I still struggle with the notion of just jumping straight in without concern of making mistakes. I want to know exactly what I am doing before I begin.
There is part of it that is tied to money which is a bit of a shame – materials are costly so I don’t want to just be wasting them on some rubbish result, but I’m pretty sure this is just a convenient excuse that I make for myself as justification for not starting… just yet.
No one wants to fail, but failure is part of the learning process.
There never can be such thing as failing at art in my opinion, this is only the process of getting closer to aligning what you can achieve with what you want to achieve – it is absolutely necessary stage to push through.
It is quite likely that there will never be a time where you are completely happy with how your work turns out, there will always be some niggling thing about it that you know you can improve if you were to start again. But I think the important point here is that you will never realise what areas you need to improve upon unless you have actually attempted something in the first place.
But ultimately of course, you will also discover areas and details where you absolutely love what you have been able to achieve and wouldn’t change a thing.
This is a good feeling. Embrace that feeling, don’t just skip over it to focus only on those details that still nag away at you.
This is the reason you feel compelled to create art, this is where the joy from producing art comes from. Be proud of what you have been able to create and be inspired that the next thing you create will be better again.
Focus on the great things, work on the not so great things – but most importantly of all, remember that neither of these opportunities are possible unless you jump in head first with full commitment.
An artist friend once said something that has stuck with me – ‘Just shoot from the hip, your best work will come from shooting from the hip’.
Stop thinking, stop planning and do something!
