

[SpazzoLemealn_99]

Hey im havin a problem. though i am a decent artist, i can only get out a nice-looking drawing every month if i am fortunate. i am something of a perfectionist in this area, so even then it could take me up to a week to get the drawing finished. the sad thing being that i dont even do color or detailed background. i love to draw, and i take a little time out every day to do so, but this greatly frustrates me. can anyone give advice, is this anywhere near normall?

Plz hlp:$

[ZapRadon]

Post some art and we'll talk about it. :)

Perfectionism slows everyone down a lot..there's usually a 'diminishing returns' point there.

You can redefine perfect, tho...it could be 'more creative, faster' for awhile...then morph it into 'all the values right, don't worry about the other stuff this time," That's what learning is...no one can get everything totally right every time...but it can still look pretty cool regardless. Quantity increases the odds of perfection happening.

[figure2]

Hey im havin a problem. though i am a decent artist, i can only get out a nice-looking drawing every month if i am fortunate. i am something of a perfectionist in this area, so even then it could take me up to a week to get the drawing finished.Dude, you need to relax. Allow yourself to do a crappy drawing once in a while. No one but you needs to see it and you'll learn more from the bad drawings than from the ones you like.

If you're not happy with a drawing, try to look at it critically and figure out what isn't working. If the problem doesn't seem obvious, post the drawing to the crit section. You are often too close to your own work to see the problem so let some fresh eyes give you some insight. In this case you have to be willing to let others see your less than perfect work.

[SpazzoLemealn_99]

:yayca: ok, i will start a sketchpad thread or something. i usually get the most done on sundays, everyother day is school & work so ill post weekly. Im mostly working on faces currently, so some crits n seeing if im on the right track would be nice. ive heard of a site called photo bucket, is there any others you might rec more?

[Interceptor]

1 drawing a month?
I think if you allow for some room for mistake and have a bit more fun with what you do, you'll learn more. I love posting crappy stuff on here (not like it's a choice, hehehe) but when people here can see where you're REALLY making mistakes, that's where they'll tell you to improve. I don't mean this in ANY WAY offensive, but lose any ego you have and realize that you won't ever have a PERFECT drawing.

[waronmars]

LOLOMG draw more! You have to do 100 bad drawings to get one good one! Get those baddies out!

[Helzon]

This is just speculation...but from where I sit it sounds like the little critic in your head has a big whomping mallet and it's going to town all over you and your work. Yeah...you have to bind and gag the little bastard first, trust me..he has his uses..but when out of control-yeah work eeks out because you're constantly trying to second guess yourself and are anticipating the self criticism. Like ZapRadon said...redefine perfect....not to say that you are sliding into mediocrity but giving yourself that freedom of a complete shit drawing or for that matter a couple of hundred shit drawings. Here's to you finding your mojo again!

[Evil_Sloth]

More you draw the bigger your mental library of 'stuff' grows.
them eventually you can splice different things together to create new things or what ever. more draw = less frustration

[markwagner]

I wrote this to another artist.


I am more interested in the internal conversation and the creative spirit of the artist. I recommend grabbing anything and throwing yourself into the fire. What I have learned is that I learn from my process, I learn from my mediums by making lots of messes and mistakes. So instead of reading about how to drive a car, you get in and drive - and not just some place where you can only drive 15 mph, go out on a retired airforce base and get out on the landing strip and see what the car and you can do together - not killing yourself or wrecking - but not playing it safe. Or a big parking lot with snow on the ground.

Loud music helps, having a safe place (studio) to work, a place where it's "sacred" and yours. One of my secrets - I have a painted circle on my studio floors (safe) for over 20 years. Keep showing up in your studio, have play time where you have NO agenda and other times where you practice where you are weak - for most artists it's drawing things that are real and understanding light and form.

There are 2 books I recommend.
• Art & Fear - Bayles and Orland
• The Courage to Create - Rollo May

~M

[Keng]

Great storytelling starts with fair storytelling and gets better with practice. Ray Bradbury once told an audience that if they wanted to learn how to write, they should compose a short story every day.

"If you do that," he said, "by the end of the year you'll have written 365 stories–and, at the very least, three or four of them are bound to be good because it's impossible to write 365 bad stories!"


That's regarding a contest I'm quite fond of called 55 fiction. I found this little snippet in the official rules. And you know what? The same is true for drawing. Draw a little bit every day, and you'll get better. Just like it's impossible to write 365/365 bad stories, it's impossible to produce 365/365 bad drawings.

I personally had also come to a point where I worried too much about perfection. I spent weeks doing the same drawing a tiny bit at a time. Making sure all of it was just right. If I didn't like something I'd go to another page to work on that aspect 'till I was satisfied with it. I'll still do that, but I also try to work outside my current master project a bit more. I'd highly suggest trying out the DSG here. I started doing it just last week. It's already done a fair bit for my art and has certainly made me more adventerous in all aspects of it.

[SpazzoLemealn_99]

like i said, ill post on sunday evening, hopfully ill have stuff to let you guys go crazy on. warning: i have NO idea what most of your abreviations and jargon mean, so it would be nice to have a little() with a meaning. thnx all

[Jonoy]

the more you do anything the better you get at it.
Repetition (martial arts is a good example) leads to zen. Unfortunately we don't have forever...
still 1 good piece of art a month is good, even as you get better your own standards increase so maybe it is about judging what other people think of as good art en mass as opposed to one person or a few...

[SpazzoLemealn_99]

my sketchpad http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=62036&highlight=self-esteem