"This is crap" syndrome

How to combat the "this is crap" syndrome.

I notice that a lot of times when people in the group are not happy with how their work turns out they in turn feel very bad about themselves and their artistic ability. This always makes me sad. I would like to offer some really good advice that I received from the well known illustrator Wendell Minor regarding evaluating your artwork.

I took an art class with Wendell Minor years ago at the Norman Rockwell Museum. We sat outside and painted watercolor landscapes from life. Wendell paints landscape watercolor paintings as a hobby. He told us not to worry if a painting doesn't come out as we planned because you can only expect to have a great painting 1 out of every 8 times (unfortunately I can't remember the exact number but it was between 5 and 10 so I'm saying 8.) This took a huge burden off my shoulders. If a famous artist like Wendell Minor is only happy with 1 out of every 8 watercolor landscapes that he paints then surely the rest of us can cut ourselves some slack when every single piece of art we produce doesn't turn out perfectly.

Whenever I draw something I don't like I don't internalize it and tell myself I'm a bad artist. I just think, "hmm, that didn't turn out so good." I put it aside or toss it in the garbage knowing that I'm one step closer to a really fantastic work of art. And if I have more than 1 piece of art out of every 8 turn out great I consider myself pretty darn successful.

That's great, we'll have to remind eachother of that at the meetups!

Thanks, Marybeth. I'm a numbers gal so that works for me!

Chrystee

Yes, this is definitely how art works.

In photography, it's very easy to only get one good photo out of a hundred. Personally, I'm pleased if I can get one *great* piece of work a year.

my problem is that if I think "this is crap" i just keep beating a dead horse and trying to fix it. Last month I actually took all my really old paintings that I hated or never finished and cut them up. I took the parts of them I liked and cut them out into frameable sizes with an exacto knife...and PRESTO! something old is new again...and something crappy is not so crappy anymore!

I'm going to try and come to a meeting again soon...I don't have time to make a "portrait" by this coming meeting, but probably next one.