Maybe You Should Slow Down

I'm impatient. It's something I get from my dad.

The problem with being impatient is that you:

1) Work too quickly
2) or Stop working too soon

I'm learning from my artist buddies that I need to slow down when I make art.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that some people redraw their rough drafts 20 times before they're happy. Some people repaint areas several times when the composition doesn't feel quite right. Some people make studies of their subjects with 5 different color schemes.

I found out that I didn't really understand persistence.

If you're not happy with your work, perhaps you should slow down your process. Take extra time to fix problems. Revise, rework and remake. Stay on a task until you're satisfied.

This does not mean to rapidly fire through the same drawing 5 times in a row.

Introduce thoughtfulness into your process. Think about what you're doing and how to do it better.

Become curious. Art is supposed to be a fun, rewarding journey.