Art and expectations

Dear, deviantart fellow artists  

There are times when having way too low or way too high expectations can lead to bad results and have a negative impact on things that we do and how we feel.. but how to deal with this problem? How to achieve the perfect balance that would help us in our creative journey? Here are my thoughts about the topic, that I hope might be helpful for you.

Too low expectations

When you think that you're not good enough, that you lack the skill, talent that other artists have, being afraid of failing and overthinking all the time. But all those things do only harm - stopping you from actually doing the work, even though you may think that you are not able to do that, it doesn't mean that it's true. You'll never know if you won't try.

It's so easy to find all those excuses, but it takes a lot of persistence to not let doubts and low self-esteem stand in our way. We all are humble and we all have flaws.

Aiming too low, thinking that only worst will happen - as there are so many ways things could go wrong, but don't let negativity influence your workflow. Maybe that thing you always wanted to do could inspire and bring joy to others. Maybe it could change someones life, maybe it could have an impact on your own artistic career. 

You could fail. You could not recieve instant popularity - likes and faves.. but focus on what you are creating, focus in order to make lovely things.

Too high expectations

The opposite, but it can be as much destructive and harmful. 

For example, years ago, I made a diorama and the grass in it consisted of over 100 layers. Each one of them I colored with watercolors and cut every single one of them like 50 times (to get the right texture). Oh, silly me, I thought that if I did put so much effort that my work in that diorama contest would be noticed. But It didn't happen.

And I learnt a lesson that day - that It's great to dream big, but most of the time the most important thing is not the result, but the whole process. To learn as much as possible and enjoy time when you're creating.

It can be so disapointing to realize that reality doesn't exceed the expectations and it could stop you from doing more work. But it shouldn't be like that.  

The balance 

• Setting realistic goals and achieving them and/or having really big, seemingly impossible dreams and that doing something towards them every single day, not getting sad that things don't always work as planned, but being creative and dealing with struggles
  
• Accepting that time goes fast and things change, and It's better to carry on
• To not daydream all the time, but take action 
• To not give up on first obstacles 
• To allow yourself to be open-minded in order to grow and be a better artist & person 

So, how about you - what are your thoughts/tips about expectations? 

( thank you so much for faving/commenting journals ---- it means so much to me and it helps more struggling artists to find these articles and help in their creative journeys) 

This week I found some lovely resources – awesome tutorial and speedpaints on www.youtube.com/user/idrawgirl… by XiaTaptara , great podcasts - makeitthentelleverybody.com/ , amazing brushes by GorosArt - www.area-56.de/tutorials/goros… , search engine, that allows to find flickr images by certain colour - labs.tineye.com/multicolr/, great blog about japanese fashion - www.japanesestreets.com/ , a video about beyond amazing editing skills by Satoshi Kon (have to watch Paprika asap) and my recent timelapse video of "In The Light You Follow Me" painting - I'll make more videos in near future, so feel free to check out also my youtube channel.  








P.S. I quite frequently post some sketches and artworks in my art tumblr - snowmarite.tumblr.com/. and I have a weekly Music Sunday post on aerismade.blogspot.com/  and weekly 8 songs playlist.   

Have a wonderful week!

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

—     Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island