Scully Draws A Thing

I think many of us artists have a bad habit of feeling like once we get into a groove of doing something, that it should always be that ‘easy’ or ‘simple’. But the truth is (with very few exceptions) when learning something new it’s always going to (obviously) take longer than doing what we already know. But we set these expectations of ourselves; Some our own standards(often the result of comparing ourselves to others). Some because we have a job to do and we still want to produce work at a reasonable speed. And we end up feeling like we’re ‘failures’ because we couldn’t reach the bar we set for ourself (which is often too high being our own worst critic) fast enough.

It’s like we forget what it felt like to be where we were 2 years ago, a year ago, or even a month or a week ago.  We’re quick to dismiss how far we’ve come because we’ve reached an impasse at a point where we assumed there was no obstacle we couldn’t surpass in one or two quick attempts.

And for some of us it’s a harder truth to accept that the goal we want to reach isn’t actually far away but only -seems- that way because we have ‘hindrances’. IRL things like, other jobs, school, family. Or even Art job things like, You want to practice but it would cut into commission time and maybe you don’t feel comfortable doing experimental commissions because you either don’t want to give them work you aren’t happy with OR you can’t afford to ‘giveaway’ 2+ extra hours of work you won’t be paid for.

But honing a skill doesn’t comes without sacrifice. And the first step to improvement is realizing that as well as being realistic about your goal.

Probably the first thing we need to realize is, that probably means ‘slowing down’. And yes in turn that means its going to take up more of your time. After that it’s a matter of choosing your trade off.

I know personally for me I’d choose either cutting back on leisure time so i had time to practice on a personal piece. OR i tentatively approach experimental commissions since work without no pay is a heavy hit to me since this is my job.

For others maybe you can trade that hour of netflix a day for studying or practicing. Or bring your lunch with you so you can draw in the library.

The way I see it is. yeah. It’ll suck having to take time from something else to put it into a different category but The more time you put towards practicing, (as with most things) the faster/better you get at it, and eventually it won’t take as long or the end result will be worth a compensating price raise and you’ll be able to go back to putting the rest of your time in other areas of your life….without tearing your hair out because you feel bad about your art (at least for a month anyway. before you start hungering for a change/improvement again. lol)

Anyway hopefully this helps someone feel like they can do what they set out to do. Wrote this because lately i’ve just been seeing a lot of perfectly good artists just….trash themselves and their art because they felt inadequate. While i’m over here like ‘you have 20+ thousand supporters….and you think you’re garbage? lol