I have a habit where I tend to stay in my comfort zone a lot—both in life, and eventually affected my work as an artist too. I always stick to what works, and avoid risk under the excuse of chasing deadlines for clients (therefore no rooms for mistakes).
My comfort zone as an artist right now is my "style". I am protecting it too much. I restrained myself when I was creating works because I was scared of failure if I try to explore out of it. I can feel how my creative juices in me drying out slowly because there's no new creative insight of myself to feed it with. When I started years back, this wasn't a problem because I was still in the phase of "figuring out". But now the problem is when I think I've "figured it out", while maybe there will never be a finish line to one's creativity.
So recently, I've been trying to push my ego down. Yes, I believe ego might be the one that has always bound me to my comfort zone. "My work is bigger than myself" is the mantra I now try to keep. Not the "what will people think of my work", or "what if people don't recognize my work anymore" mantras. I don't have to show perfect result everytime. Progress is alright. I have to loosen myself and just experiment, play and create 💪
So here I am in this illustration, using textures & brushes that I've never used before. It might look a little different than my other works but it's okay. I might not be 100% liking the result but at least I step out of my comfort zone & it's a start ✨
Ok I'm ending this rant with my fav quote of Pablo Picasso that I thought is somewhat related to this topic; "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child".
Ok that's enough for my midnight rant. Rest well, and good night friends! ✨✨
