Chasing Perfectionism, A Learning Curve in Art
Almost like a ritual, I set out all my paints, brushes, a ceramic palette, watercolour paper and other bits and bobs on the tiny desk. It’s my day off finally from work (non-art related) and now I get to make art! I’m listening to a podcast or music as I brush off eraser crumbs, and then I dive into the paint, making strokes here and there. As I continue painting, thinking of the colours and textures, I take a step back. There’s something wrong. Sometimes I know what that “wrong” is and sometimes it’s just a feeling of “off”. It nags at me now and a thought sprouts, “l don’t like it”...
I wish I could put my perfectionistic tendencies aside. Every time I take a step forward, perfectionism follows closely behind me, a pressure poking me in the back. I’m making the effort to see the beauty in mistakes, that are unique in themselves, or in asymmetry, an imbalance the human eye quickly catches whether consciously or subconsciously. Then maybe there’s also the wrong shade or the wrong composition, or a mix of everything off. I can’t help but zoom in on the gnaw of “it doesn’t look good”.
Rather than making evil of perfectionism, I’m viewing “mistakes” or imperfections as a call to learn and accept that failure is ok (especially as a non-seasoned artist who has a ton still to learn!) My thoughts used to tinge with “dang, I just wasted a load of paint on this” and “I’m not good enough”. My feelings and perspective on this were always negative and honestly, unkind. Now, I see these occurrences as an opportunity to improve.
Loving the textures here especially the big tree in the forefront. I also really liked the blue background and how the sun seems to be a bit hazy!
Yes, yes. Mr Bear has no facial features because as a perfectionist, I could not bring myself to mess up his face with paint and decided to finish on Procreate!
I decided to re-do the piece because the overall finish came off dull and the saturation felt faded. It has its own charm, but I wanted to try again.
I was stoked by the outcome of the second piece. The colour values look amazing and even though I couldn’t capture the original textures of the trees in the first piece (which I absolutely loved!), I accept that nothing can be replicated to a “t” with painting. There’s also the lesson of embracing unpredictability, a concept I have difficulty tackling in life in general 🙁
Very much into the border style and the overlapping shellie-like pattern.
I definitely learned a lot from doing a piece more than once (this isn’t the only piece I’ve re-painted). Things in life don’t always work out the first time, and it’s very okay to try things repeatedly until satisfied. And sometimes things just aren’t meant to be, and you don’t need permission to stop (especially if it’s something that makes you uncomfortable or doesn’t align with you). The most important lesson of it all is that you’ve tried. Don’t forget to give yourself a lot of compassion and grace. We’re all learning at our own pace.
Looking at this piece, my eye is immediately drawn to uneven lines, the asymmetry and the wonder of why I didn’t do it a certain way. Well, I’m gonna take a breath and let this piece go like a proud mother sending their child off to the world (lol) and say that this piece is special and fun and quirky in its own way <3
Originally, I was down to paint the grass green too, but decided against it because green was already so dominant. The white space gives a visual break from all the other colours I think. I loved the outcome.
The Sun here was born from a mistake actually (added too much water…) and I think it came out kind of naive but fun!
