Stop the perfectionism

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RyanOttley's avatar
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On my Tumblr site someone asked me for some general advice for an aspiring comic creator. This is what was on my mind. Thought I'd share it here on Deviantart as well.

Right now all I can think of is something I've been thinking about lately. And that is the depression some of us artists get about our art. Like our expectations aren't just "My drawings need to be good!", they are "My art needs to be PERFECT."

So I would suggest always try to improve, gain confidence, but expect good/average output. Don't expect perfect art, ever. By doing this only causes you to be frustrated, which in turn causes mistakes, which pisses you off more, then you're stuck in a lame spiraling circle downward to the pathetic whiny artist. Which in turn kills your deadline. Giving yourself freedom from perfection makes drawing much easier and better art is produced and on time.

I'm currently working on this piece where it started out difficult, I had high expectations for it, I was in a bad mood, nothing was going right. Lines felt SO stiff and uncreative. I had to take a breather and remember to not make it SO important, to have fun with it, to lower my expectations. Now I'm working on it again and it's going better than I expected in the first place. I'm just having fun with things, letting confidence grow with each line. When mistakes do happen I quickly change them into something that works. I'm just enjoying my self more than I have in a while.

Basically, to sum up. Perfectionists are rarely happy since it's unattainable. So fuggin stop it.

Sorry this answer probably isn't what you were expecting. It's just been on my mind. Good luck with the comics submission!

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Ryan
© 2012 - 2024 RyanOttley
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KabochaN's avatar
Thanks, Ryan. That's something I think most of us could do well to remember.