Celebrate Your Artwork!

When we create, we might hear the voice of the inner critic telling us all of the things we are doing "wrong."  Sometimes creating is fun and easy, other times, we push against that critical voice all the way.

But the good news is that if you keep drawing, painting, & creating, you will eventually make art that you like.  Even if in the moment all you hear is that negative -- and incorrect -- voice, when you set your artwork aside and wait a day, you will see it with fresh eyes.

I invite you to give your artwork a day of rest, and then prop it up where you'll see it when you pass by.  I use this bookshelf as a gallery.  

My cat uses it as a napping place, so I put out a blanket for him.  Cats are my coworkers in the studio!

As I painted this orange,  all I could hear was my inner critic, the voice I call my Hobgoblin.  I knew that if I pushed on, I could at least learn something in the process.  I did it for the experience of painting, not to create a "pretty" picture.

After I took a break from looking at the little painting, I propped it on my bookshelf gallery. I could see the way that the shadows created dimension, and the way the feathery backruns created a texture I liked.  I am at peace with this little orange, and grateful for the experience of painting it. Overall, I like this painting and am proud to prove the hobgoblin wrong!

Give your art a break, and then please celebrate it by setting it up where you can see it.  As you look at it, think about what you like, what you'd change if you made another version of it, and what you learned in the process.  These questions can help navigate around the inner critic's blanket statements.

And please don't believe that inner critic!  They are notoriously wrong!

If you struggle with an inner critic as artists throughout time have, I recommend reading Shut Your Monkey! by Danny Gregory, about how to stop listening to your inner critic so you can keep creating art.

Remember: no one else in all of history has created the art that you can or sees the world as you do. Your art is valuable and unique.

I hope you push past any hobgoblins you might have and

Keep Creating!

Art Journaling 101 with Amy Maricle

 

I am taking an online course from artist and art therapist Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio. 

Art Journaling 101 walks you through ways to jump right into creating, beginning with defusing the inner critic by writing out what our critic says to us and making a drawing of it.  

I call mine the Hobgoblin, and I imagine it to be a cranky, snide gargoyle.

Afterwards, we turned our attention to embracing our Muse.

Through the course, I've been eager to watch each short video and create more pages because the process is so easy.  

It's inspiring to have an instructor outline a technique, then invite you to make your own variations.

Amy demonstrates a variety of techniques for creating backgrounds as well as ways to fill the backgrounds with drawings and writing.

We created backgrounds in watercolor, 

both splashy and smooth.

Instead of facing a blank white page, now there's an inviting field of color on my art journal pages.

Amy demonstrated a technique using 2 colors of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons with gesso. I incorporated a layer of music sheeting for more texture.

She shared a simple technique for filling a page with acrylics.

Which provided the ideal surface to write a quote.

I recommend taking this inexpensive course because it inspires you to jump into creating right away.  

Sometimes, the hardest part of art making is getting started and deciding what to do.

I created all of these pages in a span of one afternoon. I tucked the activities into an otherwise busy day, and felt uplifted by the process.

Here's a link to the class: Art Journaling 101.

Happy Creating!