Hey there, welcome to a new week of creation, happiness, and creating more. I hope your Memorial day is/was memorable as we remember those who served and died to protect us and ensure our freedoms—we might not always agree with why they’ve been sent, but we shouldn’t ever turn our backs on them.
I’m going to keep on with the perfection topic.
Don’t Be Mean and Demean
While I am on this anti-perfectionist kick, I must explain that this isn’t about pushing out crap, championing slop, or less than stellar work. It’s about building ourselves (hopefully, others too) up as artists—in whatever stage we’re in, now, growing and learning to be happy with who we are and where we are.
This is important because it’s so easy to compare and see ourselves as subpar. It’s easy to bemoan our current abilities and groan over our lack rather than hone and grow—with sincere happiness.
There is truth to being discontented with where we are, but we mustn’t confuse discontent with destructive critique. If we are dissatisfied, for example, with how we draw hands practicing drawing hands will produce far better results than destructive self-talk about how terrible we draw hands. Creating, being happy, and creating more will produce more with better results while moving us toward mastery and satisfaction. It’s a choice we get to make and need to make.
This is all so very obvious, I know. But, knowing and doing are often miles apart. Practice is a practical application of our discontent. Belittling and berating ourselves will only demean and destroy our drive for betterment.
What is Mastery?
I remember hearing a teacher, who thought they knew a lot about art and beauty, say that unless your skills are similar to that of John Singer Sargent then you are doing it wrong. Drawing like Sargent, however much I would love to every once in awhile, isn’t the goal of our lives. Mastery of the abilities that we have as artists, the ones that are our core, the ones that express themselves when we are naturally trying to do work we enjoy and are relaxed doing, are the goals we must attain. These are the creative sparks that flow out of us. We must do these and do them to the best of our ability—in each stage we enter—whether beginning, in journey/growth, or in mastery.
Delight
As artists this will be to our betterment when we are happily discontented rather than the alternative nagging, belittling, discontent. We must find delight in our now so our art will grow to be just right.
Latest Sketches:
RECOMMENDED TOOL:
Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Color Pocket PLUS Set of 24 Half Pans
I have always liked Winsor & newton watercolors. I have tried a few others, but I tend to comeback to them. I recently wanted a larger travel set (my last one had 8 colors) and got a Koi brand. It was ok. It worked. Some of the ones above were painted with the Koi brand, but I just didn’t like it. I wanted a better mixable watercolor. The Koi tended to have particles and it mixed way too easy. I like to touch colors into colors and then paint that on—without making a new color. The Koi didn’t allow for this.
To explain how the Winsor & Newton work: imagine having a watery blue on your mixing palette and then touching a bright red in and scooping up unmixed blue with unmixed red and then painting it on and mixing and not mixing while you brush—some of the red just seeps into the blue and vice verse. The Koi immediately mixed and was flaky.
RECENT GOOD READ:
Good troublemakers are hard to find. I mean well written troublemakers are hard to find. My kids and I enjoy this story because it’s kid friendly, clean, and adventurous. I like the tale because Delilah, unlike her namesake, is much more heroic than traitorous. She is much more like warrior Deborah, with a spunk and a glint in her eyes, than Delilah the liar.
“Globetrotting troublemaker Delilah Dirk and her loyal friend Selim are just minding their own business, peacefully raiding castles and traipsing across enemy lines, when they attract the unwanted attention of the English Army. Before they know it, Delilah and Selim have gotten themselves accused of espionage against the British crown!
Delilah will do whatever it takes to clear her good name, be it sneaking, skirmishing, or even sword fighting… But can she bring herself to wear a pretty dress and have a nice cup of tea with her mother? Delilah Dirk may be defeated at last. By tulle…in Tony Cliff’s Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling.”
Thanks for joining me here once more. How do you keep yourself from belittling your abilities. What do you say to yourself about where you are?
Have a great week everyone. Create, be happy, create more,
Jay
P.S. As I mentioned earlier, Raynna and I have been concocting something that we’re hoping to announce soon, make sure you’re subscribed if you want to hear first. Thanks for being here everyone!
Also, Subscribe to get the free one page PDF: Fourteen Commitments for Artists to Cultivate Inspiration. My wife and I have packed it full for you.
Please share this with anyone else you think may be encouraged by these kind of updates. Thanks!
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Check out my free western fairytale webcomic: The Adventures of Tomy and Jon. Or buy your own copy here.
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Back to our topic at hand: our current culture is deeply influenced by the ancient Greeks, it’s in our governments, it’s in our obsession with body fitness, selfies, philosophies, religion, it’s everywhere. Now, I could spend the rest of this post telling you all about how we got here, but that’s not the purpose, and just researching a little will yield a lot. One of the unfortunate passings down to us is the concept of perfection. A lot of people will tell you it is religion’s (namely Christianity’s) fault. In part this is true, but that’s only once Christianity became influenced by the Greek culture.
So, in a discourse on love, Jesus speaks about perfection. In the same discourse in a different book of the Bible he speaks about mercy (compassion). So according to Jesus, perfection and mercy are the same thing.
When we remove the pristine perfection concept from our measuring instruments, not only will we become more forgiving of others—we will be able to do the harder part of forgiving and accepting ourselves.
Mrjaymyers 