How to Not Get Overwhelmed by an Art Project
To learn how to describe and pigment, y'all must overcome a unique set up of challenges. Mastering the skills required to capture what yous see, and finding plenty time to practice, are daily struggles for nigh students. And yet, they're simply one-half the battle. Perhaps the biggest challenge that you face is getting by your own doubts and fears.
A mutual fear afflicting beginners is what nosotros call "procedure anxiety" – that inner phonation that says "You lot're doing it incorrect!" If you lot've spent any significant fourth dimension trying to amend your studio skills, you lot're already familiar with process anxiety. It'southward a sinking feeling that constantly nags you every bit you work. It leads you to 2d-estimate every decision because you suspect your whole approach is somehow "incorrect."
It's piece of cake to feel this mode when you're unhappy with your artwork. Only even when a drawing or painting is going well, you can start to wonder if it could be fifty-fifty better… if you'd only washed something differently.
Process anxiety can be debilitating. Information technology'due south difficult to motion forward if you don't trust your method, or if you think there might be a improve way that you haven't discovered yet.
The good news is that you tin overcome process anxiety. In this post, I'll share a few tips that I've learned over the years for silencing that voice in your head.
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Why We Experience "Process Feet"
Before we discuss solutions, let's take a wait at what causes process anxiety in the first identify.
It'southward actually pretty simple. Drawing and painting
To make matters worse, historical artists rarely documented their methods. In many cases, we simply don't know for sure how a particular painting was made, but that doesn't stop people from speculating. Equally a upshot, at that place is widespread disagreement and confusion in the art community about the basic "how to'southward" of drawing and painting.
Amid this incertitude, and stewing in the cauldron of various online discussion forums, artists tend to argue and stridently defend their preferred methods. Snarky dismissals of alternatives are commonplace and often sound something similar this: "I only paint with genuine unicorn tears, just like the old masters did! Everything else is garbage!" or "If your palette pocketknife wasn't forged in the fires of Mordor, you tin can't look to go quality results."
If y'all're just getting started with learning how to draw and paint, you tin chop-chop feel overwhelmed and dislocated. Should y'all attempt this technique or that? Should you follow this artist's advice or someone else's? With so many differing opinions, information technology'south easy to see how beginners can second-gauge their approach and ultimately develop an inferiority complex.
Of form, this problem isn't exclusive to drawing and painting, just it is perchance worse than in other fields due to the deep history of art, and the fact that data well-nigh the techniques of the by is often frustratingly ambiguous.
How to Overcome Process Anxiety
Procedure anxiety can paralyze yous, but there are ways to overcome it. Hither'south how:
Stop Looking for the One "Accurate" Method
Information technology's common for students to say they want to "paint like the old masters", but which ones? What we know of historical techniques suggests that they varied widely across centuries and geography. There is no unmarried "onetime chief technique" for making artwork, but a plurality of procedures that have influenced one another and evolved over fourth dimension.
That diverseness of approaches survives today. In fact, it continues to multiply as artists embrace new methods and materials, yielding many valid to ways create artwork. So stop trying to find some hugger-mugger "authentic" method. Information technology doesn't exist. Instead, pick one that works for yous.
How do y'all do that? Start with these questions:
- What artists practice you lot like?
- Are any of these artists alive today?
- Practice any of these artists teach?
If you tin can observe a teaching artist whom y'all admire, learn as much as y'all can well-nigh his/her approach. Many artists publish books, DVDs, YouTube videos or online courses. Start with one of those and see if it's helpful. If information technology is, then attempt taking a course or workshop with that person and encounter how it goes. During this fourth dimension, don't get distracted past alternative pedagogies. Melody out the noise and focus on what your called instructor has to teach yous.
Keep Exploring Dissimilar Artists and Methods
Even the most gifted artists and teachers tin only offering you lot so much. Eventually, you'll absorb everything that person tin can give you, at which point it'south time to movement on and find a different instructor.
But go on in heed that dissimilar instructors will likely accept different points of view. Don't panic! Teachers contradict each other sometimes. Over again, stay focused and acquire as much equally you tin can. If your diverse teachers' methods conflict, keep what makes sense to you and reject what doesn't. Ultimately, you're in accuse of your own development.
If you lot're like me, you'll find your own method of working evolves into a kind of hybrid of what different instructors have taught you. That'south a skilful matter! Assimilating different ideas and techniques can yield unique results and help your work stand out from the crowd.
Beware of the "Shiny, New Matter" Syndrome
We all know that learning to draw and paint is difficult. You should prepare yourself for setbacks and discouragements, because they're coming. When y'all experience difficulty, however, don't fall for the next "shiny, new affair."
It'due south easy to convince yourself that some new materials or studio equipment volition aid you brand your next breakthrough. This is a seductive idea because buying new stuff is fun and easy, merely information technology doesn't often help.
Nobody, in the entire history of art, improved their skills overnight by switching to a dissimilar brand of pencils or a new recipe for painting medium.
If yous're struggling, it's because drawing and painting are difficult skills to master. But if you stay the class and don't get distracted, y'all will make progress.
Notice Out What Works For You
1 of my cartoon teachers, Deane M. Keller, taught his students this simple mantra: "If it works, it'due south practiced." It was his manner of defusing any arguments about procedural "correctness".
1 of the all-time ways to overcome process feet is to adopt this mantra. Detect out what works for you and continue doing it until and unless you discover something that works even better. It doesn't matter if information technology resembles someone else'south process. Instead, forge your ain procedure through study, practice and experimentation. In the finish, your artwork volition improve in a way that's uniquely yours.
Final Thoughts
While learning about dissimilar methods and materials is an of import part of developing every bit an artist, don't let information technology derail your progress. It can be fun and productive, merely it tin can too lead to indecision and procedure anxiety.
Learn from good teachers, but requite yourself permission to practice what works for you without worrying so much near what the old masters did. This volition help silence that voice in your head so you can focus on moving forward.
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Source: https://vitruvianstudio.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-how-to-overcome-process-anxiety/
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