Finding beauty in your art
Do you ever struggle with finding the beauty in your work?
You know when you have just finished painting and you look at your work and think ‘This is no good’ or ‘Why did I ever bother trying?’.
I hear it all the time from my students and it can be discouraging to always find fault with our work. We are our worst critics and it’s so tempting to always nitpick the “bad” things or “mistakes” in our paintings.
Pull out your last 3 paintings and write down 3 things you like about each one. Get creative and be specific.
When learning any new skill, it’s important not to be too hard on yourself. Getting where you want to be in your artistic journey may take time, and it’s important to let yourself get there while enjoying the process and having fun! I have created an exercise that is an amazingly effective one to help you push aside those negative thoughts to reveal there is something amazing and beautiful with everything you create. I’d even recommend doing this after every painting to remind yourself that you’re making amazing progress and are more than capable of creating beauty!
Get out your last three paintings and some pen and paper.
Study each of your paintings. Note the shapes you created, the way the colors blend into each other, how all of the elements of the painting work together, and how you wonderfully created each and every shape and color present on the page. Really take some time with this!
Write down three things you like about each painting and be creative and specific! It could be a certain shade of green, the shape of a petal or leaf, or perhaps the way a cloud swirls and blends against the sky. Give yourself the credit you deserve, no matter how small. If you think of more than three things, write them down too! The more the better.
Read over what you wrote and acknowledge your wins! You’re doing so well, keep up the progress and have fun with it!