3 Things you Should do When you are Doubting Yourself as an Artist

First of all, let me preface it to say that we all face self-doubt, so let’s talk about it.

Let’s try a little bit of humor. Okay, so I was in this art class. I was a student at the time, I’m always a student! Ha! Ha!

 I was sitting next to this student who had written across the top of his paper, "This Sucks!" with an arrow pointing to his drawing! And just then, the professor was walking around looking at everyones work and paused at the kids drawing. He stood they quietly for a moment, then said “Hey, you know...don’t write "This Sucks.." The student asked why... thinking the professor was going to say something encouraging to him.  But the Professor said,...Don't write "This Sucks... because we already know it does.” 

I almost spit out my coffee when I heard that.

So, listen, here’s my point. Don’t write that!  

Don’t write "Not my better work" or "I’ve done better before" or "This sucks", etc. I’ll tell you why, because it causes you to internally verbalize the negative words you are writing, causing a negative reinforcement in your mind. Don’t do it, ok? Just put your work up there and own it. All right! That is a brave move, to put your work up there even though you are telling yourself that it sucks. Well, put it up there! And just accept it for where it’s at.

Ok, so what do you do with self-doubt?  Oh, that’s a great question! I’ve got a few thoughts on that subject,

1. The first thing you do with self-doubt is you post your work and you say nothing.

That’s the best I can come up with right now, advice…just put your work out there! The thing is, if you don’t put it out there you are going to start doubting yourself even more.

2. Oh, this is great! Measure your progress.

You have to figure out some way to measure where you started, and how far you’ve come. Say you are trying to measure how good you are at something, that is a very difficult thing to do in the art world, because sometimes it takes a long time before you are able to see your progress. You may feel like you’re not getting any better, because you are only looking at your work.

Well, here’s the deal. Don’t measure whether you are getting better as an artist, by the quality of your work. Measure whether or not you can meet your goals! I talk about goals all the time. They are fundamental to your success as an artist. This is why they are so important. So set a goal. Commit to drawing every day for five days, say five hands per day. I guarantee you, at the end of the five days you may not think your work looks any better, but it is better, because you put the time into it.

And so, you measure the success you have as an artist. Not by the quality of work, but rather by the quantity. Commit to putting in the time and you will recognize your progress before you know it.

3. Gather around Fellow Artists.

Gather around yourself, a community of fellow artists. We understand, we’ve been there, we’ve even done that! And you know what? We’re still here! Because we are all in this boat together. Someone once said, do you want a fellowship? It’s all a bunch of people in the same boat! So, hop aboard and hunker down…we’re gonna ride this thing out together!

Use this link to sign up for my FREE beginners drawing class. I will teach you the five key objects, so you can draw almost anything.

This is Kurt, and I’m a Dad Who Draws. Go Make Your Day Great!