Everything you draw is good

Sunday, February 28 2021

One of the reasons I started this blog was to focus on making art for myself rather than for everyone else. I used to determine my work’s worth by how much other people liked it— both in person and on IG. I needed people to enthusiastically like my work, not feel so-so about it.

This meant that I had to put my all into every drawing I made. I spent days, sometimes weeks, on a single 1080 by 1080 pixel square, aiming for the final product to be the most clever thing people have ever seen.

Everything had to be perfect and true to my vision. It wasn’t until I’d finally mustered the courage to post the thing did I realize how imperfect my work had turned out and how much I didn’t like it anymore.

A notebook sketch from last month

I felt that maybe my art style wasn’t ‘cool’ enough, efficient enough to recreate, or didn’t captivate people (certain individuals if I’m gonna be honest) enough. Sometimes it didn’t even matter if a bunch of people liked something I made, I wasn’t happy with myself.

I eventually learned that I felt discontent because I wasn’t making art for myself. I had turned creating art into a chore by adapting my skills to create different styles that I couldn’t truly enjoy and want to do again.

It took me longer to learn that I could simply stop doing this and just focus on making art for myself.

Of course, this is way easier said than done. I’m only now beginning to draw only because I feel like it and not posting everything that I draw.

Something that has helped me ignore the imperfections of my work is believing that all my drawings are good. They’re good enough for me, good enough for practice, good enough because they’re ideas that help fuel my creativity. And so far I’ve found that my favorite work comes from abandoning expectations and just creating.

Everything you draw is good— for something.

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