MAKING SPACE FOR PRACTICE. A blog about mastering skills and managing expectations.

Making space for practice. Making time for practice. Because how else will I evolve as an artistic creator?

I am realising the importance of this more and more recently. In my previous blogs I have spoken about my proneness to perfectionism. And it can be very limiting. If I sit down to create a piece with the mindset of “This needs to be a masterpiece”, it will never become one. Perhaps from the pressure, perhaps from the expectation, perhaps because I am simply not there yet. And there is nothing wrong with that!

Mastering a skill takes time. It takes practice. And it’s a never-ending journey. There is not one point where you are finished. There are always more turns, more developments, more skills to be uncovered.

Many of you know that I have used a paintbrush for the very first time since pre-teen childhood years in 2021! This realisation hits me every time. I did not see myself as creative, let alone an Artist! So, as much as I loooove being hard on myself, isn’t it absolutely ridiculous to expect anyone to be an expert at something they have only started two years ago? In this day and age where we are surrounded by Social Media Viralists who become famous overnight, we sometimes start to expect that that is normal.

At the end of last year, I was hit with a fair amount of artist block and lack of inspiration. Sometimes, I would paint something new and once finished, I would simply not like the piece. I would be unhappy with my own skill level and the fact that the final piece looked entirely different than I imagined because I was lacking the ability to turn my visions into reality. Although I am aware that sometimes the best art is created by deviating from the initial vision and letting the piece take the lead, this felt different. I was overwhelmed with the amount of challenges I set myself in a single painting (too big, too many colours, difficult facial expressions, etc.) and ended up disliking my creations for my perceived lack of skill.

So, at the beginning of this year I decided that I will make more space for practice for developing this still very newly acquired skill! I have zero traditional art education and am entirely self-taught. I’ve got a hunger to learn, to participate in classes, watch educational videos, analyse other artists’ styles and techniques, create more practice studies and all of this excites me!

I recently painted a study following this sentiment. As various facial expressions fascinate me, I picked a reference picture of a woman pulling a silly, playful grimace. However, to not overwhelm me with this challenge, I chose a tiny little canvas (20x30cm) and decided to only use two colours. This way I could improve my ability to understand value (lights and darks) without taking into effect chroma (intensity versus “dullness” of different colours) or realistic colour-matching. So, I sat down to paint with pretty much zero expectations. This was a practice piece so what did it matter if it didn’t look good in the end. At least I would’ve learned something from it.

Well, surprise! I LOVE IT!!! Despite this never having meant to be a “proper” art piece, I am extremely happy with the outcome. I believe I have matched the values pretty well, I love the deep blues, and I am very happy with the way I have been able to create a realistic face with a difficult expression. It seems like the fact that this piece was created as a practice study rather than a “final piece” has actually contributed to the quality of it. The lack of pressure and expectation I felt while creating it has turned it into something beautiful. I would like to carry over this sentiment for all of my next creation – while not turning this itself into too big of an expectation…

On this note, we live and we learn, and I love the journey of it.

If you’d like to learn more about my thoughts on my creative practice, you might be interested in my previous blogs on how I can’t stand some of my paintings (read "I Hate my Art”), or how I am often riddled with imposter syndrome and self-doubt and struggle to call myself an artist (read "Am I an Artist?”).