How Perfectionism DESTROYS Art & Creativity || SPEEDPAINT + COMMENTARY

Honestly perfect timing on this vid. I was trying to draw that black dress with gold chains that’s trending rn and told myself “Just a quick drawing before I head to bed” ITS BEEN 5 DAYS AND I’M STILL OBSESSING OVER EVERY DETAIL 💀 I need to just let go and finish the damn thing

A teacher in art school once said "The image you have in mind is not the end product, it's the starting point" And I've never been happier with my art since. The idea that it is a template to change and have fun with, and if it's not exactly what I had in mind, it's normal, a template is never the end product, is very freeing imo

This problem is also prevalent when it comes to being an animator AND a perfectionist Imagine working on an animation of some kind, but wanting each and every single frame to look perfect (even the in-betweens, which people will see for less than a second) So much pain...

amen.. perfectionism is killing me. i only finish an artwork if it's up to my standarts. so many unfinished drawings and sketches, and so many covered up works in my sketchbook. art is so emotionally and mentally draining and exhausting for me, i have completely lost any sort of joy. i wasn't like this when i was a kid. but then i kept compating and comparing and now look at me. 20 year old burnout.. i can't even doodle. i literally don't allow myself to mess up. so it's all so exhausting. no joy in creating. i have no passion for it anymore. i don't get inspired either. what's the point of creating if it's not perfect been watching you since you had 3k btw, amazing how you've grown. your content is such a breath of fresh air

I might get tomatoes thrown at me for saying this, but digital art reaaaaaaaally invites this perfectionism (and it's one of the reasons why I don't like it much, because I tend to fall into that trap). The ability to finetune your line stbilizers to death, to rewind as much as you want, to zoom in - you need a lot of discipline to NOT do that. I notice with myself that I have no problems when there are little gaps or paint is spilled over linework in traditional art, while it bothers me to death in digital art. That's why I personally think mixing it up is good. Traditional art forces you to be imperfect, and for me, a main in traditional art, digital art forces me to discipline myself in setting myself an end point.

Perfectionism is both a blessing and a curse. It can help you make the most beautiful work of art, but it can also cause you to lose your mind over details which are insignificant to the bigger picture.

HOW IS THAT SHE COMES OUT WITH A VIDEO OF THE EXACT THING IM STRUGGLING WITH EVERY SINGLE TIME?? :0 literal sorcery

This is me. I got minor recognition once, didn’t expect people at work to find out, people wanted free art from me that was well outside my skills and my perception of “acceptable” artwork. The idea of people seeing anything less than perfect art was so scary and mortifying… I completely stopped drawing. And writing. Perfectionism is a terrible thing at that level.

Oh my goodness, I definitely dealt with this. ESPECIALLY when I started taking art seriously enough to want to be a comic artist in middle school. My self esteem (when throwing puberty in the mix) was super low. But as time went on and I grew? I’ve come to accept that I’m pretty lax on being too nit picky (though I do sometimes fall back into old habits). I’ve come to learn to love the panels I draw that may not be as strong as the ones on the page before it, to love that sometimes anatomy’s gonna be wonky when I draw over and over again, etc. Honestly, I think making comics/comic pages has helped me dismantle my perfectionism, and my five year long hyperfixation on Kingdom Hearts fueling my passion? I feel pretty satisfied with my art 😊

Gods I feel this so bad- except, my perfectionism only fuels my depression, and if I can't meet that expectation, I feel like a failure to myself, and feel like what I'm aiming to achieve has become impossible. I guess that's where depression seeps in so instead of trying to "shoot for the stars" it's "well, time to sink into the abyss" 😭

One way I deal with perfectionism is to always remind myself that: "This is just a test". To me (for now) Art is all about learning and experimenting, almost like any random tests or quizzes at school so mistakes are bound to be made. At the same time, that doesn't mean you can just slack off and not improving your skills so you must put your best into it. It's fine to make mistakes, because it's a test and try harder and better next time.

If I may suggest something that I find helpful as well in escaping the perfectionist cycle. Looking at you older pieces from over 3 years ago. It's amazing how much improvement we make, that we don't realize it until we look back at older pieces. I use this when I feel that perfectionism setting in, and it gets me out of that cycle.

I have the opposite problem. I usually am too impatient to do all the little itsie bitsie details when the piece is mostly finished. Also I'm usually satisfied and even proud of 90% of the art I make. Just lucky, I guess... (I am very skilled so that helps)

My main problem is that even when i'm not showing my art to anyone, i still feel the need to live up to my own expectations.

this was so helpful!! I recently went through a rough patch of being too perfectionistic and it resulted in me fixating over so many small details that didn't really matter in the log run. I will definitely be coming back to this video in the future, thank you for this video duchess 💖

Something I started doing is looking really closely at artworks by artists I admire to search for mistakes or cut corners. It's really eye-opening -- even the most skilled professionals like Rosuuri or Icomochi leave tons and tons of little mistakes or unpolished spots in their final renders. Because time is money and perfectionism is a game of diminishing returns If WADARCO can make rough wobbly lineart and messy blobby shading look damn good for her Kronii artbook, ain't no reason you can't too :)

My wife was a crafting maven (cardmaking, in particular), and a lot of times, she showed me several different options for a particular project she was working on, and it seemed to me that she was doubting herself unnecessarily. I couldn't do what she did with various paint programs, and the cutting dies, and so forth - but when she asked me, I had watched her working with her paint programs, and the various cutting dies, and so forth, and I didn't try to look for anything other than significantly noticeable things which didn't make sense to my eyes. And, far more often than not, when she showed me several options, I was honestly able to say that all of the options she presented were very good. I, of course, if I noticed one was a little better, and I could say why I thought it was, I was honest enough to say so as best I could. If I had an idea about something that might make it even better, and I could state that idea clearly, I also would do so. I don't think she ever entirely overcame her self-doubt - but she did appreciate my honest feedback, although she did ask me once if I was giving her positive feedback because I was being a loving and supportive spouse. The answer I told her was the truth - yes, I was supporting her because I was her spouse, and I loved her very much - AND because, to my mind's eye, her work very rarely wasn't beautiful, AND even when she didn't get things quite the way she wanted, she learned, and improved. My wife and I had a distance-separated friend who was also a crafting maven, who ALSO has similar self-doubt issues, and we both gave her positive feedback, because she merited it, not because we were her friends. (My wife, sadly, is no longer with us, so for her, it was "had" - for me, it still is "have" - and, for our friend, I'm definitely sharing this video, not telling her that she must watch it, but hoping that she does, because this video will help her, as it would have helped my wife.)

I had this problem for a long time, with an extent of losing my anime artstyle to the semi-realistic style, trying to make my art with 100% realistic proportions. But this lead to me completely burning out for a whole year, because one piece could take me a week of hard work, and even then it didn't turn out well. Only recently I've returned to drawing in a more anime-cartoony style and I feel so much better. Though, I still need to lower my expectations--

I feel like ever since I started uploading my work every time I sit down to draw it has to be for YouTube or social media. It’s funny because I don’t have a big following but I still feel like there is this pressure that every peice I make has to be for uploading

Thank you for talk about this