Yeah, so I love painting. It’s the best. Sorta.
When I’m painting for a long stretch of time (you’re supposed to frequently take a step back from a painting… but I get lazy, so this may be part of the problem) and I walk away from a painting I am always shocked to see it again. Sometimes it’s a good shock, like: “Oh wow, I’m awesome.” But usually it’s more of a: “Wait… WHAT. I’ve been working on this for x hours and it’s not good at all. I’m a failure!”
And sometimes I switch back and forth between believing I’m awesome and believing I’m failure quite rapidly. It’s truly a dizzying experience.
However, a few things seem to calm me down:
- I remember that I’m still learning.
- I remember that I’m still learning. AAANND that my learning time (& budget) has been fairly restricted this past year, so I may be learning slower than I have in years past. And that’s ok. Because generally, I’m still headed up the mountain.
- A good cup of coffee.
- Posting a painting on social media and having friends and family say nice things about it (even though they aren’t artists, it feels good. And that helps a lot.)
H. Highfield 