So I kinda sorta accidentally didn’t really make any art in March.
It turns out, I was sooo focused on getting better at my art that I eventually stopped making any.
I mean, I’d spent a lot of time this first part of the year working on “getting better” at my art. I figured I would dedicate my time to make, well, less art, but overall improve my skills for future art! I’d find my own style of anime and cartoon characters. I’d build confidence drawing those human characters. Just spent a lot of time working on quality practice… And well, I’ve been learning a lot!
First I figured out how I wanted to draw anime-style characters after a bunch of trial and error. Last month, I dusted off an anime drawing course book I’d bought a while back (The Complete Guide to Drawing Manga & Anime by Date Naoto) and used it for focused practice. It was really helpful for breaking down the anatomy, even if I was following it precisely (I definitely recommend it!). And I was also using it as a guide for more “Cal-Arts” style cartoon drawing too.
But then, I realized that maybe I didn’t want to do anime-style drawing after all. AGAIN. Even though I really like it as an art, I realized it just doesn’t really match the rest of my drawing work. I mean, it’s hard to imagine an anime-style character in the Summer Myth series. A noodle-armed doodle cartoon, though? Definitely! So I focused on that for the last half of March… I was going to get MUCH BETTER at cartooning now! I could do that! I was still following the anime course book for prompts on what to work on every day TO GET BETTER. My goal was unchanged — make BETTER art!
But then, only in just the last few days or so (while preparing for this newsletter) I realized I haven’t really been making art much at all. Turns out BETTER is a sh*t goal.
For one, it’s too vague. Also, it made me start to feel like I wasn’t already good at all! I was suddenly THE WORST artist. (Which is weird, because when I do make art, I’m really proud of it! I like my art!) And even if I was getting better through practice, I wasn’t noticing anymore, because I was only focused on where there is room for improvement. It was just perfectionism. And it was keeping me from wanting to make anything anymore!
I mean, once I was done with my no-pressure-because-I’m-just-learning daily sketching, I was basically hiding from my work. Avoiding doing any other drawing at all. I managed to do one nice drawing in my cheapest sketchbook… It was originally going to be an illustration, but I totally chickened out! Fortunately, it turned out okay and it’s silly and weird, but I like it!
So yeah. That was March. Not doing much at all.
Now helloooo April!
The good news is I’m now onto Perfectionism’s sneaky schemes. And I’m planning accordingly!
“Get good” is out. “C’mon do something” is in.
I’m making better goals for April. I’m at least trying to be more specific about what I want to do with my time. (I don’t know why, but I don’t care for S.M.A.R.T. goal setting. But there might be something to it, after all).
I’ve also started reading my copy of the book We Need Your Art by Amie McNee (she’s AWESOME). I believe it has a chapter on perfectionism, so I’m hoping it will provide excellent reinforcements to my efforts! I may even dabble in reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic again. I think that’s where I learned the phrase “done is better than perfect” or something like it.
I’m also working on renewing my inspiration for comics. I miss making comics! (I think it was the first to fall to perfectionism, actually). I’m revisiting the work of some of my favorites. Currently, I’m eagerly awaiting new copies of Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant books. (I had them before, but lost them in a move, alas.) She’s one of my original favorites that inspired me to even consider making my own comics. So I’m excited to read her work again!
And then, you know, at some point in all this I’ll actually make art too!? Because really, I can’t let all this other planning stuff distract me too much either. I need to actually do the work! (And if it’s “bad” let it be bad!)
I’m still going to do no-pressure-just-learning practice sketching. But I also want to do more finished sketches (in my NICE sketchbooks!)… And work on an illustration project. AND do a comic strip this month. AND! come up with new ideas for shirts and stickers and mugs. Because those are a lot of fun and I don’t work on that stuff nearly enough!
(Fortunately, my graphic novel project has been relatively spared from perfectionism’s anxiety. ((Oh man, I hope that doesn’t mean I’m more comfortable as a writer instead… uh, I’m just not going to think about this too hard…)) So anyway… I should just keep truckin’ along there, same as usual. I made solid progress in March and hopefully will be mostly done with layout and editing by the end of April! Yay! And then hopefully I will continue anxiety-free as I start the drawing stages!? Yaaaay!)
Okay… well, now that is a lot to do! And I’m determined to actually get it done! (And who knows, maybe I’ll get better at it along the way. )
Time to get to work!
Thanks for reading!
P.S. – Don’t forget! You can support my work (and get cool stuff!) by shopping prints, shirts and more at INPRNT and TeePublic!
Bee Sauls Art 